Running for over six years together now, the cast (and even crew) of one of Korea’s most popular variety shows, Running Man, have done it all. Because only on Running Man would you see KBS Drama Award winners trying to eat dried permissions hanging from their heads while on a ride called “Chaos.”
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Along with countless (and more importantly mouthwatering) features on Korean cuisine, both modern and traditional, that are either going to leave you attempting to recreate the same lettuce wraps Choi Min-soo made with two-thirds of the #JailRegularsTrio or looking up photos of jjajangmyun dishes with bread domes at 1 am.
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Out of the 311 episodes that the show has filmed so far, what we learned about life itself was that food (in one shape or another) can potentially A. break up relationships (which typically last for around half an hour each episode), B. bring members back together (for another fifteen minutes), and of course C. teach us more than what we’ll ever learn while in school.
1. Age won’t matter when a churro comes into the situation
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If there’s one churro left at Costco’s food court (that’s just how good they are), and you’re a person away from fulfilling your stomach’s lifelong dream — sacrifices must be made.
To help pass the time, the first four members to land in that week’s makeshift prison decided to “celebrate” the birthday of the eldest member of the bunch, Ji Suk-jin, by having him buy a churro for all of them to share.. and then agreeing on splitting it by taking turns that’d be determined by playing rounds of kai, bai bo…which left the birthday boy with the last turn to take a bite. With four men and only one piece of fried goodness, this was practically a recipe for disaster.
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2. We’d basically do anything for our crush…
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…especially if it means protecting their food from the chopsticks of another. And we mean that. Well, more like Gary did in this case. With us cheering him on from the sidelines.
With Gary (one half of the ‘Monday Couple’) in 3rd and Song Ji-hyo (originally a part of the Song-Song pairing) in 5th place, he made sure to look out for his girl by giving her ALL (yes, ALL) of his fish sausage jeon, because nothing says love more than food. But of course, there’s ALWAYS going to be another man that’s going to try to steal her heart (or egg-covered sausages in this case) away.
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3. No matter what you add to soy sauce, it’s still going to be perfectly acceptable to dip your sushi in it
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Even if it’s bubbly and advertised by a rather adorable polar bear.
While playing a more appetizing version of bingo, one of the show’s members called for some soy sauce to go with their sushi, which of course caused the rest of the players to demand for some as well.
And just as it was getting to Kwang-soo (who’s sometimes too naive for his own good), Yoo Jae-suk, better known as the nation’s MC, took advantage of this opportunity to play a little prank.
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4. Whenever our friends try to make us eat “healthy,” we NEED to throw some ramen into that mix
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We all have that one friend who’s determined to keep us away from Friday nights of takeout and watching reruns of Parks and Rec.
While the winning team had the opportunity to sit back and relax (and figure out who’d be checking on the cooking and waking up Song Ji-hyo, aka Miss Mong, by playing a barrel game), two of the members, Yoo Jae-suk (who lost) and Lee Kwang-soo (who was dragged along), went to a convenience store nearby to pick up a few packs of ramen for the losing team (because adding ramen noodles to anything can literally make it ten times better, especially if it’s budae jjigae).
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5. Korean BBQ will ALWAYS come before anything else
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Because Korean BBQ (and all meat in general) is something not to be taken lightly. Or taken away at all for that matter.
What originally started out as a fairly simple challenge, somehow managed to turn into a full out throw down between the cast and crew (basically the PD). The members were tasked with grilling meat and then piling the pieces on top of each other.
After (unsurprisingly) failing their first attempt, the PD came towards them with the obvious intent of taking away the plate (and more importantly, their meat). But before he could even say “Running Man,” the cast immediately began swarming over the meat with their chopsticks as if their lives (more like their stomachs) depended on it.
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Never change, Running Man. Stay golden (like Ponyboy).
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Stay golden.