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[WHY] How Korea’s political comedy show became an image laundering machine

Published: 02 May. 2026, 07:00 Updated: 02 May. 2026, 14:21

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

A poster for Season 8 of Coupang Play's Saturday Night Live Korea [COUPANG PLAY]

When Korea's version of Saturday Night Live began booking sitting politicians — including frontrunners for the presidency — as guests, it was an instant attention-grabber.

From October 2021, heavyweights such as People Power Party's (PPP) Hong Joon-pyo — Daegu's former mayor; ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol; now-president Lee Jae-myung and others filed onto a dedicated segment and played along with a young comedian named Joo Hyun-young.

The premise was simple: A politician had to face an intern reporter asking exactly the kind of questions that no traditional press outlet would dare put to them. It was cringe-comedy by design, and a politician's ability to improvise under pressure — or visibly fail to — was the whole point.

Politicians were humanized. The show was celebrated for putting rumor on the spot and, if nothing else, for poking at it. Those who endured several minutes of orchestrated embarrassment walked away looking more accessible, even likable, and their clips went viral to prove it.

What started as one segment among many has since become one of the show's main draws, with politician appearances attracting as much attention as celebrity guests.

Five years on, the segment commands nowhere near the same attention. More pointedly, it is now being criticized as little more than a publicity stop — a place where politicians come to rehabilitate themselves, smooth over unresolved controversies, and exit with a softer public image than the facts might warrant.

So how did that happen, and where does SNL Korea stand now?

Public fatigue over PR stops
SNL Korea remains the only major production working in this space, and its DNA traces directly back to the original U.S. format: political satire on one hand, humor that pushes toward the adult and risque on the other, with both strands woven together to bring a certain B-grade sensibility into the mainstream. But the Korean version's adaptation of the show's political "self-parody" sketches pioneered by the U.S. version brings its own twist.

The formats have shifted over time to keep the premise fresh. What started as an awkward exchange between an intern reporter and a senior politician became a convenience store job interview, with powerful figures cast as nervous applicants and younger comedians playing their superiors. In season eight of its more recent reboot, the show borrows from the reality dating program I Am Solo (2021-), with figures presenting themselves to a panel of producers as if auditioning for the show.

People Power Party lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, right, starring at Korean comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live Korea [COUPANG PLAY]

Repeat appearances have become the norm. Na Kyung-won of People Power Party (PPP) has appeared three times; now-Reform Party lawmaker Lee Jun-seok also three; PPP's Han Dong-hoon twice and Ahn Cheol-soo twice.

Current Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has made an appearance, as has Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk.

The question audiences are now asking is whether this is still satire at all, or whether satire has simply become a respectable cover for image rehabilitation.

Culture critic Kim Heon-sik traces the show's retreat from political comedy to a shift in how Korean politics itself operates.

"Korean politics has become increasingly fandom-driven, with intense loyalty attached not just to parties but to individual politicians," Kim said. When SNL Korea targets one of those figures, the response from their fanbase tends to be organized and loud. For a production company, that kind of pressure is hard to ignore."

The nature of the risk, he argues, has fundamentally changed.

"In the past, what made political satire dangerous was the threat from those in power. Now the pressure comes from the fans." The result, he suggests, is a show that no longer feels free to genuinely criticize politicians.

Choo Kyung-ho, People Power Party lawmaker and a candidate for Daegu mayor, recently starred as a guest at Saturday Night Live Korea [COUPANG PLAY]

The most recent flashpoint came with PPP's Choo Kyung-ho appearing ahead of the June 3 local elections. Choo, a three-term lawmaker recently designated as a candidate for Daegu mayor, divided online opinion sharply. Some viewers were receptive, but others called him out as a criminal and condemned the show for platforming a figure still under active investigation.

The charge against Choo is serious. He is accused of helping delay the vote to lift martial law on the night of December 3, 2024, when, as the party's floor leader, he reportedly obstructed lawmakers from entering the National Assembly to cast their votes against Yoon Suk-yeol's martial law decree. He is currently standing trial.

The history of political satire in Korea
SNL Korea was remarkable in part because, historically, Korean political satire had never before required its targets to actually be present.

In the early 2000s, programs like the long-running Gag Concert (1999–) humanized political figures by turning their physical quirks and mannerisms into mainstream memes.

That trajectory was sharply interrupted in the mid-2010s, when political satire entered an era of blacklisting under conservative administrations. The clearest casualty was SNL Korea itself, then airing on cable channel tvN. Its segment "Yeouido Teletubbies" adapted the format of the British children's show to lampoon presidential candidates ahead of the 2012 election, drawing warnings from the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) after Park Geun-hye's election, with the commission threatening the station's broadcast license. The segment was abruptly canceled and lead producers were replaced.

The critical shift came in 2021, when SNL Korea relaunched under the streaming platform Coupang Play. Terrestrial and cable broadcasters in Korea are bound by the Broadcasting Act, with content subject to KCSC review. The body can impose fines or compel public apologies for content deemed "biased" or "indecent."

Streaming platforms, by contrast, fall under the Korea Media Rating Board, which concerns itself with age classification rather than political or moral standards. That regulatory gap gave producers the breathing room that broadcast television had never allowed.

Using comedy to cancel out cancel culture
Politicians aren't the only ones who have figured out the formula.

SNL Korea has also become a go-to platform for celebrities looking to stage a comeback after a hiatus by reframing their past controversies as comedy material.

A poster featuring actor Bae Seong-woo as a guest for Saturday Night Live Korea [COUPANG PLAY]

Actor Bae Seong-woo, who appeared in May 2025, had been largely absent from major projects since 2020, when a drunk-driving arrest cost him his license. His appearance was less about parody than apology: measured and direct.

Actor Seo Yea-ji featured as a guest at Saturday Night Live Korea [COUPANG PLAY]

A month earlier, actor Seo Yea-ji returned after four years out of the spotlight, following allegations that she had manipulated then-boyfriend and fellow actor Kim Jung-hyun in 2021. She addressed it head-on, using the word "gaslight" that had come to define the scandal, and reenacted the leaked text messages that had set it off, turning what had ended her run of work into a bit.

Some critics argue that Korean cancel culture tends to be excessive, as the public treats personal misconduct with a severity that does not always fit the offense.

But the approach has its limits, pop culture critic Jung Duk-hyun notes. If the controversy is serious enough, self-deprecating humor may not be enough to move the needle.

"Comedy cannot launder what an audience isn't ready to laugh at," he said. "There's a cultural openness to trying, but whether it actually lands depends entirely on the person and what they did. That calculus is different every time."

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]