Squid Game rooftop tug-of-war, Culinary Class Wars black blindfolds
Chilling synchronicity
The ‘Infinite Challenge universe’
Authenticity that cuts across the times, a mirror of Sports Kyunghyang at its 21st anniversary
Not only COVID distancing but even scary ‘gae’… ‘eom’ strictly…
Pinpoint prophecies up to emergency martial law
There is a peer program that has walked the same 21 years alongside Sports Kyunghyang, which marks its 21st anniversary. It is MBC ‘Infinite Challenge’, which took its first step in 2005 with ‘Reckless Challenge’ and changed the landscape of Korean variety.
Although the broadcast put a period in 2018 and is taking a break, the vitality of ‘Infinite Challenge’ remains very much ongoing.
The public still picks ‘Mu-do’ as a companion for solo meals, and online communities unfailingly exclaim, “an ‘Infinite Challenge’ that lacks nothing (eopseopmu).” Even if the airing has stopped, ‘Infinite Challenge’ is persistently summoned through memories and memes, continuing to challenge without end; and Sports Kyunghyang, which has run without rest over the past 21 years to deliver fast news to readers. Through the parallel theory of these two that started in the same year, we look back on the living, breathing power of ‘Infinite Challenge’ that stays ahead of its time.
MBC ‘Infinite Challenge’ (top) and Netflix ‘Squid Game’.
■ From ‘Squid Game’ to ‘Culinary Class Wars’… a pinpoint oracle of pop culture
The ‘Infinite Challenge’ of the past is called a pinpoint oracle of pop culture for its uncanny staging that seemed to foresee today’s mega hits. When Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ swept the world in 2021, ‘Infinite Challenge’ from ten years earlier flashed through the public’s mind. From slap matches with folded paper and throwing stones, to the way the squid game the members played in the 2011 ‘Myung-soo Is 12 Years Old’ episode grew rougher, it felt like a miniature of the death game in ‘Squid Game’. And ‘Global Rooftop Tug-of-War’ in the 2014 ‘IF’ episodecomplete with a setup of falling from the top of an 80-story buildingeerily overlapped with the drama’s iconic scene.
The recent Netflix phenomenon ‘Culinary Class Wars’ also existed within the ‘Infinite Challenge’ universe. In the 2009 ‘Le Grand Chef’ episode, Jung Hyung-don, panicking because the boiled pork was not cooking in time, made a rash move and fried the pork in a pan. This perfectly matched a later team mission on ‘Culinary Class Wars’, where the White Spoon team, finding that a whole 100 servings of meat were not cooking, went as far as deep-frying them, charring them like coal. Also, in the ‘Tell Me Your Wish’ special that aired the same year, the comical sight of Gil and Jung Hyung-don moving around in black blindfolds evolved into the blind tasting highlight featuring ‘Culinary Class Wars’ judges Baek Jong-won and Ahn Sung-jae.
MBC ‘Infinite Challenge’ (top) and Netflix ‘Culinary Class Wars Season 1’.
■ From the COVID-19 era to emergency martial law… an age captured in “eopseopmu”
The prophecies of ‘Infinite Challenge’ have been summoned not only in entertainment and culture, but at every point of social and political upheaval. During the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the globe in 2020, the public focused on the impromptu lyric Park Myung-su sang in the ‘Pro Wrestling’ episode in 2010: “Our lives have far, far too many viruses.” Beyond that, the strange scenes of the pandemic erasocial distancing, handwashing campaigns, mask wearing, QR code digital entry logs, and bans on gatherings after 9 p.m.were already scattered throughout past ‘Infinite Challenge’ footage, eliciting amazement that it had “foreseen the COVID-19 times.”
The YouTube channel ‘Obunsunsak’ compiled the relevant clips into a video titled “A compilation of ‘Mu-do’ clips with not a single wrong line, as if it had predicted these times.zip,” which drew 660,000 views and resonated strongly with viewers.
Big issues in politics did not pass it by either. When candidate No. 2 Yoon Suk-yeol and candidate No. 4 Ahn Cheol-soo reached a dramatic unity during the 2022 20th presidential election, captions from the 2014 ‘Choice 2014’ special resurfaced, where Haha (No. 2), then polling low, joined hands with Jung Jun-ha (No. 4) as they shouted, “I am No. 4,” “No. 2.”
Most recently, right after the declaration of emergency martial law on December 3, 2024, ‘Infinite Challenge’ surfaced again. In the 2016 ‘Spring Will Come - Ratings Task Force Special’, extreme ideas poured out such as “Let us play ‘Infinite Challenge’ in every theater nationwide.” Yoo Jae-suk stuck out his tongue, saying it was “almost like martial law for variety shows,” and when Kwanghee was asked what ‘martial law’ means, he absurdly answered, “It is the ‘gae’ of scary and the ‘eom’ of strictly. It means very strict.” This piercing episode left a bitter taste for the public amid political turmoil. Netizens reacted with surprise, saying, “As expected, ‘Mu-do’ lacks nothing,” and “How is even the special titled ‘Spring Will Come’?”
■ Records make tomorrow… the ‘infinite challenge’ path Sports Kyunghyang walks
The secret behind how ‘Infinite Challenge’ became an oracle spanning the times was not coincidence or magic. Over 13 long years, the team threw themselves without rest into new ideas and recorded the public’s joys and sorrows with timely satire and laughteran authenticity that made it possible.
Because every facet of our lives is contained within the vast trajectory they left, new meaning is discovered there endlessly, even as the times change.
The path of Sports Kyunghyang, which started from the same line and now marks its 21st anniversary, is no different. Like ‘Infinite Challenge’, which keeps challenging infinitely in memories though the broadcast rests, Sports Kyunghyang breathes with its readers at every turning point of K-content’s globalization and a changing media environment, delivering news without end. Recording today with intensity is the solid power that opens tomorrow. That is the valuable parallelism Sports Kyunghyang, on its 21st anniversary, has confirmed in the tireless vitality of ‘Infinite Challenge’.
