Running Man: Episode 280

by gummimochi

It’s a new year and a netizen-centric episode, where the reins of our cast’s every move depends on the comments they leave. No decision will be left unasked, and no action will take place without their say, and some of our castmates will try their hand at social media for the very first time. There’s so much at stake with Running Balls and an oh-so-embarrassing punishment on the line, and it’s all in the hands of someone else. Will the power of the internet help their cause or hurt them in the end?

EPISODE 280. Broadcast on January 3, 2016.

Happy New Year! In this upcoming year, our cast hopes for health and happiness for everyone, though when Jong-kook also wishes the same, everyone asks the gym rat: “Healthier than you are now?!”

Jae-suk cuts off the new year wishes right before Suk-jin can speak, and I should mention that several cast members won awards in the 2015 SBS Entertainment Awards: Jae-suk split the Daesang with Kim Byung Man (and won the Viewer’s Choice Popularity Award), Suk-jin won a Show and Talk Show Excellence Award, and the Monday Couple picked up a Show and Talk Show Top Excellence Award. Running Man also scored the Viewer’s Choice Best Variety Show.

The first game’s setup looks very familiar: Food Bingo. However, there’s a twist to this week’s theme—entitled Comment Avatar Race. The production crew has opened up individual Instagram accounts for the cast, through which they will communicate with viewers in real-time and act as their avatars and obey their commands.

Ah, so this explains the Instagram account associated with Jae-suk, who has no personal social media account.

Today’s game also brings back the old-school RM concepts of Running Balls (split between lucky and unlucky) and cruel punishment.

Telling the SNS newbies to the experts is pretty easy: Gary walks Ji-hyo through her first post whereas Kwang-soo snaps a selca. Putting up one post has Jae-suk grumble that he’s not cut out for social media, and Jong-kook snaps a photo of… his table. LOL.

Next thing we know, we see Haha usher a cart into the buffet with just three minutes at his disposal. While he’s busy picking out 25 items, Gary gapes that SNS first-timer Ji-hyo already has 700 comments.

All that food looks scrumptious, and while some of them choose from their personal taste preferences, SpartAce go in with a strategy: choose what most people would eat. And then there’s Suk-jin, who opts to go with the most unlikeliest of choices.

Back at their respective tables, our cast is told to upload their “board” and eat whatever the first comment tells them to. First place to get two rows of bingo, wins the game. Haha goes first, and he, Ji-hyo, and Kwang-soo get to eat a raw oyster.

Kwang-soo’s fried pancake choice is a popular choice too. Jae-suk can’t help but grab an opportunity to mess with Suk-jin while he’s taking a photo. After Jae-suk’s turn, Jong-kook is the only one not to get anything yet, thanks to his healthy food board.

Haha and Suk-jin gripe at Ji-hyo’s choice of “pineapple”, all, Why would you get THAT in a buffet?

After the first pass-through, the cast gets to pick their choices. Everyone but Jong-kook has Haha’s choice of pizza, and while checking if everyone has the same food as his, Jae-suk falls over all the trays. Whoops.

As expected, no one has Jong-kook’s choice of tofu except for Jae-suk. Gary completes his first row with spaghetti, and then it’s time for another SNS pass-through. Kwang-soo is flabbergasted when the netizen tells him to eat a choice that doesn’t help him at all.

Gary worries that the fans might not choose the one number he needs, to which Suk-jin says that some of their fans love to troll them. Jae-suk sends a finger heart to the netizen who helped him with his first row of bingo.

Both of Jong-kook and Ji-hyo commenters’ choices don’t help them at all, and miraculously Gary gets the last dish he needs—kimchi. The game keeps going with Ji-hyo and Jae-suk grabbing second and third places, respectively.

Kwang-soo can’t understand why the netizens won’t choose the tuna sushi that would let him win, and then Haha and Suk-jin are tied in fourth place. Kwang-soo beats Jong-kook when the fans finally choose the number he needs, and everyone collects their Running Balls (Gary & Ji-hyo: 3; Suk-jin & Haha: 2; Kwang-soo:1).

The netizens have all the power today, even when it comes to choose what color car they should get into: red or blue. All the guys get red, but since only four of them can get in, they upload yet another photo to see who should get kicked out.

Gary and Jong-kook get kicked out (though I’m inclined to think those double exclamation points are just out of excitement). The teams are told to upload another selca at their following location, asking viewers to respond what passersby they should recruit for their next game.

