I am so excited to do this!!! It may take a couple articles to get the balance on this series correct, but I’ll do what I can.
**Note 1: the original regular cast was Jaesuk, Jongkook, Seokjin, Haha, Gary, Kwangsoo, and Lee Joongki (actor).—7 men. Jihyo wasn’t cast as a regular cast member until Episode 7.
**Note 2: the original concept of the show was to lock the members into a famous location overnight while it was deserted. The members would compete to get out of the place first and the punishment for losing was usually going home with funny drawings on their face or wearing hot pants.
Episode 1
Guests: Lee Hyori (singer, formerly of Fin.K.L.), Hwang Jungeum (actress)- for a total of 9 people which made for uneven teams.
Location: Shopping mall
Games: Find the most expensive thing in the mall (with name tag ripping to freeze members), Clothes Rack Race (this is a classic), Find a location (with name tag ripping to freeze members), Face rock, paper, scissors under connected baseball caps (“why did you do that?”-Seokjin), Chicken Fight vs 50 citizens, Find the cheapest thing in the mall (with name tag ripping to freeze members), moving photo game known later as the Gary Game
My rating: 9
Penalty: Dressing up funny and working in various positions at the mall when it opens.
Episode 2
Guests: Jihyo (first appearance, actress), Goo Hara (singer, formerly of Kara, RIP), Lee Chunhee (actor)--10 total people. This became the norm most weeks.
Location: Suwon World Cup Stadium
Games: Find the opening location (written in Chinese characters), Find the golden piggy bank #1-4 (video hint given via text message..oooohhh.), Speed Quiz with 50 cheering sports fans interfering, Gary Game (moving picture frame), Catch the bus, Find the piggy banks at the pool, combined diving heights (1st half)
Highlights or notes:
This episode started the trend of having a famous person, through a prerecorded video, give out the missions or games.
No one cares, but I still do my nails the way Jihyo had them in this episode. I followed a bunch of nail trends in running man.
My rating: 8
Episode 3--continuation of the race from episode 2
Guests: Jihyo, Goo Hara, Lee Chunhee
Location: Suwon World Cup Stadium
Games: Combined diving heights (2nd half), Find the golden piggy banks, Telepathy Broadcasting Booth (they should do this game again! I had forgotten about it), Hanging Goalkeeper Shootout (poor Haha)
Highlights or notes:
Kwangsoo’s ‘fear of heights face’ debuted in this episode--my bro’s favorite thing.
The interaction with the VJ on this episode and a couple later on gave him a small measure of fame too. I miss the way they interacted with the staff back then.
Telepathy Broadcasting Booth was a game where two people wore noise cancelling headphones. The first would choose a question from a random list and the second would choose an answer from a randomized list. If they matched, it was a point.
My rating: 9
Penalty: Serving coffee to the commuters
Episode 4
Guests: Nickhun (singer-2pm), Jessica (singer, formerly of Girl’s Generation, & designer)
Location: Science Museum
Games: team missions to find certain things in the museum (typhoon simulation, floor piano, trilobite), over the high bar at the pool (teams throw a member over a high bar), Find the piggy banks (clues under nametags), Human curling, 1st half (one of my personal favorites! They rode in trash cans)
My rating: 10
Episode 5--continuation of race from episode 4
Guests:Nickhun, Jessica
Location: Science Museum
Games: Human curling, 2nd half (again, one of my favorite things they ever did), Gary Game at the pool, Find the golden piggy banks (booby trapped museum), the bus game, find the golden piggy banks at the observatory.
Highlights or notes:
The highlight of the Gary Gallery is in this episode as far as I’m concerned.
The bus game was brutal. It had the first instance of true clothing ripping in the game.
My rating: 9
Penalty: Cleaning the museum
Episode 6
Guests: Kim Shinyoung (comedian), Son Dambi (singer), Se7en (singer)
Location: Seoul Tower
Games: find the running man, bucket stilts race (also known as the maker of accidents, falls, and slapstick), find the hidden running ball (clues hidden under nametags), Dangerous Spoons (my name, not theirs), Linked-hands team badminton.
Highlights or notes:
This episode introduced the ‘running balls’ that were a feature of the show for a long time. Winning games would earn a team or person one. At the end of the game, there would be a random drawing of the accumulated running balls to decide the ultimate winner that did not face punishment.
