Comedy tackles grim job market
By Baek Byung-yeul
This is a screen capture of the MBC Television show “Infinite Challenge.”
Television comedies have traditionally functioned as outlets for viewers seeking a brief break from their mundane daily lives. As difficult times turn the Korean office experience from banal to brutal, disturbing issues about unemployment and cut-throat competition are beginning to be represented in these shows.
It’s not an easy line to walk: it’s hard to find a place for humor when the realities are daunting and immediate for viewers. However, these shows can’t afford to be weepy either for ratings’ sake.
MBC television’s ``Infinite Challenge,’’ a challenge-based reality show mixed with sketch comedy that has been the country’s most-watched television product for nearly a decade, made a gamely attempt to hit that elusive balance in its
that aired Saturday.
In what appeared to be a parody of ``The Office,’’ the British-inspired American sitcom that was a satire on the modern workplace, and the musical ``Les Miserables,’’ the seven regular members of Infinite Challenge staged a drama that ended with one of them getting laid off at work.
The producers smartly set up the laughs ― there were plenty of them ― to strengthen the impact of the emotional ending. Their aim was to convey the uncomfortable truth that being overworked, overstressed and underpaid is becoming a blessing in Korea where a chunk of the working-age population is becoming sidelined from the labor market.
Judging by the comments on social media, Infinite Challenge did hit a chord with viewers with its unexpected sitcom.
Yoo Jae-suk, who doubles as the main character and host of the show, acted as the mid-level manager leading a group of likable but bumbling workers. The cost-cutting CEO orders Yoo to shave one of his workers from the payroll, and after painful deliberation, he decides it has to be Jung Joon-ha, a man with a big heart and bigger stomach, but not as clever and quick-witted as his co-workers.
The latest episode of Infinite Challenge managed a 12 percent viewing rate, easily beating any other program in the same timeslot.
``I couldn’t stop laughing when the characters came up with all the bizarre and stupid ideas in their presentations, which led to the fury of the CEO and ended up with one of them being canned,’’ said Park Jong-ho, a 30-year-old office worker who claims to have not missed an episode of the show since it started in 2005.
``But I couldn’t suppress my tears when they sang their version of ‘One More Day’ from Les Miserables and when Jung walks out of the office bitterly after getting the notice that he has just been laid off. The show was just like a well-made musical drama.’’
Superficially, Korea doesn’t appear to have much of a job market problem. The official rate of unemployment came in at 3 percent in 2012, a level policymakers in Western economies would die for. Yet closer examination of government statistics reveals that the state of employment is uglier than many imagine.
The 750,000 people officially listed as unemployed are dwarfed by the 16 million deemed economically inactive - neither in work nor seeking employment. This means that 40 percent of the country’s working age population above the age of 15 is sidelined from the labor market.
In addition, more than 80 percent of the new jobs created in the past year went to people over 50, confirming that the unemployment rate has been softened by menial jobs.
There has also been an alarming rise of ``discouraged’’ young people who have given up because they don’t believe there are any jobs available. The struggles of people in their 20s and 30s is matched by the perils of millions of middle-aged Koreans forced to start their own businesses out of necessity after being sidelined from the labor market.
A recent study showed that nearly half of self-owned businesses, such as coffee shops, fried chicken pubs and convenience stores, derail within three years and more than 75 percent of them fail to last a decade.
In its following episode, Infinite Challenge will show the laid-off Jung trying to make his living as the owner of a fried chicken restaurant. If the show continues to authentically represent the Korean reality, that’s not likely to go well.