Running Man: Episode 243

by gummimochi

It’s time to take a trip down memory lane with the rising stars in varietyland, playing games that remind them of their old haunts. All five of our guests each have different charms to bring to the table, and it won’t be long until we fall for their quirky humor, competitive spirit, and most of all, a willingness to pull out all the stops when it comes to bringing on the laughs.

EPISODE 243. Broadcast on April 19, 2015.

We start off today’s race at daybreak, with our cast instructed to climb into a van. Our mystery guests are all rising stars in varietyland, and waiting by the road to be picked up. It’s up to the cast to let said guests in or not—and to make room, they’ll need to drop one of their own in exchange.

Jae-suk immediately offers up Jong-kook’s name, and Taek PD explains that the dregs—er, the others will be picked up later. Today’s teams will be divided between the Riders vs. the Rejected, and with that, the van zooms off.

On the way, Jae-suk jokes that Suk-jin should get ready to get off, to which Suk-jin counters, “Why aren’t you thinking that you needn’t take your seatbelt off?” They pull up to their first potential passenger whose oversized head mask and shopping bags make him look adorable.

The man behind the mask is Noel’s Kang Kyun-sung who immediately brings on the laughs with his soft speaking voice contrasted with his rockstar impersonation. Suk-jin suggests they let their guest choose someone to boot from the van instead… and it’s Suk-jin’s door that Kyun-sung opens.

Given his numerous variety show appearances, Kyun-sung has garnered lots of attention in the past several months. He’s also joined by Jang Su-won former Sechs Kies member turned actor best known for his robotic acting. The lines “Are you okay? You were really shocked weren’t you?” now follows him everywhere.

Because there’s no such thing as a free ride on this show, Su-won tries to earn his way in by dancing to the Sechs Kies’ classic “Pom Saeng Pom Sa.” Jae-suk suggests they put it up to a secret vote, but then as soon as he gets out of the car, Jong-kook rushes towards the driver’s seat.

Just like before, they ultimately let the guest decide, so Su-won unlocks Kwang-soo’s seatbelt. Aw, it’s been awhile since we’ve heard that “Saint Agnes and the Burning Train” tune.

Is it sad that I can already tell who our third guest is from the way he’s crouched in his chair? Eee, it’s Ho-joonie! (aka Son Ho-joon) He’s even prepared food, but since the group decides they can’t have ALL the guests on their team, they drive off.

So when the Easy Brothers pull up a minute later, Ho-joon runs ahead to offer them food. Kwang-soo: “Why didn’t they pick you up?” Ho-joonie, near tears: “Maybe because I wasn’t forward enough?” Aw, you can’t make me cry BEFORE the race even starts! Aww, and the guys make sure that he feels appreciated.

Our fourth guest is model turned actor Hong Jong-hyun (Dating Agency Cyrano) who misinterprets Jae-suk’s silent cues to choose Jong-kook and chooses Jae-suk instead, insisting that he’s a great driver.

It isn’t long before the other car pulls up, and Jae-suk’s attempt at making amends with Ho-joon is too little too late as he rolls up the window. Then it’s time to meet our fifth and final guest whom we find lying on a bench covered in newspapers.

Writer (and now actor) Yoo Byung-jae (The Superman Age) is the only one I’m unfamiliar with, but I have no doubt that he’ll bring plenty of laughs to the table by the episode’s end. Like always, the guest gets to pick who gets the boot, and it’s Kyun-sung, who realizes that he’ll be teamed up with Suk-jin.

Once everyone’s gathered together again at their first location, there’s a need to send one teammate to the Rejected to balance out the teams. The Rejected have their eyes set on Byung-jae, who breaks Jong-kook’s heart when he takes a step. But Byung-jae crosses over in the end; now detached from Jong-kook’s grasp, he smiles brightly.

Let’s announce our teams before the games begin: Hot Guys (Jae-suk, Suk-jin, Kwang-soo, Kyun-sung, Ho-joon, and Byung-jae) vs. Cool Guys (Jong-kook, Gary, Haha, Ji-hyo, Su-won, and Jong-hyun).

Prior to filming, everyone had been asked about their own favorite hotspots, which correspond to twelve different locations in the park. And to start things off, the teams will compete in an all-kill name-tag rippin’ race. Immediately regretting their newest recruit, Jae-suk appeals to Jong-kook for a strong member of their own, like Gary or Jong-hyun.

