Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Putting the ROK in "rockin' out"

No, I couldn't think of an even dumber title than that. Below is something I had seen before, but when it was featured yesterday at List of the Day, it had me laughing all over again.

I'm guessing the enthusiastic drummer is someone who would have preferred to get involved in some more lively music (back in the Park Chunghee era, from which I believe this comes, musical adventurism was heavily frowned upon), but he was stuck playing back-up for a mediocre trot singer*.

Back when Brian in Chŏllanam-do brought this clip to the attention of The Marmot's Hole commentariat, no one offered any explanation as to who it was, but I'm hoping someone will this time. One almost wonders if it was meant, even then, as a gag, but there's no canned laugh track.

* Actually, I don't know if she's mediocre or not, since I am unable to discern the difference between good, bad, and lousy "trot music."

3 comments:

LastnameKimSaturday, November 07, 2009 10:27:00 AM
Ha! Great post, kushibo. I'm gonna have to show this to my parents the next time I visit them and see what they can tell me of this. I'm almost positive though that it was part of the humor to have him act that way. He's got that look of a typical comedian from that era.
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GrahamSaturday, November 07, 2009 10:35:00 AM

Here is a link to some info about the drummer.
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kushiboSaturday, November 07, 2009 10:48:00 AM
Ah, so he's 권순근 (Kwon Sun-gŭn). Thanks for that.
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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.