Once heralded as one of Korea’s top funnymen, Kim Gu-ra is now facing mounting criticism about his unique style of “spiteful comedy” that seems to ignore others’ feelings.

Korean netizens were abuzz on Thursday over Kim’s attitude on MBC’s popular talk show “Golden Fishery-Radio Star.” The Wednesday edition of the program featured celebrities whose hobby is collecting eclectic items.

Singer K-will showed off his collections including Iron Man action figures. Despite K-will’s protests, Kim went on to move one of the Iron Man figures to the center stage himself and, before he knew it, he dropped it on the floor and damaged the item.

Being an avid collector, K-will seemed furious at first. The singer relented a little after Kim made hurried apologies. But the incident did not end there, with Kim even venturing to make a callous remark: “It was a good thing” that he dropped the cheaper model and not the pricey limited edition.

Earlier in the show, Kim said that comedian Kim Shin-young does “useless stuff at home” when she showed him her Lego collection.



The comedian’s attitude was met with an onslaught of lashing by netizens, who pointed out that he was tactless and downright rude about other people’s hobbies.

Wednesday’s incident, however, was not an isolated case in the 43-year-old comedian’s lengthy career of making jokes by insulting others.

When Kim debuted as a comedian in 1993 under his real name Kim Hyeon-dong, his popularity was next to nil.

In order to make a name for himself, he changed his stage name to Gu-ra (a Korean slang meaning “a lie”) and started an Internet-based talk show. Matching witty comments with cursing and outrageous slandering of celebrities, Kim’s show garnered a sizeable fan base online.

Boosted by his newfound “underground” popularity, Kim wiggled his way into the mainstream comedy scene in the mid-2000s and solidified his place with his new style of unpretentious and often vulgar comedy.

Kim’s fame came at a price, however. On one hand gaining fans with his trademark profanity, the comedian also made people deeply uncomfortable with his style of offending just about everyone in sight.

His Internet stint also haunt him to this day; last year, he was pressured to quit all TV activities after his derogatory remarks about comfort women -- former Korean sex slaves of Japanese military during World War II -- were made public.

While Kim made his comeback just months later, many people still express discomfort at his comedy.

“I wish he would just disappear. I don’t know how he can keep making appearances on TV. I was really mad when he told comedian Shin Bong-sun to remarry while she is successful -- Shin has never been married before,” said one Twitter user.

“When you look back to his ‘Internet days,’ what he is doing right now is nothing,” added another user.



By Yoon Min-sik

(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)