Gag Concert offends with another witless blackface gag

By Kim Tong-hyung

Let's cut to the point and call "Gag Concert" for what it is: the worst show on Korean television, a spectacle of awfulness put together by brain-dead writers and medium-talent comedians who might have collectively missed out on the 21st century.

Despite this, state-run network KBS will continue to put this "family entertainment" program in its primetime Sunday slot as it has for the past 15 years.

In its June 29 episode, Gag Concert featured two performers wearing blackface make up and making fun of African tribal clothes in a skit about struggling theater actors.

It is the second time this year that the show resorted to blackface comedy. A February skit featured three performers with painted faces and curly wigs popping out of a cardboard drink machine because another female character wanted "coffee made from African beans."

Writing about the show in the KorAm Journal, columnist Steve Han asks, "Will they ever get it?" Well, who knows, but aren't we tired of waiting?

Korean television has a long and disturbing history of racial insensitivity.

In January 2012, the director of MBC's "Quiz that Changes the World" apologized after a blackface comedy sequence.

In December 2011, "Saturday Night Live Korea" was criticized after featuring a skit in which the comedians painted their faces to appear to be black singers.

Pop singer G-Dragon's selfie of his black-painted face on his Instagram account last year also landed him in hot water.

What is perhaps most depressing is that Gag Concert seems to be the quintessential Korean comedy show, even though it replaces intelligence, clever parody and wit with low-quality, slapstick humor that is often inappropriate.

If comedy were to have a social function, it would probably be creating and breaking tension and allowing the political and cultural minorities to confront the mainstream and get away with it.

That function is non-existent in Korea, where heavy-handed censorship authorities have maintained a tight grip on social commentary.

But of course, feel free to do fat jokes, mock women with bad hair and teeth, insult the homeless and ridicule people with learning disabilities.

And yeah, wouldn't it be funny if we paint ourselves black again?

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