Dangerous Spoons was introduced here and became a staple for a while. They took refreshing drinks to help them stay awake through the night and destroyed them by having members randomly choose the size of the spoon that added ingredients. There was an earpick, a spoon, a ladle, a rice scoop, and more available. They did this with tea, instant coffee, and more. Usually they would have to choose twice, once for the main ingredient (eg. coffee) and once for a sweetener (eg. sugar). Then, the teams would add hot water until the cup was full. If they got two small spoons, the drink would be piping hot. The teams would then race to drink their concoctions, one after another.
My rating: 8-Honestly, I had forgotten this episode completely, but it was so funny when I watched it again. It didn’t have any stand-out funny moments that stick in the mind, but it was a nicely held note the whole way through.
Penalty: Riding the bus home with silly drawings on their faces.
Episode 7
Guests: Jokwon (singer, 2AM), Jung Yonghwa (singer, CNBlue), and Hahm Eunjung (singer, T-ara) *See Notes*
Location: Sejeong Center for the Arts
Games: Enlist a citizen to make eye contact with connected baseball caps, Gary Game (with various twists), Bell Cat and Mouse (my name, not theirs), Dangerous Spoons
Highlights or notes:
This is the first episode with Jihyo as an official regular member of the cast.
Kwangsoo was absent for a drama filming for half of the show.
Bell Cat and Mouse is the classic name tag ripping where the seeking team wears bells on their shoes while the hiding team has a hidden mission and the whole game is played with a time limit so the hiders are incentivized to go out and complete the mission. In this case, the hiders had to find little duck dolls.
Yonghwa got invited back lots of times because he performed so well in this episode.
My rating: 8. This is an unforgettable episode, but there is a lot of silly banter that is fun but not as fun as the games.
Penalty: Riding the subway home with silly drawings on their faces
Episode 8
Guests: Lee Joon (singer formerly of MBlaq, actor), Victoria (singer f(x)), Park Jungyu (tough guy actor)
Location: Gyeonghui Palace and Seoul Museum of History
Games: Chopstick game, Clothespin Tug of War, Hide and Seek with Bells, Dangerous Spoons with Dangerous Member History Footage.
Highlights or notes:
This week begins the several week stretch where Joongki was absent for the filming of a drama.
The chopstick game was where members would take wooden chopsticks and weave them over and under their fingers then slam their hands down on the table to break the chopsticks. It looks insanely painful.
Clothespin tug of war also looked painful. They put elastic bands on clothespins. The members had to attach the clothespins to their faces and pull until the other team had all their clothespins ripped off their faces. It was funny but I felt bad for them.
For the hide and seek with bells, the hiding team had no mission this week, but they wore a phone that had alarms set to go off at regular intervals (giving away their location). Joon was kind of hilarious in this part. His VJ lost him and wandered around the museum yelling “Joon, where are you? We need to film.”
The Dangerous Spoons game added an element where they showed old footage of the members and the members had to guess what was said next in the embarrassing moment.
My rating: 5. I would have liked this so much better if they hadn’t played the chopsticks game. I watch that game and just see fingers ending up broken...not a comfortable feeling!
Penalty: Wearing Hot Pants to ride the bus home with silly things drawn on their faces.
Episode 9
Guests: Shin Bongsun (comedianne), Lee Hongki (singer FT Island), Kim Soora (actor)
Location: Seoul Amusement Park
Games: Roller Coaster Karaoke, Bells Cat and Mouse, Dangerous Spoons with Coin Flipping to determine exemption from egg yolks.
Highlights or notes:
This has the classic Jongkook-Bongsun romance, which leads to numerous funny instances. My favorite is Bongsun fighting off 4 men with a broom to give Jongkook a chance to win for the team. My son likes the forehead kiss misunderstanding.
The hiding team needed to find ‘tickets’ that the had clues about at the start
My rating: 9
Penalty: Going home in hot shorts and amusement park extras (wings, bunny headbands, etc.) with funny drawings on their faces...escalation.
Episode 10
Guests: Cha Taehyun (actor), Yoon SeA (actress)
Location: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Games: Running Man Auction, Bells Cat and Mouse, Art Reproduction Game, Dangerous Spoons with a coin toss game addition.
Highlights or notes:
Joongki returns from filming his drama.
The Running Man auction’s currency was forehead flicks with chopsticks. This was pretty funny.
The hiding team had to find 3 pieces of art in cat and mouse. There were boxes scattered for them to hide in and there was no running in the museum so the chases were weird speed walking chases.
This episode started the Gary-Jihyo pairing. The members threw them together mercilessly.
We got our first glimpse of the members’ drawing ability in this episode.
My rating: 7
Penalty: Wearing weird costumes to a convenience store to eat instant ramyeon.
