Another Dumb Foreigner on TV

I hesitated before posting this on my blog, because I know at least one former co-worker will ridicule me to no end for having done this. But having said so, I can partially understand why foreigners look so dumb on TV. I joined a coworker and a friend in two different TV contests. One was on MBC and the other on KBS. The first was an impersonation contest. We just prepared a knock-off of the popular MBC gag, 사모님 (Sa-mo-nim). To make a long story short, our ill-prepared gag routine got us past the first round, which cut 400 entries down to 30 (this done in front of random producers from MBC). Then it got us past the second round (which was a performance in front of the actual 연애인 who are the evaluators for the show. We also got interviewed by and talked to the host, 박슬기 (shown above with your's truly) We were told by the evaluators that we would have been cut if we were Koreans, but since we were foreigners, they passed us. The situation was funny, because there were three of us standing up there on a studio in front of the 연애인. They would then make comments and ask us questions after our routine. But we could barely hear them, because their microphones were running into cameras, not being broadcast. So they only spoke at conversational tones, but we were supposed to hear and understand them from across the room. Thus the dumb foreigner syndrome takes effect. I can understand a lot of Korean, and especially the type of questions they would ask, but from across the room when they are interrupting each other, and you can barely hear them, it is more difficult. We were eventually cut from the third round (no performance, the producers just got together with the 연애인 in a separate room and told them they had to cut the final group of 17, of which we were a part, down to 7. This was after they had said they were not going to 짜 갖고 제작하다. But in the end, that is what they did. We didn't care too much, because they will still put parts of our interviews and performances on the final show, and we also were not very talented. Our second experience was joining a 마빡이 대회. I regret this one more, because I had to lie when they asked what I thought of 마빡이.


Interviewer: What do you think of 마빡이.

Me thinking: it is really stupid. This has to be the dumbest basis for a comedy routine I have ever seen.

Me in reality: I thought it was dumb at first, but I wanted to join today to see if there was something I was missing, a part of Korean culture I did not understand.


Anyway, my friend's wife took some video of us being interviewed by 박준형, part of which interview will probably end up being on the final show. This will be Feb 19 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on KBS (just in case you want to see some really dumb foreigners trying to get on TV).