Perhaps that apology PSY game last month was more sincere than some thought. Or so the Chosun Ilbo would suggest.
Participating in a New Year’s event at Korea’s UN delegation, PSY reflected on the kerfuffle (see here). When work of his anti-American rap lyrics first broke, he thought about packing his bags. Imagining what would happen if it were belatedly learned that a foreign singer had made sung an anti-Korean song, he thought Americans would never forgive him.
He was surprised by the American response. At first, he took a lot of abuse, but after a few days, comments of support began to appear. He was most surprised by how the White House handled a petition calling for PSY to be dis-invited to a year-end event with President Obama… by deleting the petition and inviting him anyway. He’d expected his invitation to be cancelled. He asked, “If this were Korea, what would have happened?”
And finally, for all those folk who think Gangnam Style is satire—and you know who you are—PSY said it wasn’t. He just did the song to make people laugh in a bad economy.
PS: Anderson Cooper’s weirdest New Year’s moment was, oddly enough, not Kathy Griffin trying to play with his sack, but PSY and MC Hammer. Kathy Griffin apparently had some off-color comments for PSY, too.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Imagine if that happened to a foreign SuperstarK contestant in the middle of the contest. Remember Jaybum Park and all the furor over his “Korea sucks” remark complaining about all the BS celebrity wannabes have to go through here?
Physical castration.
So the WH simply deleted a petition by a citizen? Looks like Odumba really respects the right of citizens to petition their government.
The Herald must have had its best translator working on this one.
Heck . . . even Google Translate does a better job:
Herald: 지금 당신의 엉덩이에선 돈이 쏟아져 나와요
Google Translate: Now brings out pouring money in your hip
I think the petition was outside the scope of the “We The People” petition criteria. I remember reading that somewhere, but I’m not interested enough to find the source.
(I suppose that I’m interested enough to post my two cents, just not interested enough to research it. Today, I think I have become a full-fledged Holer**)
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**BC, I’m not going to tee it up for you like this again. Take your shot, man.
I always accept what an artist says about his/her own work. It’s not like the song is “Stairway to Heaven”.
Love that there are criteria. So not only is the governnment a huge, bloated bureaucacy teeming with scurrying bureaicRATS, but to even petition the government We, the People, must also turn into little bureaucrats faithful to the red tape. C’mon, stop defelding them, they simply erased a petition because they coldnt give a flying fuck what the people think.
Liz had such a deep analysis of it being some kind of alegory for “post-urban angst”….
Besides, if they erase a petition like this so lightly, what will they do when the people petition them to, I don’t know, close down the prison camps?
Ritual removal of the nut sack? A good tar and feathering? Forced removal of visa with no anaesthetic?
White House petitions are, at best, just another tool to spread awareness. Citizens who want to affect real change can (and should pursue) other avenues that won’t get ignored by their representatives. The White House should rightfully ignore petitions circulated wily-nily among couch potatoes who think putting their name down on a list equals significant action. Democracy requires better citizens than that.
Democracy is a sham and a scam, it is little more than some kind of legitmized plunder of the few by the many.
Luckily Gangnam is exactly like Manhattan or Beverly Hills.
Kathy (“take that bag of dicks out of your mouth”) Griffin is one shameless pig.
The irony of Gangnam Style is not lost on anyone with eyes and ears, that spends enough time in the area and familiarizes themselves with its nuances.
It took us 2000 years to discover what the romans realized.
I was hoping for a Gangnam Style-free 2013, but PSY’s right about Korea vs USA here, to the extent such comparisons are meaningful. 2002 was Korea’s Year of Living Jingoistically, and in my experience nobody in the ROK covered themselves with glory or dignity.
One of the Korean reader commentators in that article asks this question from Psy.
그렇다면 이 시점에서’싸이’에게 묻고 싶다. 아직도 ‘미순이 효순이’ 사건을 미군이 고의로 그 아이들을 깔아 죽였다고
생각하는지…??? 미국과 미국민이 용서를 해 주어서가 아니고 진실로 그 때의 일들을 국민 앞에 사과할 수 있는지…???
He should do better, and answer this question, because a lot of people are asking where he stands on the issues.
Bread&Circus ?
Bad example to use, I think. Jay Baum, last time I heard, is quite active in Korea with his career, and quite popular pop figure, after he came back from his voluntary break in the States.
It must have been the soccer world cup influence for here it was 1990 and damn man that was THE summer of hate…AAAAH ambushing with clubs and bycicle chains 6 vs 1 the German skinheads who descended upon town for Germany vs Yugoslavia…chasing down in Rimini with a stolen car every English yob in sight, trying to run ‘em down…hunting down South American immigrants the night we got kicked out by Argentina…being young and 16
Sorry guys, we only live once, i’m going to listen to some vintage La Bouche classics now
Not really.
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