::A Geek in Korea::

One of my coworkers found a website that strikes me as incredibly niche. It’s called The Yangpa, and it’s an The Onion style parody "fake news" website. However, it’s not just any Onion parody. This is a Korean themed Onion style news. Things like this make it seem like there are people writing such incredibly obscure material that it’s just for me and the few hundreds of people that can appreciate it.

"The Onion" I think of more as a template for humor than humor itself these days. There are several dozen news style formats they use for great comedic effect, with a few great jokes spread out over an issue. It’s clear that there is comedy in the news, but today the world seems like such a parody of reality that the over the top Onion style reporting seems dull in comparison to what’s really happening in the world. I used to read each Onion online issue religiously, even going as far as buying and reading a few of their collected article books. Sometime around the time they started going for the pay content business model for premium content, my interest in the style of humor they were using simply got old. Perhaps it was the rise in the Daily Show with Jon Stewart that stole the The Onion’s biting political thunder, but I rarely read The Onion on my own volition anymore.

Regardless of the parent material, The Yangpa is still running in virgin territory. I haven’t read humorous articles about Korean style news and pop culture this funny ever. Part of the reason that this sort of humor, to me, works so well is that a lot of the Koreans I know don’t have an ironic bone in their body. Their humor is gag laden and occasionally absurd, but heavy use of irony to undercut their point isn’t something I’ve been able to detect with my Korean language skills at the moment. I’m sure it exists, but it isn’t mainstream. (Perhaps North Korean propaganda counts?)

The Yangpa takes submissions. No one that’s read The Onion and has lived in this country as long as I have would have a problem coming up with articles to submit. I’ve written Onion style stuff before for the forums, and once you get an idea and the proper "format", the humor really just flows. The Onion’s style is more of a template for jokes than anything else. Like a word processor’s "wizard", finding the right quirk of Korean life, thinking of some jokes, and fitting that into an Onion style parody of life isn’t that hard. Having it work as a ironic criticism of the culture you are examining sets it apart from "just another website".

Making it consistently funny like The Yangpa has managed so far takes skill. I’ll continue giving it a read and start thinking of something to submit when I have some more free time.