SSDD

Yeah, we’re back on the Angry K-Netz Piss on Zico Because He Dated Seolhyun, While Dumb I-Netz Are Dumb and Believe Lies thing. Like this is sufficiently baseless and stupid that I honestly wouldn’t be posting on it at all except that I’m seeing a big uptick in traffic and therefore feel obligated to provide actual information. And of course because the K-Pop press is more than willing to print lies if they get clicks and feel under no obligation to be responsible even when the allegations are very serious, I have to do my bit as a former journalist. (ETA: And behold! AllKPop is shitty as ever!)

Anyway, the whole hoo-ha over Zico right now is because in January 2016 he appeared on this episode of Radio Star with Jung Joon Young (as well as other guests). In September of that year it became public that Jung had been accused of videotaping a woman during sex with his phone without her knowledge; he was ultimately cleared by the police after submitting his phone as evidence (ETA: something that at this point definitely appears to have been the result of corruption). Now thanks to the whole business with Seungri, Jung is again being accused of recording women without their permission.

Because Jung’s phone was involved in the original accusation, netizens have latched onto a comment Zico made during that Radio Star episode about Jung having a “golden phone,” as well as the idea that Zico liked to look at the illicit videos allegedly on said phone as evidence that Zico! is! a! criminal!! (Who deflowered My Future Wife Seolhyun, the bastard!)

But that takes pretty much everything said in the episode of Radio Star completely out of context. You can watch the interaction yourself here; it starts at about the 17 minute mark.

At that point in the show, everyone is giving each other serious shit about their dating lives. It’s Jung’s turn to catch some flak, so as he says he’s looking for true love (and others agree he is), you can see Zico thinking about how to best stir the shit (and since Korean variety shows aren’t known for their subtlety, the graphics really help lead you along).

Diss loading….

Diss delivered!

Then we get specifically into the golden phone–Zico says that Jung asked Henry for the name of a presumably attractive actress he was working with, and Zico thought Jung would look her up online, but…!

He already had her number! Ho-HO! That Jung sure is a player!

Yup! He’s got everybody’s number! In his golden phone! Zico’s more than happy to tell you about it!

If the graphics of Jung’s soul leaving his body and steam coming off his head are somehow too abstract for people to grasp, the point of this is to embarrass Jung. That’s the game here. And even if we assume that everything Zico is saying is 100% true and based on Zico’s own knowledge of Jung, there’s nothing about photos or videos or perverted chat rooms or whatever–it’s just that Jung knows a lot of women.

Anyway, not surprisingly Jung decides to strike back–once again, the graphics are not exactly subtle.

I’m not sure how people go from this to “Zico enjoys watching videos of Jung having sex with women who don’t know he’s filming them!” but if I had to take a wild guess, my answer would once again be: Because Zico dated Seolhyun, and some people are just never going to get over that one.

And I expect this “scandal” to have the exact same impact on Zico’s career as all the others: None whatsoever, because stuuuuuuuupid….

ETA: I love Lee Hongki.

190312 Hongki KKT room update

omo i slept and just woke up and there's been such a big fuss being kicked

please do not worry keke pic.twitter.com/dJdps6pa8F

— yojoaissik 💋 (semi-hiatus) (@ftjoy) March 11, 2019

EATA: Zico released a statement saying, duh:

#Zico #Instastory #지코

I do try to refrain from asking this but please retweet.
And as Zico said, please refrain from jumping to conclusions. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/W2CHCotjjk

— Yezi (@Yezic0) March 12, 2019

I don’t really expect this to affect the haters, because it doesn’t change the fact that (pick one) Zico isn’t in my bias group/Zico didn’t marry me/Zico had sex with Seolhyun and I did not, which is what they consider to be important (way more important than rape or police corruption). But I wouldn’t let a pack of on-line losers worry me–there’s some very serious stuff going on, and I doubt that anyone who actually matters is going to be ignoring it all to go after the guy who coined the term “golden phone.”

Just another addendum: I’m seeing a lot of “Oh, but we should wait until the investigation clears Zico.” But that’s not going to happen, because Zico is not under investigation. There is no indication that the police are looking into him, which presumably means that they do not even consider him to be a suspect and that there’s no actual evidence linking him to the group chats in the first place.

I certainly agree that there’s a problem in Korea with mainstream media reprinting random crap that netizens make up (and if you’re wondering why Zico is getting press coverage in a story that’s not really about him, it’s not the first time, and the English-language K-Pop press tends to compound the problem), but fortunately the police seem a little less motivated to confuse shit with Shinola.