1 Night 2 Days: Episode 343

by javabeans

 
EPISODE 343. Broadcast on July 17, 2011.

girlfriday: The boys have some downtime after the peeing game, or rather the no-peeing game, and Su-geun starts rapping, which gets Ho-dong all excited. I love Ho-dong’s love of hiphop. It’s so cute. He leans back with a straw fedora perched on his head and everyone laughs at him for trying to be Bobby Kim. Su-geun: “No, you’re Bab-eh Kim! [Rice and Seaweed]” Pfft. Okay, that’s a good pun.

javabeans: I love how all of Su-geun’s barbs (pointed Ho-dong-ward) are about food. Then again, it is the obvious joke…

girlfriday: He then proceeds to rewrite the lyrics of the song that Ho-dong is singing: “I was eating alone and then night came / I thought of you and cried while eating.” Everyone dies laughing, and Seung-gi says that Su-geun has entered his genius-mode. I think these guys could do an entire album full of comically-revised lyrics to popular songs, and it’d fly off the shelves.

javabeans: How is Su-geun so weirdly good at freestyle rapping? He’s like the Chris Parnell of Korean variety. Looks like an ajusshi, walks like an ajusshi… then he lays down some hilarious off-the-cuff rhymes.

girlfriday: Time for dinner games, and Na PD announces that since they’ve used their bodies all day, it’s time they used their brains. The boys all groan at their impending embarrassment. He tells them that the game will be a Quiz Parade. Yay, I love quizzes on 1N2D! They somehow manage to take the simplest questions and then make six grown men seem like idiots because of them. Case in point: Object Quiz. Picture of an object, they call out the name. Seems simple enough.

javabeans: SEEMS. And yet, the combination of the ticking clock, their hunger, and the weird composition of some of the photos makes this tougher than it should be. It’s so hard that the PDs lower the requirement to match 5 correct answers in a row, down to 3. And yet, still…

girlfriday: Yeah it turns out the game is harder than it looks, because despite mostly being everyday household objects, if you think about it, we rarely call things by their proper names. And then they also added traditional items that these guys would’ve only encountered by watching (or starring in) sageuks. Apparently Tae-woong spent all his time on Queen Seon-deok learning the proper names of ancient things, because he’s totally nailing this quiz. I don’t know the names of any of those old timey things.

javabeans: For example, I know what a power strip is, but in a moment of panic, I’m just as likely to shout out, “Extension cord thingy!” Like, who knows the real name of the mat doohickey you use to roll kimbap? And does anyone actually call a back-scratcher a “filial arm” (ha) rather than plain ol’ back-scratcher?

girlfriday: Then Seung-gi gets a picture of a mom carrying her baby in one of those baby sling thingies, and he shouts: “Baby’s mother!” PWAHAHAHA! Okay, why is this so funny? I’m not even sure I know, but it’s cracking me up. For one, he’s focusing on the wrong thing in the picture, but it’s because he says it too familiarly? Like something closer in tone to “baby mama” or something like that. It just sounds wrong. And hilarious.

javabeans: That was a bad photo, and I think that’s what I would’ve said, too. Maybe not in Seung-gi’s baby-mommy way, but yeah. Na PD points out there was a child in the photo as well, so therefore it’s not logical that the term is mother, but that the photo’s purpose is to point out the blanket. They argue, “Then there should’ve just be a picture of a blanket, then!”

girlfriday: Ho-dong’s team finally gets a few answers going, and it’s his turn… Ho-dong: “Cow!” Na PD: “No, the thing the cow is wearing.” Ho-dong: “… … Coooooooooow!” LOL.

javabeans: Another case of, Is that answer really wrong? That’s why this game is so frustrating! There are multiple answers, yet only one is the “right” one. I am not pleased with this game.

girlfriday: What’s that thing that Ji-won mistakes for a compass? I know it’s not a compass, but I can’t think of what it’s called right now. I would totally fail this quiz.

javabeans: Protractor. HA. My first thought was compass, too, and I was all indignant when he got that called wrong, until the guys pointed out that the compass is the thing with the legs.

girlfriday: Protractor! Now there’s a word I haven’t heard since grade school.

javabeans: I love how Seung-gi gets an easel, and he yells, “Art school!” Hee. Man, I’m getting hungry just watching them, because it seems like they’re never gonna win dinner.