To that Jong-kook makes an offer: either play the nametag rippin’ game or duke it out with him. But it turns out the nametag ripping is an in-between game, in that the teams can only rip each other’s nametags off en route to the following station. However, the team that wins at each station will be given a ten-second head start to the next location, along with a gold coin.

Jong-kook considers that a generous time frame for his targets, and when Taek PD clarifies that this is a face-off and not a chase, Jong-kook adds, “If we chase them, they’ll run away.”

Anyang sounds like Jong-kook’s hood, but billiards is a callback to Kwang-soo’s memory as the place where he was first robbed of money as a kid. When Byung-jae is asked what was stolen from him, he replies, “A half-eaten bread.”

I don’t know how the point system in billiards work, but the group goes around sharing numbers that are met with disbelief. Su-won says he never played ’cause while his buddies played pool, he was out on dates. Ha.

The rules on this giant billiards-bowling game is simple: Best two out of three rounds, the team that sinks all of their balls (solid vs. stripes) first wins the round. Even before the game begins, the Hot Guys are already planning on making a run for the next station.

Ji-hyo starts things off by sinking in a solid, and Kyun-sung sinks a ball for his team as well. Gary sends one of his balls and a cue ball in a pocket, and after some argument about neighborhood-specific billiard rules, both balls are back on the table.

Ha, Jae-suk chalks his hands before his turn. He doesn’t make it, and then we skip ahead to when both teams need to sink two more balls each. Haha has his game face on while lining up for a bank shot… which actually works. Unfortunately, he misses the next shot.

Ho-joonie misses his shot, then gets thiiiiiisss close to sinking in the cue ball. Su-won has a pretty good shot, and immediately the Hot Guys start lacing up their shoes, preparing to run. When the ball doesn’t go in, Jae-suk cries, “Loosen those shoelaces, guys! Loosen them!”

When Byung-jae steps up, Jae-suk shares how Byung-jae brought a hyung he knows vs. a manager to filming today. It has to be a weird transition for a guy who’s always worked off-screen to think about assembling an entourage now that he’s working in front of the camera. And aw, that super shy hyung allegedly feels super lonely because he doesn’t know what to do all day today.

Despite receiving mixed signals, Byung-jae manages to sink in the first ball. He looks confused and annoyed again at the cries of “make sure you hit it hard, but not too hard but also not too weak,” so Jae-suk clarifies, “Just make sure it goes in!”

The Hot Guys win the first round when that ball spins into the pocket, then Kwang-soo gets a nice break shot to start off the second round. He also gets a second ball in, and only needs to make a final bank shot to sink the third ball in. There’s a slight hit, but it isn’t enough.

Ji-hyo’s failed shot puts the Hot Guys in prime position to secure the win. Kyun-sung enters the table, but then manages to knock the solid green ball out of the edge of the pocket. That allows Gary to even the playing field, and the Hot Guys immediately start tightening their laces. Lol.

Now each team is down to one ball each—on Haha’s turn, the ball spins around the pocket, then back out onto the table. Ohhh, that sucks. Byung-jae steps onto the table and the ball heads straight for the corner pocket… which is when Gary catches it. Suk-jin makes sure it goes in, and the Hot Guys celebrate their win with 10 gold coins. The Cool Guys still pocket five coins.

Time for that in-between nametag rippin’ game to get going: the teams have five minutes to travel to the next station. Should a team eliminate all of their opponents, that’ll be the curtain call on today’s race.

As promised, the victors get a 10-second head start. Not that it really makes a difference when Spartakooks and crew give chase. Suk-jin makes the silly mistake of trying to hide and prepare for a sneak attack. He gets found out and Jong-hyun does the honor of ripping off his nametag.

The Cool Guys disperse to try and ambush their prey with a flank attack, but the Hot Guys safely enter the safe zone. Sans Suk-jin, whose nametag now reads “Kkakdugi 1.” Any of those eliminated in-between stations will join the team with the least number of people. Furthermore, while the kkakdugis can’t win, they can still acquire extra gold coins.

Changgyeonggung Palace is nostalgic for Jae-suk who allegedly participated in group blind dates in this historical area. No one believes that Jae-suk was always in the Top 5, but they do believe that he never had a successful match on those group dates.

Jong-kook shares that he’s only been on those group blind dates once—back in his school days, he and a group of guys would intercept a co-ed meeting between the Anyang Arts High School students to meet with the pretty girls. Gary has done the group blind date thing once before too, but it didn’t work out for him because he wasn’t that popular at the time. Aw.

