Psy is the king of quirky pop videos on YouTube,
but I'm sure some of you watched the latest video for Hangover,
and were genuinely confused.
We've been living in Korea for well over half a decade now,
so we're gonna explain some of the video for you,
in our 7 Fun Facts About Psy's Hangover.
At the very beginning of the video,
you might notice that Snoop is slapping Psy's back violently while he's barfing.
Now in North America,
you might consider this a huge d*** move,
because you might wanna be holding your friend's hair out of their face.
But in Korea,
you slap your friend violently on the back,
to make sure they're not gonna choke on any vomit.
In fact,
you see this happening on the streets in Korea
because people drink a lot and barf a lot - in public!
BLAARGGGHHHHHHH
So these mini green bottles that you saw in the video,
are called 'Condition',
and they're for specifically preventing hangovers.
If you plan on going out for drinking for the night,
make sure you chug one of these beforehand,
and your morning the next day will be a lot better.
OR you could also drink one after a night of drinking,
even though the effects might not be the same.
It's made out of heot-gae,
aka oriental raisin tree,
aka hovenia dulcis,
which according to the Korean FDA,
helps your liver process alcohol.
The rest of the stuff you see them eating in the video,
like ramen and samgak kimbap,
aka triangle kimbap,
is normal hangover grub in the next morning.
And it's pretty delicious.
Let me have a bite.
You took my mayonnaise!
I got the mayo flavour one.
What was I thinking?
Snoop's first lines are,
"Drink till you're drunk,
Smoke like a broke stove"
Now why wouldn't he say something like,
"Smoke till you're high"?
Well, it makes sense considering Snoop is like
The Worldwide Acknowledged Heavyweight Champion Of Smoking Weed.
Problem is,
you can't smoke weed in Korea.
It is highly illegal.
You get caught distributing, growing it or importing it,
and you are facing jail time.
If you're coming to Korea,
I cannot emphasise this enough:
DO NOT BRING WEED WITH YOU!
Unless you like jail.
Get caught smoking it,
and you face a maximum of 5 years in jail,
or a 50 THOUSAND dollar fine.
But if it's only your first time,
and you cooperate with the police,
then you're looking at a 5000 dollar instead.
You know when Snoop and Psy are slow dancing with the ladies,
and there's that young guy there?
His name is G-Dragon.
G-Dragon is a super mega K-pop celebrity in Korea,
but he was once accused of smoking a 'funny smelling cigarette',
while in Japan.
IN JAPAN!
But coming back to Korea it was a huge scandal.
Funny smelling cigarette eh.
Uhuh. Right.
So that really cool domino glass thing wasn't just a fancy pants thing for the camera.
It's actually something that's common in Korea.
It's called 'pok-tan-ju'
And what you do with it,
is when you take a glass of beer and a shot glass of alcohol,
usually whisky when you're in a classier bar,
and then you drop it in there
and you drink it.
However, we're not at a classy bar right now,
so we're gonna do a different form called 'so-mek'
which is soju mixed with beer, which is 'mekju' = 'so-mek'.
You get the same effect,
except for a lot cheaper,
and it's a lot more common here in Korea.
Oh sh*t
Aaaaah
That was disgusting.
And the whole point of this,
is NOT you're supposed to drink alcohol because you like the taste.
The whole point of putting the alcohol into the beer,
is because it makes a harder alcohol,
and more effective for you to get drunk.
Because it's the end game here,
to get as quickly messed up as possible.
There's that scene in that video where they're playing billiards.
But did you notice how none of the tables actually have pockets in them?
That's because a lot of people in Korea play '4 Ball',
aka 'sa-gu',
which is another word for 'carom billiards'.
So you don't get points in the traditional way,
of getting balls into pockets.
What you're supposed to do,
in as basic a form as I can explain it:
Your white ball is supposed to hit the red ball,
bounce off of a couple of walls,
avoid the yellow ball,
and hit another red ball.
It's all about angles,
and it's far too complicated for me to play.
They don't know how to play it either.
Aww.
I don't know what I'm doing?!
You'll also notice a scene of Psy crouching down,
eating a bowl of noodles,
known as 'ja jang myeon',
aka black bean noodles.
They are so popular in Korean pool halls,
that a lot of the pool halls actually have deals,
with local ja jang myeon shops,
to make sure they deliver just from one location.
Though the scene with them flipping the pool cues is not too common,
but it does remind me a lot of Oberyn from Game of Thrones,
but I don't wanna talk about that.
It's too soon.
Too soon!
Sweet Oberyn!
The beer of choice for this video is Hite Dry Finish D,
and you're gonna see it everywhere in this video,
because this music video is practically a commercial for it.
Notice how neatly the labels are organised,,
so that you can always see the beer label facing the camera,
no matter how many times the camera angle changes.
Notice how the multiple bottles are not toppled over,
as you'd expect after a night of heavy drinking.
You'll even see posters for Hite,
advertised at the back of the restaurant they're eating in.
Psy even plays the saxophone on a bottle of Hite D.
Let's just say that,
Korea's not very subtle when it comes to product placement.
In fact,
Psy already had a deal with Hite and Jamisul,
the soju that he's drinking,
long before this video came out.
As you can see here,
and here.
I'm guessing after a couple of weeks,
when this video goes viral,
we're gonna see a lot more advertising with Psy in Korea.
The green bottles they're drinking is called soju.
At 19.5%, this will mess you up.
It has messed me up many times before.
Fun fact:
The soju that Psy's using is called Jamisul,
which is owned by Jinro,
which, interestingly enough, also owns Hite.
And you will notice no other alcohol in the video,
apart from Jamisul and Hite.
Which is very interesting,
because the really popular Cass and Chom Chorum Soju,
aren't anywhere in the video,
which I guarantee you,
lots of Korean people drink that.
In fact, Chom Chorum Soju is my favourite soju.
And speaking of awkward product placement:
You should buy my hats and shirts!
Oooh, so subtle!
The scenes of them dancing with the older ladies,
is set inside of a 'noraebang'.
Ahem. I'm sorry.
Inside of a 'noraebang'.
Which is a Korean version of a karaoke room.
It's a private room where people sing and dance,
and get totally messed up,
as they drink lots and lots of alcohol.
Though some of the stushier places,
will try to forbid you from drinking alcohol,
everyone just brings it in their bags anyways.
I mean,
Whaaatttt? Noooooooo
Some of the sketchier noraebangs give some,
err, other services,
but we won't be talking about that right now.
Heeeeyyy
Champion!
Damn girl you so freaking sexy-uh!
areumdawoooo sarangseureowoooo
Oppa Gangnam Style!
That's all we're gonna talk about now.
We've got some more facts we wanna talk about in our blog post.
Make sure you click on the link here if you wanna know more about it.
So, let us know what you thought about Psy's video.
Do you love it? Do you hate it?
Is it better than Gangnam Style or Gentleman,
or is this the worst thing you've ever seen?
Let us know in the comment section below.