girlfriday: They get a few false starts, but the thing that stumps all of them? Spork. HA. They’re like, “Is it a fork? Is it a spoon? What IS IT?”

javabeans: Okay, this one I think is just unfair, because I don’t think Koreans even see sporks in everyday life. Like, rather than trying to recall the name of it, most of the guys are puzzled as to what the heck it actually is.

girlfriday: I think they come in doshirak containers, no? Or no… maybe just chopsticks?

javabeans: Do they? I’ve never seen a Korean spork. The guesses are pretty amusing. Seung-gi: “A fork-and-spoon-together?” Ho-dong: “A fo-spoon?” Hilariously, though, the actual term is “spoon-fork.”

girlfriday: Which is pretty much what Jong-min says, only with question marks instead. It’s getting increasingly embarrassing for them, especially Ho-dong who can’t get an answer to save his life. His team finally squeaks by with one correct answer after a thousand guesses, and they win the first round. They’re so hungry by now that they just stuff their faces silently, and Na PD tells them to at least describe the food they’re eating. It goes ignored. Heh.

javabeans: I’m not sure if they’re too busy eating to bother responding, or if they can’t even HEAR him because they’re so preoccupied.

girlfriday: Round 2: Guess That Song. It turns out the genre is all 90s pop, so the two 90s idols Ji-won and Jong-min are on their feet instantly.

javabeans: Aw, I kind of feel like Ho-dong stole that one answer from Ji-won with the ZAM song.

girlfriday: Oh totally. Jong-min and Ji-won keep blurting out almost-correct answers, and then the other team swoops in.

javabeans: Also, I totally remember that song, and always wondered why they hell they spelled their name ZAM. What’s up with that, weird ‘90s mistranslated English? You gonna “zam out” with your “zam buddies” in a “zam session”? But ugh, I get the frustration of this game because I’m totally in that state of “Oh! Oh! I know this one! What IS IT?”

girlfriday: I know! All of the intros sound so familiar, but then they guess before I can. I totally would’ve gotten Untitle’s “Wings” if Jong-min wasn’t so quick about it.

javabeans: And Baby VOX’s “Get Up.” Lol, I like how Seung-gi and Jong-min both start dancing to the song, trying to jog their memories.

girlfriday: Okay, but I am impressed when Ho-dong does the ZAM dance to prove he didn’t just steal the title from the other team. Hee. Round 3: Movie Titles. It’s the consonants game with movie titles.

javabeans: Why do I feel like Ji-won’s gonna rock this game?

girlfriday: He’s gonna RULE this game. C’mon, Ji-won, it’s Chun-jae Time! Okay, Old Boy even I got immediately. So Jong-min scores one, then Ho-dong, but then after that it’s the Ji-won Show. You know what’s hard about this game? There’s so much English in the titles, that’s then transliterated into Korean consonants — it’s too much of a mindbender for me. A mixed one like Welcome to Dongmakgol is basically impossible to wrap my head around.

javabeans: Like Oldboy, too: English-speakers might use OB, but in Korean it’s ODBE (ol-deu-bo-ee). Dongmakgol I got, but only after the Tablo hint, because that made me think immediately of Kang Hye-jung. They said this movie is famous, and she’s most famous for that one. But basically, I would’ve guessed the right answer more based on the hints than on the actual prompt.

girlfriday: My mind doesn’t work that way. Like “SSSS.” It’s Sixth Sense but pronounced in Korean it’s Six-Seh Sen-Seh.

javabeans: The last one is freaking hard, the one Ji-won guesses while only half-paying attention because he’s eating. Everyone’s puzzled, but he tosses out the full title to JSA, whose consonants are basically spelling out the pronunciation jae-ee-eh-sseu-eh-ee. So, instead of JSA, it would be like guessing JEESEE.

girlfriday: I love how the other guys are just staring at it like it’s crazy impossible, and Ji-won gets it in one glance, all nom-nom-nom… Joint Security Area! … nom-nom-nom…

javabeans: Aside: I think it’s cute how in Korean, it’s nyam-nyam. (Nom-nom-nom is The Good, The Bad, The Weird.)

girlfriday: HA. Yeah nom is definitely something else in Korean. The final game is a spatial brain teaser: each team gets six wooden chopsticks, out of which they have to make four equilateral triangles. Okay, I’m grabbing six pens right now to play along…

javabeans: I suck at things like this, I’m not gonna even try. This is geometry, right? As in, math? I’m out.