Jong-kook’s team are on the lookout for those 12 years younger than him (born in 1988), has an athletic build, and wearing something blue. Jae-suk’s team has to find someone with long hair wearing a black coast, and another woman with short hair and at least 170 cm tall.

In this game, all six people must clearly state the written tongue twisters within one minute; any flub and they have to start over. Things look good for Jong-kook’s line until Ji-hyo flubs a word.

Jae-suk’s team has a far more difficult tongue twister to take on, and when the girl messes up on “black sesame seed” the team argues that it’s her Daegu satoori. Kwang-soo silently causes a distraction by stepping in Gary’s line of sight, then tickles the crew member holding up the sign.

In spite of all distractions, Jong-kook’s team succeeds first. When it’s Jae-suk’s turn, the Daegu young lady takes a beat to change the accent, and the others speed through the statement with apparent ease. It all comes down to which team was faster…

… and it’s Jong-kook’s team with 46.86 seconds (acquiring three Running Balls) vs. Jae-suk’s team of 50.25 seconds (who get one Running Man Ball).

Our third game (in a place called Audrey Hepburn Cafe) is a Comment speed quiz. Haha gripes, “All of my followers love to joke around!” Gary: “All of mine know nothing, like me.” They’ll be silently acting out proverbs, uploading the videos, and the first to get the correct answer, wins.

It’s barely been a day but Jae-suk claims that he feels much more comfortable with social media now. They take a cute group selca, and the fans choose Race Starter Suk-jin to go first. When their photos get taken away, Jae-suk shows that he’ll show signs of withdrawal, but then admits that he wouldn’t be any good since he doesn’t really like taking photos.

And then the production crew shows off all the selcas he’s been snapping all day. HA.

Given their respective order, the cast pre-records their videos. Gary gets upset when Haha spits out “squid” again, and the others are sure that while only one proverb includes “cat”, Jae-suk will probably get the AOA song “Like a Cat.”

Ji-hyo gets the most difficult of them all, and for Jong-kook’s proverb “Clothes are one’s wings” (or perhaps better known as “Clothes make the man”), he opens his jacket and flaps around. Haha calls out: “Burberry Man!” … which is what you call a flasher in a trench coat. LOL.

Everyone keeps deliberately calling out wrong answers, but it does seem like Jong-kook’s might be easiest. Gary gets third place and two Running Balls, Haha gets fourth place with two Running Balls, and Kwang-soo gets fifth place and one Running Man Ball.

Jae-suk gets sixth place and one Running Man Ball, then it’s time to announce first and second place. There was only a one reply difference between these, and it’s Suk-jin who scores first place and three Running Balls, and Jong-kook gets two Running Balls.

It was Comment No. 167 that finally guessed Ji-hyo’s proverb correctly, and then it’s off to the SBS building for their final mission: Target Nametag Ripping. They’ll ask their followers “Whose nametag should I rip off first?” and then acquire their first target. Jong-kook sighs, “That’ll be me.”

The last one standing will win 10 Running Balls, second will win six, and so on. Additionally, five Running Balls will buy them one extra nametag. Gary’s goal is to get fourth place so that he’ll have 10 Running Balls in the end whereas Haha hopes he doesn’t come in dead last.

Kwang-soo apologizes to the viewers, pleading that he’ll do better this year. Suk-jin thinks that the viewers will choose him first as the race starter, and everyone asks the same question to their followers. Now there’s going to be a lot of names since every cast member has their own targets, but we’ll try to follow along as best we can.

Jae-suk and Kwang-soo need to capture Haha, while Haha and Suk-jin are after Gary. Ji-hyo and Jong-kook’s target is Kwang-soo, and Gary needs to capture Suk-jin.

Kwang-soo nervously tells his VJ to turn the camera light off when he spots Jong-kook in the stairwell. Thankfully Jong-kook decides to go a different route. The mat hyungs both mention that Ji-hyo’s name didn’t appear at all in their list of choices, but are wary to turn their backs to one another.

It’s that moment they see Ji-hyo and Gary, who lies that he also has Kwang-soo. As for Kwang-soo, he truthfully tells Jong-kook that Haha is his actual target this round. While Jong-kook checks his phone, Kwang-soo asks if he isn’t after him.

And Jong-kook lies that he’s after Jae-suk. Kwang-soo believes him because Jong-kook’s spending so much time with him right now, and I’m thinking that he of all people should know that the first rule to deception is to gain the other person’s trust.

Kwang-soo even invites him to grab his nametag, and Jong-kook agrees without hesitation. What’s Kwang-soo’s response to that betrayal? A slap across the cheek.

