“Taemin Was Exploited”: SHINee’s “Yunhanam” Resurfaces, Sparking Debate
A clip of SHINee‘s YunHaNam has resurfaced, sparking fiercely divided reactions in the fandom.
SHINee’s YunHaNam is a 2008 variety show created and broadcast by Mnet, starring SHINee and narrated by Brown Eyed Girls‘ Gain. It consisted of twelve episodes. Yet, one particular concept in the show upset many Shawols.
Recently, SHINee released Episode 5, “Our Memories,” in which the members revisited old content. Key suggested rewatching some of SHINee’s YunHaNam.
Key: “It can be said to be the origin of fake reality show.”
Taemin: “One of my legendary scenes is… It’s so funny now. There was a scene where I’m on a swing. There’s just a swing there, and I go on it asking for the girl (on a date) to push me. So she’s actually pushing me on a swing.”
As some Shawols rewatched the old clip, they were shocked by the content, as it featured a very young Taemin on a date with a woman. At the time, he said he was in 8th grade and was 14 years old. So, many found it disturbing that not only was SM Entertainment exploiting a minor but also forcing him to go on a date with an adult while he was underage.
every single person that was involved in creating this show is going to hell, seeing 14 yr old Taemin being sent on "dates" with 30 yr old women will forever disturb me so much pic.twitter.com/tvapcbsdba
— isSHINeeback? (@isSHINeeback) May 27, 2024
At the time of writing, this clip had garnered 236K views on X (formerly Twitter). Many netizens expressed their disgust over the concept.
Yet, some defended the show, pointing out that SHINee confirmed that the entire series was scripted. After watching the particularly cringe scene in which Taemin unexpectedly danced, Onew asked, “Wasn’t that also all part of the script?” Key responded, “It was all in the script.” Later, while they watched Key’s date, Onew asked the same question, to which Key again confirmed it was all scripted. Before they even began watching, Key stated, “It can be said to be the origin of the fake reality show.”
the whole show is set up for most of the “dates” to go humorously wrong. the noonas are actresses or comedians. park jisun plays the obsessed fangirl who literally robs shinee. not even mnet’s live-voting is real, so why would this be?
key even reminds you of this. pic.twitter.com/6vXgCsqDco— arctic minkey 💎🩵✨ (@arcticminkey) May 28, 2024
knowingly or not, you’re just interpreting everything to support a theoretical. while the rest can die of cringe at their younger selves, taemin has to freeze up bc of the trauma.
what’s next? it was child neglect to give teenagers a baby to raise?
— arctic minkey 💎🩵✨ (@arcticminkey) May 28, 2024
Yet, this debate isn’t entirely new. The fandom has long felt conflicted about the program due to how young SHINee was then. A few years ago, Shawols discussed the show via Reddit, and one commented, “The first girl even said she felt like she was committing a crime when she heard how old Taemin was.”
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What did you think about SHINee’s “fake reality show?”