girlfriday: Damnit, I hate to admit this, but it’s harder than it looks. Haha. Ji-won’s first attempt is to make two triangles and then half-close his eyes so he sees double. Ho-dong’s team comes out and then when Ji-won’s idea is rejected, they turn right back around. “That’s what we were gonna do.” Heh.

javabeans: Ha, that made me laugh. No way he was serious about it, but he still treats the idea seriously, like, “Might as well give it a try.” Hee.

girlfriday: They go through all the possible configurations, and then Seung-gi finally has a lightbulb moment. He grabs the chopsticks with a confident “Game over,” and then makes one triangle on the floor and stands the remaining three up to form a pyramid. I love that the boys are smart in such different ways — Ji-won, who’s a genius with other things, sits there with his chopsticks long after the game is over, trying to suss out how he got the right answer.

javabeans: It looked like Jong-min was halfway there, because he was standing up his chopsticks and trying to configure them into a 3D form. Ah, just a little too slow.

girlfriday: After dinner the haunted house team gets ready to leave, and Na PD tells them about the morning mission. Ji-won: “Will there even BE a morning for us?” Hahaha. Are you planning to be dead by morning?

javabeans: Ha, that place looks like a wreck. Although, when the camera shows the dropped ornamental tassel accessory thing (meant to evoke an old-school horror feel, as in a young girl in a pretty hanbok turning into a ghost), I had the feeling it was just a cosmetic props job by the crew, and that made it a LOT less scary.

girlfriday: The morning mission is hide-and-seek, where the winners get to take a city tour, while the losers go back to the fields to pick a thousand chilis… EACH. Ho-dong’s team has two minutes to wake up and hide, anywhere within this village, and once the wake-up song ends, they can’t move from that spot until the end of the game. Best run quickly. It’d be hilarious if one of them got caught in the middle of the street because they had to freeze when the song ended.

javabeans: I’m picturing a red-light-green-light scenario. Hehe. The time limit makes it harder for the hiders, because some of the better hiding spots are bound to be farther away in the village, but the trouble is getting there. Whereas, they could stick close to the house, but find it harder to remain hidden. And then, there’s also the bystander-recognition factor. Jong-min has an insightful comment about noting the reactions of the villagers — they’re bound to lie for Seung-gi and Ho-dong, but if they laugh as they say “No I haven’t seen them,” that means they actually have seen them.

girlfriday: Ji-won’s team then has twenty minutes to find them, and they only need to find one member to win. Each team gets to the war strategizing, and Ho-dong’s team agrees that since they’re at the disadvantage, they’ll scout hiding places before going to bed. They decide to hide together, which is smart math-wise (it lowers the other team’s probability of finding one of three) but I worry about how they’re going to fit together in one hiding place.

javabeans: It’s both easier and harder, because that limits the kinds of places you can hide. I dunno, I think I’d have stuck to the separate-hiding-spots plan.

girlfriday: They scout the neighborhood and still can’t decide, and it stresses them out so much that they can’t sleep. Is this going to be like the time that Ji-won stayed up all night just to sabotage the other team? Sometimes it’s so random, the days that they get OBSESSED with winning and over-strategizing.

javabeans: They definitely do veer into overthinky territory. Not only are they trying to rustle up good hiding spots, they’re also trying to predict, “They’ll suspect we’re hiding there” and “We should go against expectation.” This is a thought process with no end — you could talk your way in circles and never arrive at a conclusion.

girlfriday: It’s like how they “strategize” about rock-paper-scissors or other games that are entirely unstrategizable.

javabeans: I’m remembering Tae-woong’s first episode, where he was “mentored” in how to win at rock-scissors-paper. And there you have Jong-min, telling him all these tricks and tips and strategies…and in the end the only real advice to take from that is, “Just do it.”

girlfriday: Su-geun decides that they should just make a run for it, and get as far away as they can. Ho-dong: “That’s too risky. What if we don’t make it by the end of the song?” Without skipping a beat, Su-geun blurts: “That’s why I said we should hide in the house!” Seung-gi and Ho-dong bust a gut at his fair-weather declarations.

javabeans: Haha. Short memory, huh?

