If the upcoming Super Bowl is like many before, the most entertaining part may be the commercials, which will include a chubby South Korean singer hawking “Wonderful Pistachios.” This will mark the rapper PSY’s debut in American advertising, though he’s no stranger to the folks at home. They’ve seen him singing “Gangnam Style,” a satiric take on the “Beverly Hills” of South Korea, viewed more than one billion times on YouTube; celebrating Christmas with President Obama; and starring in a New Year’s television special from Times Square. Following the example of 1996’s “Macarena,” and “Sukiyaki” decades before, PSY has earned the affection, and money, of millions of Americans who have no idea what he’s singing about.
However, many Americans who do follow PSY closely will not be happy to see him on their big screens. “He should be deported back to South Korea,” says Bob Dumas, a Korean War veteran, adding rhetorically: “Or is he from North Korea?”
Mr. Dumas is not alone. PSY has managed to dance into a political and social minefield. Facebook pages now exist to denounce the singer, born Park Jae-sang, and numerous media reports and online comments include harsh criticism. “PSY is a talentless one-hit wonder who shrewdly took advantage of the magnanimity and forgiving nature of most Americans who fell in love with his song,” declares Korean-American Hank Song.
The displeasure stems from revelations of a vicious anti-American rap PSY performed years before he was famous, and for which he quickly apologized after it became public. But aside from doubts about the sincerity and sufficiency of his apology, it now turns out the correct translation of his rap differs from that reported by most U.S. news media. In fact, the comments were not just anti-American, but explicitly racist. Ironically, Korean Confidential’s analysis of the words and their timing, though it puts PSY in no better light, actually raises hopeful points about the larger relationship between South Koreans and Americans.
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