Netizens Defend 4th Gen K-Pop Idol Against “Cringe” Video Backlash
GHOST9‘s Prince is garnering attention again for his viral videos.
GHOST9 is a 7-member boy group under Maroo Entertainment, consisting of Junhyung, Shin, Kangsung, Junseong, Prince, Woojin, and Jinwoo. Most members were initially introduced via Mix Nine and Produce X 101, while the group officially debuted on September 23, 2020, with their first mini-album, DOOR. You might also remember them from Peak Time.
Prince has gained a following after creating content and sharing it on his group’s social media accounts and his personal Instagram.
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He often goes viral for his series of videos of himself cooking food in his practice room “behind his manager’s back” while making jokes like his manager is too busy reading Webtoons to care. Many of his videos also contain roasting his company.
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Netizens sometimes forget Prince is an idol due to his “unhinged” online content. Yet, it’s also introduced many to GHOST9 since his videos often go viral with millions of views across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, reaching non-fans.
Prince has seemingly started a new series where he visits Korean convenience stores to eat “budget meals” with his company’s card. Both videos have garnered millions of views.
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Many of the comments on the videos were similar to Prince’s practice room cooking series. Some confessed that they follow GHOST9 for Prince and that his content “saves” the group since they are heavily underrated.
Despite the positivity on Instagram and TikTok, the video circulated on X (formerly Twitter), triggering criticism, as it garnered over 8M views at the time of writing there. Some netizens found Prince’s content “cringe,” criticizing him by claiming he was trying too hard to be relatable and funny.
Kpop idols trying to act relatable is the hardest watch ever omg https://t.co/QXYa4ZLqtS
— sunoojzg (@sunoocvnt) December 31, 2024
2018 was almost a decade ago https://t.co/VtIZv49Qiv pic.twitter.com/AFC5c2Bsaa
— Mrs. Gonercka (@binaural_test) December 31, 2024
nothing makes my mood drop faster than kpop idols trying to be funny https://t.co/Uw2twvXUQn
— lin (@tifasbf) January 2, 2025
Yet, more netizens jumped to Prince’s defense, commending Prince for his low-key “genius” marketing of GHOST9.
yall wonder why kpop isn't fun anymore and then go and drag this man for literally doing nothing but trying to promote his group with silly vlogs https://t.co/FxXGSuxTli
— maple is killing the romeo (@shenlinedion) January 1, 2025
idk how much of a unpopular opinion this is but this is actually genius and very low effort marketing (that is also hard to replicate by big companies) https://t.co/qXKqGgR3fh
— giant (@tothisemptiness) December 31, 2024
the quotes have been so weird like kpop fans can be such personality dictators. he grew up in Thailand so of course he isn’t going to just speak korean and play into your weird k-oppa fantasy you dumbass buffaloes https://t.co/fjJHcV3qs1
— yammi (@sighyam) January 1, 2025
Netizens believe xenophobia is the root of the criticism, as it’s become increasingly common for English-speaking idols to be criticized for their online content. Prince speaks Thai (his native language), English, Chinese, and Korean.
if he spoke korean yall would be calling it peak comedy lets be honest here https://t.co/qYhdvUPFOb
— smile.g hater (@orenjigeol) January 1, 2025
Kpop fans once again proving their hatred for English speaking idols,you hate when idols try to be relatable but a non English speaking idol quotes a super popular meme and y'all are like "OMG CHRONICALLY ONLINE KING" https://t.co/XUSbyzDoTH
— alter ego (@yunjeanpink) January 1, 2025
the thing is yall would be eating this up if it was in Korean https://t.co/rvX1aMsYkT
— ❀ anna (@piwluvon) January 1, 2025
P1Harmony‘s Keeho and soloist AleXa, who are both native English speakers, have both experienced similar backlash and spoken out about it during live broadcasts.
"i'd say like the most popular things and you guys would be like, oh he's so chronically online. baby i got a phone and wifi, i was born with the internet" okay keeho 😭🤣 #P1Harmony #피원하모니 #기호 pic.twitter.com/hZjHiB9QSF
— angela (@p1hits) December 10, 2024
i come back to this video every time yall say chan is cringe or corny like alexa is right on the money with why yall treat english speaking idols this way pic.twitter.com/QBiFMATmSp
— eric foreman (@skzyeol) July 31, 2024
Read more about Prince’s viral videos below.
