Koreans are well known for their strict etiquette, and Kpop idols are no exception.
However, there are several occasions where these artists crossed the line and made inappropriate
jokes about their hoobae and received countless negative comments from the netizens.
1.
Dohyun mimicking Tsuki’s facial expression
On April 4th, 2022, Dohuyn and other members of MIRAE including Lien and Siyoung held a
livestream via Naver V Live to chat with fans and listen to Kpop songs.
When the playlist turned to BILLLIE’s song “GingaMingaYo,” Dohyun was seen pulling
off exaggerated facial expressions such as sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes,
which are described as distasteful by netizens, probably to mimic that of Tsuki when she performing
the song.
It is known that Tsuki is a twenty-year-old female idol of the girl group BILLLIE who
only debuted 6 months ago.
Recently, she has gone viral on the Internet for her diverse and cartoonish facial expressions
while performing live.
Thus, it seems clear to the netizens that Dohuyn’s actions directly imitate her.
After the vlive ended, the clip of Dohyun’s mimicking Tsuki was uploaded on various social
media platforms and netizens were quick to show their anger at this allegedly disrespectful
act.
They flocked to the video and left countless negative comments, claiming that Dohuyn was
being extremely rude to his rising hoobae.
“I don’t know who the hell is Dohyun but one thing for sure, I hate his guts to mimic
Tsuki”, a netizen angrily commented
Others said that Dohyun looked so ridiculous with that action, and that they hope Tsuki
wouldn’t feel insecure about herself after this
Two days after the controversy, Dohuyn published a handwritten letter on the group’s official
Twitter account to apologize to Tsuki and her supporters for his inconsiderate act.
He promised not to make such a mistake in the future and accepted all the hatred poured
on him.
Dohyun even appeared on a live broadcast to verbally issue his apology.
However, the criticism somehow did not stop there.
Netizens continued to scrutinize Dohuyn, claiming that his apology was scripted and he was not
being sincere.
It appears to them that he did not repent at all, since his facial expression was stiff,
showing that he was reading a prepared letter of apology.
Within a short period of time, almost all the videos related to this controversy were
taken down by MIRAE’s company, fueling the anger of Tsuki’s supporters.
2.
Heechul asking if WINNER members watch adult content
Widely known for his great sense of humor, Heechul is a familiar name to Korean TV shows
audiences.
However, Heechul used to receive harsh criticism several times for his inappropriate jokes
to his juniors, two of whom are WINNER’s Seungyoon and Jinwoo.
Specifically, when Seungyoon and Jinwoo were invited to the show “Street Alcohol Fighter”,
initially, they had very interesting conversations about their hobbies and table manners with
Heechul and the host of the show.
Nevertheless, things started to go wrong when Seungyoon and Jinwoo were asked to perform
the viral sexy dance challenge “Cocaine”.
As they accepted the challenge, Heechul came closer and pulled a joke: “Do you watch
PandaTV?”.
This question made Seungyoon and Jinwoo feel extremely awkward, since PandaTV is known
as a Korean online platform for updating adult content.
Right after the show, Heechul drew tons of mixed opinions, mostly negative ones.
On the one hand, netizens criticized him for being inconsiderate to his juniors, as Kpop
idols have to always pay rigorous attention to their image.
Some even consider this act as a type of verbally sexual harrassment.
Moreover, what Heechul said might make the young audiences of the show curious about
this site and expose themselves to inappropriate content.
In fact, Korea’s Entertainment news company had reported that PandaTV became more well-known
after a member of Super Junior mentioned it on TV.
On the other hand, some claimed that this show’s target audience was young adults
aged 20 and above as the title of the show has indicated, thus, there was no need to
criticize Heechul for mentioning an online adult content site.
They regard those criticizing Heechul as sensitive and dramatic.
Anyway, this controversial scene is cut off from the show.
Until now, Heechul and SM Entertainment have had no official response to this controversy.
3.
Kyuhyun interrupting Taeyeon’s fancall
Under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems impossible for idols and fans to
meet face-to-face, therefore, many entertainment companies and artists have organized online
fanmeeting in order for fans to contact their favorite idols, one of whom is SNSD’s Taeyeon.
However, Taeyeon’s fan call on March 15th, 2022 sparked heated debate on online platforms
due to the unexpected appearance of Super Junior’s Kyuhyun.
Specifically, while Taeyeon was having a conversation with her fans, Kyuhyun suddenly came in uninvited
and disrupted the call, making Taeyeon’s fans and netizens feel quite uncomfortable.
Some claim that Kyuhyun was being rude not only to Taeyeon but also to the fans receiving
her call.
It is known that this fancall event was made viable via the “1-on-1 video call service”
held by Mecima Shop, in which fans purchasing Taeyeon’s newly released album “INVU”
at the shop stood a chance in being selected to have a video call with Taeyeon.
Only 30 fans can get this golden opportunity and they had to spend a huge amount of money
on buying albums to get this special service.
It is well-perceived that the fan who was talking to Taeyeon would cherish every moment
of the call, yet her wonderful experience was said to be interrupted by Kyuhyun.
Additionally, the call was limited to 2 minutes only so she must have felt frustrated for
not being able to fully enjoy her conversation with Taeyeon.
Many claimed that it was thoughtless of Kyuhyun to barge into the session like that.
However, Kyuhyun’s supporters defended that he and Taeyeon actually had a very close relationship
so maybe he was just trying to surprise her.
Also, the fan on the other end of the call even got the opportunity to talk to 2 top
Kpop stars at the same time, which many Kpop fans have always dreamt of, thus, she should
have felt lucky instead, and netizens didn’t need to have pity on her.
4.
Donghae (Super Junior) pretending to hit Irene
Back in 2018, Irene and Donghae participated in “Super TV” and played a game together,
and what was thought to be cute and joyful soon turned into chaos.
Specifically, Irene and Donghae were playing Tangsuyuk, upon losing the game, Donghae suddenly
came close to Irene and pretended to hit her.
Even Yesung had to push Donghae away and said, "Hey, why are you acting like a thug?"
It is known that in South Korea, violence against women are heavily criticized and that’s
why netizens’ reactions to Donghae’s action were really severely.
They said: “This seems to be his true personality.
I thought he was a kind person”, “Have you been hanging out with bad people these
days?”
However, as Donghae has been famous for his sense of humor and cranky jokes, it is understandable
why he pulled such a joke on Irene.
Also, when noticing that Irene was startling, he promptly apologized.
There were also supporters defending that he only made that joke to make the show more
appealing to the audiences and he clearly had no bad intentions at all.
They thought some netizens were only exaggerating the situation and making a mountain out of
a molehill.
In reality, these artists are on good terms with each other and Donghae is also known
as a sweet and caring gentleman.
So, do you think that these jokes were rude and inconsiderate?
Or some people were just exaggerating things?
Are there any other similar cases that I forgot to mention?