Broadcasting station KBS has come under fire from netizens after using “inappropriate” wordplay on their YouTube channel.
KBS recently introduced their new baseball series K-Yadong, Not SM.
KBS’s title is intended to mean “KBS’s YAgu (baseball) DONGyoungsang (videos), Not SBS’s or MBC’s.”
But netizens instantly called out the title, as Yadong is well-known slang for porn. Thus, despite KBS’s intentions, K-Yadong, Not SM, evokes a very specific connotation entirely unrelated to baseball.
A netizen on theqoo even pointed out that if you try and search the series on Naver, you are prompted to verify your age, and the search is filtered.
Some netizens pointed out that the slang shows KBS is “clueless” since the wordplay is outdated and “cringy.”
- “As a national broadcasting company, though…?”
- “(Barfs)”
- “[KBS] could not be any more clueless. The whole ya-dong joke is centuries old, and people don’t laugh at that kind of thing anymore. Yet here they are…”
- “The producer needs to be penalized by the Korea Communications Commission. Otherwise, they’re not going to learn. Where’s the class and quality we deserve from a national broadcasting company?”
- “Okay, but the yadong wordplay is literally from decades ago… You can tell whoever came up with this is old and cringe AF.”
- “I feel bad for the baseball player Ryu Ji Hyun who’s apparently hosting this series…”
And netizens are also simply shocked at a professional broadcasting company using such an inappropriate title, calling out KBS and demanding an apology.
- “It grosses me out to think that people who came up with the name probably thought they were being so smart.”
- “I think it’s a huge problem how everyone uses sex-related terms all over TV programs and on the daily. Like, do you all even know what you’re actually saying?”
- “Isn’t KBS a national broadcasting company? What are they doing?”
- “WTF? Is this supposed to be humorous somehow? Whoever OK-ed this needs to take responsibility. KBS needs to apologize.”
- “This is SO disappointing.”
- “KBS must have ilbe-users working for them.”
- “There used to be a time when broadcasting companies at least pretended to be appropriate. These days, they’re the first ones to cross all the lines. This is not how media should be.”
- “So this is what it must be like to be an underqualified broadcasting company… I bet the people who came up with the idea thought they were brilliant. Please stop.”
- “WTF… This is so disappointing. From a national broadcasting company?!”
- “F*ck… They’re a national broadcasting company. They should not be acting like some gossipy YouTuber.”