Meanwhile, Jae-suk eyes Haha’s nametag while they’re in the same room with the others. It takes all of a second to fulfill the deed, and then his next target is Suk-jin. He’s extra thankful that whoever that person was, they responded before the next commenter’s suggestion: Jong-kook.

Everyone’s on high alert now, and Suk-jin takes advantage of an opportunity when Gary’s back is turned. Unfortunately he fails in the attempt, and Gary whips around and realizes that both hyungs are after him.

Eventually Suk-jin does get it, then Kwang-soo appears like the Grim Reaper who’s here to take Gary away. Since Gary was also Jong-kook’s target, he needs to ask his followers for a new target. He and Suk-jin both get Ji-hyo.

Speaking of whom, Ji-hyo’s caught between Jae-suk and Suk-jin. She swears she has Jong-kook, which has Jae-suk ask her if it’s better that he eliminates Suk-jin and helps her get at least third place. Realizing that Jae-suk is eyeing him, Suk-jin lunges towards Ji-hyo.

Both Suk-jin and Jae-suk grab a nametag simultaneously, and it’s Suk-jin’s that gets ripped off first. Jong-kook watches all this play out from afar, and now Jae-suk must go after Jong-kook.

Now it’s time to strategize, and Jae-suk proposes a plan to Ji-hyo: She should eliminate Jong-kook. However if he’s truly her target (it doesn’t matter to him), please send him off without a painful elimination.

As Suk-jin walks off, he tells the camera that it’s a good thing he bought that extra nametag. He’s the only one that did, apparently, and now he’s back in the game. But as soon as he gets that brand-new nametag, Ji-hyo and Jae-suk see him from the bottom of the stairs. Ha, so much for the element of surprise.

Jae-suk tells Suk-jin that it’s to their advantage to eliminate Jong-kook, and Ji-hyo realizes that they can probably spot him on the surveillance cameras. They hurry over to the third floor to surprise him, but then Jong-kook hops over to Ji-hyo.

The mat hyungs do their best to protect Ji-hyo, who reaches for Jong-kook’s back, but then Jong-kook grabs her nametag with a free hand. Too bad it’s his nametag that rips off first, and Jae-suk’s next target is Ji-hyo.

It’s only the three of them now, and Ji-hyo admits she feels bad that she has to eliminate Suk-jin when he helped her out not too long ago. She can immediately tell that Jae-suk is after her, and he breathes out, “I’m sorry…”

Jae-suk takes the opportune moment when Suk-jin appears moments later. It’s a final battle between the mat hyungs, who spin each other around and grab each other’s nametags simultaneously.

It’s Suk-jin’s that rips off first, making Jae-suk the big winner with 10 Running Balls. Let’s check in with the final count: Jae-suk (18); Gary, Jong-kook, and Ji-hyo (11); Suk-jin (9); Haha (6); and Kwang-soo (5).

Our cast takes a look at the punishment table, whose outfits range from farming ajumma to an outfit sewn with monkey plushies. And here it is: the unlucky person must wear one of these outfits and walk to the nearest the subway station from their house tomorrow morning, where their manager will pick them up.

And so the lottery system begins. Jae-suk’s name is the first to pop up, to his relief. It’s followed by Haha’s name, then Ji-hyo’s, then Suk-jin’s. Jae-suk stops to ask for a good reason why the remaining three shouldn’t wear one of these ridiculous outfits.

Kwang-soo doesn’t have an answer, and Jong-kook says the viewers will find him detestable in it rather than funny. Gary states that it’ll be funnier if Kwang-soo or Jong-kook is forced to wear these outfits… and that’s why he’s saved from punishment.

So it’s either Jong-kook or Kwang-soo… and Jong-kook’s name pops up. Which means Kwang-soo’s gonna be wearing one of the outfits. Asking on SNS gives them the obvious choice of the monkey outfit. At least it’s the year of the Monkey?

In the official closing, Jae-suk makes it clear that he and Ji-hyo’s SNS involvements were a one-day only deal—they won’t be opening any social media accounts in the future. They take a few more adorable selcas, and then it’s time for Kwang-soo’s punishment to play out.

Aww, who looks adorable in his monkey outfit? It’s also rush hour, and Kwang-soo sweetly tears off the monkeys from his outfit to share with passersby. One ajumma even offers up her scarf to keep his neck warm, and soon enough all of those monkeys are taken from him. We love you too, Kwang-soo.

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