Comedy has moved on from TV — but at Busan festival, TV hasn’t left the stage

BUSAN — On Friday night, the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (Bexco), the port city’s largest convention venue, bustled ahead of the opening ceremony for the 14th Busan International Comedy Festival (BICF).

Around 1,800 people had gathered for a program filled with comedy performances, as well as a set by girl rock band QWER. Billed as Asia’s largest international comedy festival, the BICF is bringing 52 teams from 10 countries to stages across the port city through Sunday.

One segment at the ceremony had the crowd especially excited: a skit by comedians from the “Malja Show,” which invites audience members to share their worries live. Outside the auditorium, attendees covered a board with Post-it notes describing their personal dilemmas, hoping the outspoken “Granny Malja,” a persona performed by Kim Young-hee, would choose theirs.

The show's humor about daily life seemed to be relatable across borders. Maria, 35, who is originally from Russia and came down from Seoul for the event, said it was "universally understood."

For example, she could not always follow jokes rooted in Korean politics, but topics such as conflict with in-laws were easier to understand. Having lived and worked in Korea for seven years, she described her Korean as “fluent.”

“A lot of toilet humor,” she added when asked what stood out to her about Korean comedy.

At the ceremony, this reporter counted at least three poop-related jokes, including one in the “Malja Show” skit. The performance seemed to live up to the crowd’s expectations, drawing some of the biggest laughs of the night and the loudest applause as Kim and Jung Beom-kyun left the stage.

Other headline performances that drew similarly enthusiastic reactions were segments from KBS2’s “Gag Concert” (1999-2020, 2023–), the country’s longest-running television sketch-comedy program. The “Malja Show” itself was spun off into a stand-alone show this year after gaining popularity on “Gag Concert.”

“‘Gag Concert’ is the only show I make sure to watch when it airs,” said college student Lee Se-eun, who came to see the segments live for the spontaneity, including the comedians’ ad-libs.

The 25-year-old said she had fond memories of watching the show since elementary school and had recently started tuning in again. Hwang Seong-ui, 60, and housewife Kang Sang-hwa, 45, were also drawn by much the same thing: the comeback of “Gag Concert” and the “Malja Show,” whose back-and-forth with the audience was part of the appeal.

The presence of “Gag Concert” could be felt throughout BICF’s 10-day run, through both its alumni and several of the festival’s headline shows.

But the prominence of the KBS show at a festival meant to showcase the breadth of comedy today — from talk shows and magic to mime and nonverbal performance — also captured an industry in transition.

Television, once the unquestioned center of Korean comedy, no longer commands the audiences or controls the career paths that it once did. Comedians have increasingly moved to YouTube, streaming platforms and live performance, where they can work without the schedules, censorship standards and rigid formats of terrestrial broadcasters.

Yet ironically, much of the star power propelling that newer ecosystem still comes from television’s golden age — such as the performers, characters and catchphrases that “Gag Concert” spent decades turning into household names.

On Saturday, during “The Jeon Yu-seong Show Without Jeon Yu-seong,” Shin Bong-sun — another “Gag Concert” alumnus — was performing what had been planned as roughly a 20-minute segment when she unexpectedly invited Kim Dae-hee to the stage. The segment stretched to around 40 minutes as she, Kim, and yet another fellow alumnus, Kim Jun-ho, slipped into familiar banter, with the crowd roaring at the surprise appearances and callbacks.

Shin and Kim Dae-hee reprised their roles from "We Need to Talk," a KBS show where she originally played a housewife, and Kim a disgruntled husband, which originally aired from 2006 to 2008. 

Kim now draws on that “Gag Concert” intellectual property for his personal YouTube channel, where he interviews celebrity guests in the cranky, old-fashioned persona of Kkondaehee — a portmanteau of "kkondae," a Korean term for an overbearing older person, and his name — while reviving catchphrases such as “Let’s eat.” With over 2.08 million subscribers, his channel is one of the most followed comedy brands on YouTube, alongside channels such as Shortbox, Psick University and BDNS.

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Kim's move from television to streaming platforms and YouTube — Korea's most-used app by far — was just one among many as television viewership fell.

“Gag Concert” averaged a 28.9 percent audience rating in 2003 and was still averaging 22.3 percent as late as 2012. By 2016, its yearly average had fallen to 10 percent, and it has remained in the single digits thereafter. When KBS temporarily halted the program in 2020, its ratings had fallen as low as the 3 percent range.

In the meantime, YouTube's comedy ecosystem thrived. Shortbox, founded by three KBS-trained comedians, topped YouTube Korea’s list of trending creators in 2022 after its subscriber count jumped from around 20,000 to 2.34 million in less than a year. By 2026, the channel, featuring sketches about dating, friendships and everyday social situations, had grown to about 3.9 million subscribers. Psick University, founded by SBS and KBS comedians, currently has 2.84 million.

That changing balance was reflected at the Baeksang Arts Awards, one of Korea’s most prominent entertainment awards. In 2023, the ceremony began considering YouTube content for its entertainment program prize for the first time, citing changing viewing habits. That inaugural year, the “Psick Show” (2019–), produced by Psick University, beat programs from television and streaming services to take the award.

In 2025, Baeksang renamed its entire TV section as the “broadcast” section. Organizers said the change reflected how its judging pool had expanded over the years from terrestrial television to cable, streaming services and, beginning with the 2023 awards, web content. That same year, the YouTube variety show “Punghyanggo" (2024) — starring industry veterans Yoo Jae-suk and Ji Seok-jin — won Best Entertainment Program.

While comedy has increasingly found a home outside television, comedians and industry figures have stressed that broadcast programs still play an important role as a training ground for new talent. SBS, MBC and KBS once routinely recruited comedians through open auditions, but by 2025 KBS was the only terrestrial broadcaster still maintaining the system.

After KBS suspended “Gag Concert” in 2020, terrestrial public sketch comedy largely disappeared. KBS made a short-lived attempt to revive the format with “Gag Winner” in 2021, while tvN’s “Comedy Big League” (2011–), the last regular show of its kind, went on indefinite hiatus in 2023.

When “Gag Concert” returned in November 2023, producer Lee Jae-hyun said one reason for bringing it back was precisely to provide a "soil for Korean comedy," for young comedians who had lost a place to develop.

“When [‘Gag Concert’] shut down, it was really disheartening. Comedians had nowhere to go,” he said, adding that the revived show deliberately put rookies front and center.

This was echoed by comedian Kim Jun-ho, a veteran comedian whose career spans nearly three decades since his debut as an SBS recruit and serves as the BICF's organizing committee's chair.

There used to be more programs that allowed for training for younger talent, but now all that remains is "Gag Concert," Kim Jun-ho told reporters following the Friday ceremony. He added that the BICF committee could potentially work with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on a comedy competition open to different age groups to discover new talent.

The BICF is sponsored by the Busan government, the Culture Ministry and official broadcaster Korea New Network.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]