girlfriday: Meanwhile, Ji-won’s team is greeted at the entrance to the haunted house by a dead rat. Eee! Sadly, the only thing that’s really scary about that house is the number of mosquitoes trapped inside, and eventually they have to move outside and sleep in a tent, just to avoid having their blood sucked dry.

javabeans: Yeah, that looked pretty miserable. It must have been really bad for the PDs to give them that concession, no? I would’ve thought they’d have considered the mosquitoes part of their punishment, but they actually showed pity. It almost feels like a tent is a reward, instead of the losers’ deal.

girlfriday: In the morning, Ho-dong’s team wakes up long before their alarms even ring, and Seung-gi begins his obsessive Operation Hideout.

javabeans: He picks a spot close to the house, and actually asks the crew to move their setup to make their hiding place more optimal. He then hides the alley with a strategic placement of props and bags and such. Although, I totally thought he was overdoing the camouflage, and thought the chasers would be sure to pick out that strange massive pile of random props hanging out in the yard. It’s like when you try to cover something up (say, a zit), and end up overdoing it so much that it stands out even more (i.e., glaringly caked-on spot of concealer on an otherwise bare face).

girlfriday: It’s definitely the super obvious whistling, nuthin’ to see here kind of hiding place. The music starts and Ho-dong’s team hides with handheld cameras while Ji-won’s team splits up to search. Tae-woong brings his dog Baek-tong-ie, which I thought was going to put him at an advantage, but it turns out he’s no bloodhound. He’s mostly there to up the cute factor, not so much the hunting.

javabeans: I totally thought they should have made Baek-tong-ie sniff Seung-gi’s sweater or something. ‘Cause how’s he to know what to look for?

girlfriday: That would have been awesome. Puppy hunting Puppy! Ji-won does the smart thing and asks people around the basecamp if they’ve seen Ho-dong. They say no, so he books it back to the house, guessing that he’s somewhere inside. He gets up on top of the roof to get a bird’s-eye view, and if he just stood like two feet to the right, he would’ve seen them!

javabeans: The song they played was hilarious. It goes, “You’re only looking afar, but I’m right here.” And just as you’re shouting, “Look to the right, look to the right!” the lyrics go, “If you’d only turned your head a little…”

girlfriday: And then with two minutes left on the clock, Tae-woong decides to check the basecamp one more time… I don’t even know which side I’m rooting for, but it’s so tense!

javabeans: This time, I’m totally rooting for Tae-woong, because I think their hiding spot is lame. There, I said it. They deserve to be caught!

girlfriday: Haha, they should’ve gone with Seung-gi’s idea to dress up or do something funny. Tae-woong comes into the yard and goes straight for their hiding place… Caught! Ji-won’s team wins! Later Tae-woong says that he went over there because the audio team was so awkward that he knew something was up.

javabeans: That’s so funny, and pretty keen. On any other occasion, Tae-woong points out that the crew would have smiled and waved at him, but today they were studiously looking away and stone-faced. And I love that when he was walking by them, the captions read, “The team, in the midst of awkward acting…”

girlfriday: Su-geun complains that Ho-dong’s size puts them at a disadvantage for hiding. Ho-dong: “I’ve never won a single game of hide-and-seek.” Aw. He admits he was so wrapped up in hiding that when Tae-woong found him, his first thought was I’d dead.

javabeans: Ha, like he was in a war game or something.

girlfriday: The winners get to go on the leisurely tour, and Ho-dong calls after them, “How come even the dog gets to go on the city tour but we have to go farming…” He trails off when he realizes they’re not even listening. Heh.

javabeans: I love how blithely they go off, without any guilt or sympathy. “Bye! See you next week!” Jong-min notes that once again, “We always win at the end.”

girlfriday: The losers go chili-picking in yet another array of awesome ajumma pants. As they sweat in the fields, Seung-gi decides that he should eat every pepper that restaurants put on the table instead of letting them go to waste. The chili ajumma’s like, “Nah, that’s okay.” HA.

javabeans: Haha. That’s cute. You know she’s probably a Seung-gi fan.

girlfriday: They’re all wearing those ass cushions again, and Seung-gi falls over while still strapped to his, and he Can’t. Get. Up. HEE HEE HEE. Also OW. But HEE!

javabeans: Hee. Hee. Hee. Like an upturned turtle. Wearing ajumma pants.

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