It‘s a long way back in time. The government is stepping in to put the brakes on excessive ‘drinking rooms’, and in the midst of an atmosphere of discouraging drinking culture, we have ‘The Legendary Drunkards’. Is this really a terrestrial broadcasting station? SBS’s ‘Shoes Off, Single For Men’ has evoked viewers‘ aversion to harmful content that makes people frown just by watching it, such as bragging about their drinking capacity and stories of vomiting.

The SBS ‘Shoes Off, Single For Men’ (hereafter ‘Sing For Men’) that aired on the 5th was decorated with a special on ‘The Legendary Drunkards’ who are drunk every day, every moment, and Ji Sang-ryeol, Han Da-gam, and Jo Hyun-ah appeared.

The first question as soon as it started was ‘The Last Drink’. Ji Sang-ryeol made an alcoholic joke, saying, “My hands were shaking just a moment ago, why are you asking?” and Jo Hyun-ah joked, “I had a little drink yesterday because there was no water. My house is on the 13th floor, and it was too hard to get to the first floor, so I substituted with alcohol. I drank a bottle of wine.”


The smell of alcohol was strong even during the recent news talk that followed. ‘Single for Men’ put up the subtitle ‘The story of drinkers who love alcohol more than anyone else’ and even created the strange word ‘Sulji-kal (alcohol + physical)’. When the episode where he drank 77 bottles of soju over 2 nights and 3 days was mentioned, Ji Sang-ryeol said, “I can’t drink 77 bottles now, but when I was young, I weighed about 110 kg and I just went crazy. If I were to compare them to baseball players, I‘d be like Ohtani. I’d drink for 3 days and become a sloth, then open my eyes and start drinking again.”

Jo Hyun-ah recalled an anecdote where she drank for 2 nights and 3 days without sleeping for a minute in response to the comment, “I focus all my mind on alcohol and reach a point where I and the alcohol become one.” She said, “The Urban Zakapa members raised me to be strong. For example, if I had one pickled seafood dish, I‘d drink 21 bottles. ’If you feel sick, go throw up and start over.‘ That’s how I grew up.” Although it was an example of victims being forced to drink, the production team packaged it as ‘Spartan discipline’ in the subtitles. Cho Hyun-ah also said, “They said they were going to start today. They would rotate us to sleep one at a time and continue drinking for two nights and three days. We drank more than 50 bottles.”

Cho Hyun-ah even says she solves hangovers with mind control. She said, “I used to have bad hangovers, but one day I thought I couldn‘t go on like this, so I thought, ’From today on, I‘m a person who doesn’t have hangovers.‘” She made an absurd statement.

Looking at Ji Sang-yeol and Cho Hyun-ah, Handa Ham said, “Why are you living like this? I think I came out wrong today. I understand drinking, but do you really have to drink that much?” and drew the line by saying, “I drank too much in the past, so I don’t really like the feeling of a hangover.”

However, Handa Ham couldn‘t avoid talking about drinking. When Lee Sang-min mentioned an episode where he drank alcohol and vomited nine times while traveling with Song Hye-kyo, he said, “That’s an old story. I drank about 30 bottles of plum wine,” and “It was a morning flight, but I don‘t remember how I got on the plane. I vomited once in the van, once at the airport, and repeatedly on the plane. Even after arriving at the destination, I kept vomiting while walking around. I went to the bathroom whenever I saw one. I suffered a lot,” sharing a vivid anecdote.

In addition, there was a story about Ji Sang-ryeol drinking 1,000 glasses of soju at his mother’s funeral, and a story about him and Kim Jun-ho getting drunk and falling asleep together in a public phone booth. The love stories of the three guests were also ‘dolsing for men’ that were connected to alcohol such as whiskey, soju, and soju.

According to Article 28 of the ‘Broadcast Deliberation Regulations,’ broadcasts must be careful not to glorify or encourage drinking when dealing with such content. Article 45 also stipulates that one must be careful with one‘s expressions so that the wrong drinking culture is not perceived as a normal situation.

On this day, there was not an ounce of caution in ‘Dolsingpoman’’s ‘Legendary Drunkards’. They didn‘t even raise a glass of alcohol, but it was worse than the ‘drinking rooms’ that are overflowing on YouTube and smell like alcohol.

Jeong Hee-yeon, Donga.com reporter shine2562@donga.com