Jong-hyun shares that he never went out on a group blind date, which spurs comments that the handsome boy probably never had to. Asked if he received mountains of love letters and gifts from admirers instead, Jong-hyun denies that too, so Haha asks, “Then what? Tell us.” Ha, smooth.

Here, the teams will face off in a best two out of three mechanical pencil relay to empty their lead cartridges first, lest the bomb blows up in their faces. Kwang-soo starts off with a comfortable lead when Haha has trouble with his pencil, but the Cool Guys eventually catch up by their last competitor.

Jae-suk and Su-won are pretty close…. and it’s the Hot Guys’ bomb that bursts first. After some switcharoos, Suk-jin is first in the line-up based on his claim that he’s super speedy. But it turns out that he looks like a tortoise compared to Ji-hyo.

Even with the delay, the teams catch up by their final competitors: Kyun-sung vs. Su-won. It’s looking pretty close again… but Kyun-sung is a second too late. That makes it an easy win for the Cool Guys, and now the teams are tied with fifteen coins each.

After the Cool Guys head out, the Hot Guys opt to find a different route. But that leads up a mountain and their bright colored jackets make them easy to spot. Their second idea is to ride in a passing van, but the Cool Guys are already waiting for them just outside the next location.

With only two minutes left to reach the next station (lest they face elimination and join the kkakdugi bunch), the Cool Guys offer safe passage as long as Kwang-soo is offered up as the sacrificial lamb. After sending off all the guests, Jae-suk and Kwang-soo stubbornly stick out the last few seconds.

So Jong-kook, Jae-suk, and Kwang-soo become kkakdugis, but only two of them can participate in the next game (with the Hot Guys) and earn gold coins. They all clamor for a spot, and in the end, Jong-kook and Suk-jin score a seat.

The Shinwol Apartments Station was chosen by Byung-jae—who lived with that hyung he knows for seven to eight years, along with that hyung’s girlfriend. Er, I can see how that can get pretty awkward. But things didn’t end there—that girlfriend ended up cheating on his hyung, but both men pretended not to know because they needed a roof over their heads.

It’s a sad story, but it’s Byung-jae’s straight delivery that makes it funny, as he shares how that hyung tried to avoid any confrontation because once that truth was in the open, they’d have to move out. Eventually there was a three-person confrontation, and he and the hyung were beaten up and driven out.

In this next game, one team will have 30 seconds to transfer an “R-rated” videotape behind their backs while the other will have five minutes to deduce who is ultimately in possession of the tape.

The Cool Guys are up first, and once time is up, the Hot Guys present their initial suspicions. Ho-joon claims to be exceptionally good at guessing the exact right answer, still remembering how he once guessed the right answer down to the decimal place of the most difficult question on his college entrance exam. How did he do that? “It looked more than seven, but a bit less than eight.”

After a few more questions, the Hot Guys decide to go with Ho-joonie’s gut. But just to make sure, they shoot one last question to a flustered Jong-hyun. They ultimately decide on Jong-hyun, and one by one, the Cool Guys show their empty hands…

… and Gary’s hands are empty. But in the end, it’s Su-won in possession of the videotape, and now the Cool Guys lead with twenty-five coins to twenty coins. The remaining Hot Guys are outnumbered 5:3, and momentarily believe that their pursuers are fleeing.

That’s just a tactic to lure them in, of course, and Jong-kook comes running from the rear. Although the Hot Guys quickly find themselves surrounded on both sides, Kyun-sung slinks his way to safety.

Ho-joon runs to help Byung-jae by grabbing Gary’s nametag, but Gary’s faster in eliminating his target. And oh no—Jong-hyun has got a grip on Ho-joon’s nametag! Both nametags are ripped off simultaneously resulting in double elimination.

That leaves Kyun-sung all by himself, and Haha jokes that at this rate, they’ll wrap up filming before lunchtime. Jae-suk gathers his fellow kkakdugis, since only three of them will get the chance to participate. The eliminated group has created their own hierarchy by now, and as the newest recruit, Gary defers to his sunbaes.

Boramae Park holds a special place in Ho-joon’s heart, as he still remembers the first time he saw it after moving up to Seoul. Byung-jae remembers the first Seoul subway station he got off at (Yongsan), which feels oddly reminiscent to Samcheonpo in Answer Me 1994. When asked what place made him feel like he finally arrived in the big city, Byung-jae replies, “Yongsan Electronics Market.”

