In the first couple of seconds of this new version of the Lollipop TV commercial (Hat Tip), singer G-Dragon (of the group Big Bang) makes a gesture that, unbeknownst to him, is an allusion to oral sex. (Here is a repeating loop of the gesture in question. (Hat Tip)) It’s not the first time that he’s made such a mistake. He once wore, at an awards show, a t-shirt that said, “I *heart* sex,” “69,” and “F**k you, too.”)
At about 2:45 of this video (possibly the weirdest one you’ll see this week*) Hyun-ah of 4Minute and a couple members of 2PM (JYP Entertainment evidently loves number/times of day combinations) go to one side of the room and start doing pelvic thrusts at the guests. Then they run over to the other side and start doing pelvic thrusts at the host. Do they even know what they’re doing? I would guess not.
* Why does almost every episode of almost every Korean comedy show have to show men dancing around in women’s clothes? Doesn’t this joke eventually get old after a while?
Extra! Korea 
[…] has been all too ready to edit the video for the sake of quick sales. I ask because by coincidence, Extra Korea! has recently noted the frequent parroting of Western dance moves and gestures by Korean performers […]
Pingback by Korean Gender Reader « The Grand Narrative — August 23, 2009 @ 11:57 am
[…] I always thought that Lollipod commercial was pretty gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course), but not this gay. […]
Pingback by I Don’t Think That Gesture Means What You Think It Means | The Marmot's Hole — August 24, 2009 @ 4:16 am
Some of the BB members can speak English very well and probably know damn well what all of that means. Whic society they’re trying to taking the piss out of I’m not so sure.
Comment by Yu Bumsuk — August 24, 2009 @ 8:40 am
Just because they speak English well doesn’t mean that they’re intimately familiar with the culture. Keep in mind how Koreans learn English. Most learn it to do well on a TOEIC test. The pop stars probably learn it either because their superiors demand that they do (because they have their eye on foreign markets) or to look cool. G-Dragon may have seen it somewhere, didn’t bother to do his homework and find out its meaning, and then remembered it when asked to do a commercial about a cell-phone called Lollipop.
Comment by extrakorea — August 25, 2009 @ 5:32 am
none of bb members are fluent in english.it juz dat most of them can pronounce english better than other koreans..dats y..i think gd knew about it but perhaps he didn find it offensive or as a matter o-fact he juz didn bother much about it.even the gov did nothing about it.myb they juz don understand the meaning..this is bad.
Comment by i am me — December 10, 2009 @ 4:38 pm
Koreans just copy what they see Americans do. They don’t think.
Comment by Korean Rum Diary — August 24, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
I think that’s excessively harsh and overgeneralizing.
Comment by extrakorea — August 25, 2009 @ 5:33 am
whenever I ask my wife about the (at-best metrosexual) attire, she says “it’s a concept” and excuses it because “they are gagman”…
As we know, homosexuality is not popular in Korea… And stop looking at Harry Sue or whatever his name is…
Comment by setnaffa — August 24, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
Okay Hester Prin, just what exactly distinguishes a western sexual gesture from an eastern one? Now your first looped picture is pretty funny, and I hate to say this, but if a cellphone company was going to give me a shit ton of money to do that on television I might. That’s not to say that his entertainment company doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Your commentary on the video from star king though leads me to believe that either your wardrobe features predominantly red American Apparel Helevectica letters a t-shirts, or you have never seen MTV’s “The Grind.” Either way I think a more interesting angle for this type of story might focus on weather or not there is a homosexual subversive element within the Korean entertainment companies,,, much like the gladiator movies of the sixties, or if Koreans really just don’t get it. I’m thinking it might be a combination of the two.
Comment by 3gyupsal — August 24, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
I don’t even know what that means.
I’ve lived in South Korea for a while, so I don’t see how I could have. Nor does it sound like the kind of program that I’d waste my time with.
And watch your tone. This isn’t the Marmot’s Hole.
Comment by extrakorea — August 25, 2009 @ 5:40 am
Koreans would never knowingly rip something or someone off…would they?
Comment by Larry — August 25, 2009 @ 9:30 am
Regarding the 2PM Star King clip, the short dancer, Jay Park aka JaeBum is American. He was originally a bboy dancer in Seattle before joining JYP. So….I’m going to go ahead and say he knows exactly what he’s doing. Just thought I’d point this out.
Comment by Grace — August 26, 2009 @ 7:06 pm
And Nich-khun, the Thai-American member of 2pm, was laughing hysterically, so I suspect that he knew what it meant, too.
Comment by extrakorea — September 1, 2009 @ 7:38 am
[…] life expectancy” was. And it was determined to be … 69. Let me repeat: 69. And G-Dragon is saying, “Yeah? So?” Leave a […]
Pingback by Men’s “sexual life expectancy” is 69. Let me repeat: 69 « Extra! Korea — September 1, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
[…] an LG Lollipop phone (yes, that one) from my wife this week, who needed a smartphone for her job, it’s good to finally have a […]
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