Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Cruelty or entertainment?: 'Running Man' criticized for sadistic game
Cast members of the popular variety show “Running Man” wrap their heads with rubber bands as part of a game. Screen captured from Instiz online community
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
SBS's popular variety show “Running Man” is in the hot seat after cast members were pressured to play “sadistic” games.
In Sunday's episode, the cast were taken to a series of historic restaurants, where they had to play a “game” to eat their signature dishes.
Another game saw cast members ― actresses Jeon So-min and Song Ji-hyo, comedian Yang Se-chan, and K-pop group Seventeen's Kim Min-gyu and Hoshi ― stretching as many rubber bands over their head as they could in one minute in order to win.
The members struggled to get the bands over their heads, forcing skin to stick out, which many viewers found uncomfortable to watch. Jeon at one point screamed “help me” and said, “it almost squeezed my eyes out.”
When the episode aired, the game met with a storm of criticism with many calling it “inappropriate.”
“I don't know who came up with that rubber band game but I was shocked to see such a sadistic and inappropriate game,” a user wrote online.
Another user wrote: “(The show) took it too far ... (The pressure from) rubber bands can explode a watermelon but they used it on a person's head.”
Despite the negative reaction to the game, the broadcaster has not responded nor released a statement.