Here the teams will face off in an animal kingdom-themed baton race. Kyun-sung and Su-won start off by running on all fours, then the snakes roll in their sleeping bags to the awaiting kangaroos who will hop to the next station. Over there, the rabbits will hop all the way to the finish line.

Ho-joon hops across to win the first round, and the teams switch roles in the following round. Kyun-sung gets into a rhythm, then HA—Kwang-soo slinks like a snake across the pavement. But rolling is a faster way to reach the next teammate, and that’s how Jong-hyun turns the tables.

That is, until Kwang-soo rolls right over him, and then Jong-hyun pulls him back. Kwang-soo manages to get the upper hand, but the race stays tight to the final leg until Ho-joon finally hops across the finish line first.

Jae-suk, Kwang-soo, and Ho-joon all pocket five coins of their own due to the win. Jae-suk’s reluctance about splitting the coins equally is met with a punch to the gut.

Kyun-sung heads off first to the Anyang Noraebang, putting as much distance between him and his pursuers as possible. Meanwhile the kkakdugis stumble upon Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, and Jung Yumi just enjoying their day together outside—turns out they’re all appearing in the upcoming film “To Busan” together. Ooh, do come and play when the premiere date draws near!

Jae-suk doesn’t miss the chance to brag about how he’s close buddies with Gong Yoo, a statement they check up on immediately. Gong Yoo simply waves at them to go about their day.

Jong-hyun spots Kyun-sung and quietly outs his hiding place before giving chase. But Kyun-sung manages to run into the safe zone in time and now the two teams are tied with 30 coins each.

Jong-kook shares how he used to sing at the noraebang during his lunch hour, which begs the question of how he was able to leave and enter of school grounds during the day. Did Jong-kook have free rein about his coming and goings because he was that scary in his school days?

But Jong-kook says the students at his school were free to leave school premises during lunch, and he’d head over to sing his heart out to various rock ballads. Ho-joon had a short-lived singing career (in the idol group Tachyon), and it turns out his favorite tune is Emerald Castle’s “Footsteps” too.

Since Kang Haneul has already made his mark on this show with that very song, Ho-jooonie sings to izi’s “Emergency Room.” Aw, he’s got a nice, smooth voice that we can’t fully enjoy because Suk-jin keeps rapping along in the background.

Kyun-sung opts to sing the female part in LeeSsang’s single “Rush,” because he’s confident in his Jung In’s impression. That lasts all of fifteen seconds before Kyun-sung apologizes. Byung-jae says he can tackle the entire song on his own, and Gary warns that he was still traumatized from Kyun-sung’s impression.

As he should be because while Gil’s impression is spot on, the squeaky voice impersonation of Gary causes the ladder to burst and put Byung-jae in a headlock. Kyun-sung chooses a different song, and if it wasn’t evident already, he’s made his name known on variety for his humorous impersonations of other singers.

This one to Kim Jang-hoon is no different, but when he can’t hit the already higher notes (because he cranked up the pitch), Kyun-sung immediately stops and apologizes. He’s given one final chance to do a Jong-kook impersonation, and again Kyun-sung increases the pitch for Jong-kook’s classic “Lovely.”

This one is a bit more similar, even if the choice to go up a few octaves work against him. Kyun-sung pays close attention to Jong-kook’s reaction, afraid that he’s going to lash out at him at any second. It’s when Kyun-sung finally apologizes that Jong-kook knocks the mic from his hand, and apparently all of this was just a warm-up.

It would’ve been nice if we got to hear Kyun-sung’s natural singing chops because they are impressive.

But it turns out this is a short and sweet game: Jong-hyun and Kyun-sung will randomly choose a number on the noraebang machine, and the one with the longer title wins. Kyun-sung goes first, but his choice is only three syllables.

Jong-hyun wins with five syllables, and Jae-suk pretends to know the tune, but the first few bars give it away that he doesn’t. With the Cool Guys’ win at this station, they all wait for Kyun-sung just outside the station’s boundaries, waiting to pounce.

Kyun-sung makes a run for it, and damn he’s speedy. It looks like he might be able to make it after all…

… but by the time he arrives with the Cool Guys at the next station, his nametag has already been ripped off. Turns out, Jong-hyun closed that gap, and although Kyun-sung grabbed Haha’s nametag, Haha eliminated him first.

That gives the Cool Guys the win, but the kkakdugis haven’t been forgotten: they can trade their gold coins for a coffee coupon. For our victors, they snag a gift certificate to a department store. You know, since these guys will need to buy threads to stay ahead of the curve.

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