South Korea's sketch-comedy TV show, Gag Concert, has been pumping out new corners with veteran comedians back on the stage, and one corner's name can be translated in English into "Tinderbox Situation" or "Volatile Situation" (일촉즉발). This corner's setting is on the borderline of the two Koreas and the so-tense-that-it's-funny-situation is the foundation of the corner's jokes. Although this new corner was broadcast on television two weeks ago, I've only seen the recent broadcast this past Sunday. I heartily laughed as I watched and thought to myself that this was a genius idea for a Gag Concert corner. Then today, the New York Times article reminded me of the sound-wars going on at the Armistice Line that I read about weeks before, and then it dawned on me how the comedians may have come up with the idea for their corner.
I laughed watching "Tinderbox/Volatile Situation" not because I think the situation of the two Koreas is humorous, but because the idea of the South Korean guards taunting the North Koreans with chocolate and talks of popular South Korean TV shows is funny and I think it's funny because I wonder if this actually happens in real life. And I think a part of me wants it to because I want at least those few North Korean guards at the border to realize that South Korea is well-off enough to have chocolate and quality entertainment without their beloved leader Kim Jong-Un. So this corner raises questions about how likely it is for the staged situations to occur in real life and what the implications would be. And all of this is highly amusing.
But now that I think about it, the reality is that those guards standing at the Armistice Line dare not even twitch, let alone chat among themselves about Korean girl groups. So what do they do instead? One side blasts girl group music while the other parachutes trash, apparently.
I think this reality may actually be more entertaining than the jokes by "Tinderbox/Volatile Situation". It's really inspiring enough for a group of five comedians to make a comic segment out of it. Even so, I personally prefer these comedians' version because the reality that we're all stuck with is this children's game of throwing balloons at each other, while the North tests missiles and the South deploys an American defense system and ticks off China (you can read more about this here). At least on Gag Concert, we can see pseudo-North Koreans show envy for South Korea and dream about the day when they won't have to be envious anymore.
I laughed watching "Tinderbox/Volatile Situation" not because I think the situation of the two Koreas is humorous, but because the idea of the South Korean guards taunting the North Koreans with chocolate and talks of popular South Korean TV shows is funny and I think it's funny because I wonder if this actually happens in real life. And I think a part of me wants it to because I want at least those few North Korean guards at the border to realize that South Korea is well-off enough to have chocolate and quality entertainment without their beloved leader Kim Jong-Un. So this corner raises questions about how likely it is for the staged situations to occur in real life and what the implications would be. And all of this is highly amusing.
But now that I think about it, the reality is that those guards standing at the Armistice Line dare not even twitch, let alone chat among themselves about Korean girl groups. So what do they do instead? One side blasts girl group music while the other parachutes trash, apparently.
I think this reality may actually be more entertaining than the jokes by "Tinderbox/Volatile Situation". It's really inspiring enough for a group of five comedians to make a comic segment out of it. Even so, I personally prefer these comedians' version because the reality that we're all stuck with is this children's game of throwing balloons at each other, while the North tests missiles and the South deploys an American defense system and ticks off China (you can read more about this here). At least on Gag Concert, we can see pseudo-North Koreans show envy for South Korea and dream about the day when they won't have to be envious anymore.
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