Being a Standup Comedian in North Korea is Absolutely Terrible
LatestThe concept of a standup comic in North Korea seems fairly puzzling: while the American media love to make fun of how bafflingly and absurdly out-of-touch and unbelievably, repressively terrible Kim Jong-un (and the late Kim Jong-il) are as dictators, its obvious that North Korean comedians don’t have that right — because, oh, you know, they live in a nation in which their human rights are heavily restricted, they have no right to free speech, and the only legal media sources are state-operated.
Offending people is a somewhat integral part of standup, so how does a North Korean comic manage to do their job without offending the wrong person (and possibly incurring some sort of state-mandated punishment)? The answer is by treading very carefully — which is still immensely precarious and difficult to do.
Case in point: Radio Asia reports that Lee Choon Hong, a popular North Korean comedienne, has just been sentenced to an indefinitely period of “hard labor” in a coal mine following a “slip of the tongue” during a performance last month. According to the report, Lee Choon Hong is “known for satirizing aspects of North Korean society by mimicking voices”; during the performance, which was set up by North Korean authorities, she accidentally mentioned “sensitive issues.”