[Re-Upload] The (Unlikely) Origin of the Squid Game
This was originally uploaded in November of 2022 in two separate posts. I’ve re-written a few parts.
When I first heard about this show before having watched it, the first thing that came to my mind was, “wait, that’s the game I used to play when I was 8 years old.” It was simply called Oh-jing-uh (오징어), which means, “Squid.”
The geometric shapes are in the form of a squid, hence the name, and thereby the ubiquitous circles, triangles, and rectangles throughout the namesake TV series. The team on the “attacking” side will start from within the top circle. The “defenders” must stay inside the boundaries of the triangle and rectangle. When the defenders are forced out (= pulled out), they’re “out” of the game.
The attackers can either take route 1 or 2, and the ultimate goal for the attackers is to get to the bottom circle area and go through the defenders in the rectangle1 and the triangle to get back to the top circle again. The defenders have to block and prevent them from doing so. The dotted line means that the attackers must hop on one leg to get to that point. When the attackers choose to go with route 1, they can go through the “waist” area of the squid. When they’re successful, they can run on both legs, denoted by the solid black line. If route 2 is chosen, the attackers must hop on one leg to get to the finish line (or, circle in this case). So, the attackers and the defenders both pull, tug, push and do whatever to stop each other. When one side is completely “out,” the sides change.
The following is a YouTube clip of the original form of the game played in a Korean TV show called Infinite Challenge, or 무한도전 (moo-han-do-jeon). The cast members, all in their 30s and 40s, are supposed to be 12 years old in the episode.
It is a very physical game for little children and real fights often break out, along with ripped shirts, sweaters and such. Yes, I used to play this when I was little but no children play this anymore, probably with the introduction of home entertainment such as video/computer games.
The TV show ran for 14 years before it was cancelled but it has become an absolute legend in the Korean TV entertainment world. Jack Black was once a guest (he did some crazy things during that episode), and so were Stephen & Seth Curry, as was the French soccer superstar Thierry Henry, and even Paris Hilton made an appearance when she used to be a household name.
This show by itself deserves 10 separate postings because it’s become a cultural force of its own among Koreans. There is even a generation of 20- and 30-somethings who are called “moo-do kids.” All my kids grew up on this show and it is a huge reason why they can all speak in almost perfect Korean although they were born and raised here in the US—not the easiest thing to do. And it is my personal favorite of all time, bar none.
Anyway, getting back to the show, I want to talk about one of the six original cast members, Bak Myong-soo (박명수).
Bak’s “shtick” was being made fun of for his “not-so-attractive” looks, often being compared to an outer space alien, being hot-headed and yelling at people for no apparent reason, never giving his best at different “challenges,” and going off on completely irrelevant tangents from the task at hand. Because of his traits on air, he was the one member who got criticized the most over the years, but he never really changed.
But in hindsight, it was his “going-off-on-a-tangent” behavior that made him indispensable as a popular TV character and led to some of the most memorable scenes. During one of the episodes aired in January of 2014 (years before Squid Game was filmed) he came up with this bit on a complete whim, shown here on YouTube. It doesn’t really need any setup or translation. Just take a look.
Remind you of anything?
So, when this scene from the Netflix’s Squid Game was shown, all Koreans knew immediately that this idea was “heavily borrowed” from Bak Myong-soo’s skit on Infinite Challenge. It was so obvious to Koreans who the real creator of this bit was that the writer/director of the Squid Game Hwang Dong-hyuk (황동혁) probably didn’t even need to give proper credit to Bak. But I’m sure he did.
it is a bit like the American football or rugby in that the game gets very physical and you have to tackle.