Comedy on television has always walked the fine line between what’s funny and what’s offensive, and the topic once again hit a frenzy on online Korean forums after Korean gagwoman Lee Guk-joo’s angry Instagram message.
On Saturday’s broadcast of popular variety show, We Got Married, Guk-joo and her on-screen husband, rapper Sleepy, shared their very first kiss! Now, Guk-joo isn’t a stranger to receiving nasty comments about her physical appearance and weight, but the barrage of hate comments that flooded her Instagram were enough to warrant a p*ssed-off response from Guk-joo.
Earlier today, Guk-joo uploaded a picture of herself and Sleepy attending an awards ceremony together and captioned it: “You all must be really good looking. I wouldn’t do this with you even if you gave me millions. Worry about yourselves before you worry about Sleepy. Sorry, but I’m taking screenshots of everything. Sleepy’s fans, don’t worry.”
Though she deleted the post soon after, the message spread on online forums and was met with reactions varying from sympathy and agreement to anger and more hate.
Rookie actor On Si-woo’s comments on the matter in particular are receiving a lot of attention at the moment. His comment on a Facebook reiteration of Guk-joo’s post, with over 8,000 likes and counting!, criticized Guk-joo for the hypocrisy in her Instagram post.
“Are you upset now that you’re being made fun of in the comments? How do you think the male celebrities you sexually harassed in public felt? When they were put into situations where they couldn’t directly express their anger and had to just laugh it off? You should’ve been sued (for sexual harassment) more than ten times. You should be ashamed of yourself”.
His comment touched upon the previous instances where Lee Guk-joo had been in the spotlight for sexually harassing male celebrities on shows for laughs, despite the discomfort apparent on the faces of the male celebrities she picked on.
Let’s be real – hate comments about someone’s weight or face are petty and unnecessary in pretty much every situation. But Si-woo does bring up the much needed argument about what kind of qualifications a comedian should have. Controversy is no stranger to a comedian’s world, but if the brunt of the joke is someone who doesn’t want to be used inappropriately by someone else for laughs, shouldn’t they be stopped? Food for thought.
#Peace.Love.LeeGukJoo
