“Stop talking about luxury goods” SNL Korea, has the level of satire weakened?

Coupang Play’s original ‘SNL Korea’, which promotes “high-quality satire without brakes,” recently started Season 4, and the political satire scene is drawing attention. However, it seems possible to evaluate that the ‘level of political satire’ has been lowered compared to the past.

In episode 1 of Season 4 on the 15th, actor Kim Min-gyo appeared as ‘Instructor Teacher Yoon’, a parody character of President Yoon Seok-yeol, saying, “It’s not Gyon-jeong, it’s not Gyon. We will root out the private education cartel for a society where fairness and common sense work.” In the broadcast that day, Teacher Yoon started the class by saying, “The killer questions that harass the examinees should be excluded from the CSAT.” He mentioned Neo-Confucianism and Yangmyeonghak and said, “Seong-Confucianism is inequality, Yangmyeonghak is equality. Originally, I wasn’t going to make them memorize these things, but Yadeul was very against it… ” he said with a laugh. It is a satire on the change of the terminus of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway, where the suspicion of preferential treatment for the first lady Kim Kun-hee’s family arose.

In the ‘Susanting’ corner to overcome the low birth rate and revitalize the fish market, he appeared as a young fisherman and asked, “Can I get a glass of water for my neck holiday at the wide fish market?” On the 30th of last month, it was a scene satirizing the ‘Noryangjin Fish Market Aquarium Eating Show’, which members of the People’s Power showed to relieve public anxiety caused by the discharge of contaminated water from the Japanese nuclear power plant.

In the second episode on the 22nd, Kim Min-gyo appeared as a show host on “SNL Shopping with Fairness and Common Sense” and laughed when he said, “The things we need to catch are the interest cartel, the corruption cartel, and the price cartel.” Actress Ayoung Kim, who appeared in another show on the day, started selling the ‘Yangpyeong Haejangguk Meal Kit’, saying, “It is a hot item that is sweeping Yeouido, a luxury item among luxury items.” Then, Mr. Kim Min-gyo asked back, “No, don’t misunderstand for a second, are there luxury goods in Haejangguk?” This is a scene in which Mrs. Kim Kun-hee was conscious of the criticism caused by her recent visit to a luxury store in Lithuania. Mr. Kim sang “Long Long Time Go~” while drinking soju called “Like Seo Gyeol”.

During last year’s presidential election, ‘SNL Korea’, which gained great popularity for its satirical satire on candidates Seok-yeol Yoon and Jae-myeong Lee, as well as the wives of candidates such as Kim Kun-hee and Kim Hye-kyung, did not avoid satire this time around. But it seems to be getting weaker and weaker. First of all, following season 3, in season 4, the parody character of Mrs. Kim Gun-hee cannot be found. There is even a poll (News Tomato, released on July 21) where 68.5% of the public opinion said that ‘Mrs. Kim should minimize her internal and external activities as much as possible’. The case of visiting a luxury store would have had quite a ripple effect if it had been digested by actor Joo Hyun-young, who was in charge of Kim Gun-hee, instead of ambassador Kim Min-gyo.

In the first episode of Season 3, which started after Yoon’s election as President, ‘Reporter for a while’, who satirized Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, appeared and defended Mrs. Kim Gun-hee and confronted the anchorman, drawing attention. “How beautiful is this? Reminds me of Audrey Hepburn… .” (for a while) “I have suspicions of directing!” (anchor) “I’ll bet everything. What would you like to be an anchor? I’m specifically not a scarf, glasses, a wig, no a wig… .” (For a while) But for a while, I couldn’t even see the reporter until the end of Season 3. Instead, in the weather forecast corner, the level of his political satire has weakened as the president expresses his approval rating or the bad news of the Democratic Party through the weather.

It seems possible to speculate whether the level of satire on ‘SNL Korea’ was influenced by the ‘Yunseok Train’ incident. In October of last year, when the Korea Cartoon Image Promotion Agency gave a prize to a high school student’s ‘Yunseok Train’ through a national student comic contest and exhibited it, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism gave a ‘stern warning’. In October 2021, when he was a candidate, President Yoon appeared on ‘SNL Korea’ and replied, “If you become president, will SNL help you freely do political satire?”