Series / SNL Korea's GTA Parodies

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SNL Korea's GTA Parodies, officially known as SNL Games, is a series of Affectionate Parodies of the Grand Theft Auto game franchise created by SNL Korea, the South Korean version of Saturday Night Live.

In this series, Once per Episode, the protagonist named Kim Min-kyo (played by Kim Min-kyo) walks to a local game store to get himself some games. Usually, the game store owner (played by Kim Won-hae) alongside his trusty assistant, Hong Jin-ho (played by Hong "YellOw" Jin-ho) recommends him a GTA game, and asks him to play it (that is, at his own risk). Min-kyo accepts and plays the game, but little does he know that the game has some little surprises for him...

All we can say is... Hilarity Ensues.

The full series can be watched here. You can also watch some of the episodes with English subtitles here.

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트롭 명부 (List of Tropes):

• Affectionate Parody: Of Grand Theft Auto, what do you expect?
• All There in the Manual: The popular South Korean wiki Namuwiki has a lot of articles related to the series and its numerous references to obscure stuffs in Korean pop culture. One problem — all of them are in Korean, so if you want to read, good luck!
• Anachronism Stew: The series is a parody of GTA, and is meant to be all-hilarious, so anytime Min-kyo plays a GTA game that takes place in ancient times, this is to be expected.
  • Even in the first episode, GTA Joseon, you can see the Joseon-era guards showing up — complete with rifles and SWAT teams — and shooting Min-kyo's character to death!
  • CS 2: Imjin War and CS 2: 2^nd Manchu Invasion are games based on the two titular wars, respectively, but with FPS elements sprinkled in. This is very evident in the latter, when Min-kyo throws a rock at a Japanese NPC — which knocks him out, the announcer announces "Headshot!"
• Artistic License – Physics: In one of the GTA games, GTA Lineage, whenever the player drags a piece of armour, the game adjusts the mouse's weight to the piece's actual weight, thus explains why dragging the piece is exhausting. If we ignore the Rule of Funny, then this kind of trick that the game pulls off is pretty much considered scientifically and practically impossible.
• As Himself: Let's see, we have Kim Min-kyo as Kim Min-kyo (albeit a Butt-Monkey version); Hong Jin-ho as Jin-ho, the game store assistant; and Kwon Hyuk-soo as Hyuk-soo, the dreaded creator of the GTA games.
• Author Avatar: An In-Universe case. Hyuk-soo always shoves one or more NPCs bearing his face into his games (with the exception of Resident Evul).
• Bland-Name Product: The "GTA" in Hyuk-soo's GTA games actually stands for "Grand Theft Autumn".
• The Bad Guy Wins/Downer Ending: All Played for Laughs. Min-kyo either loses or gets a bad ending in every GTA game, thanks to the nature of these GTA games. There are a few cases when this is subverted, however.
• Beige Prose: The signature speech pattern of all of Hyuk-soo-face NPCs: they always talk in four-syllable phrases. They would also add a few more syllables when needed. In GTA Water Margin, when the real Hyuk-soo walks into the game store, he speaks like this before switching back to speaking normally, to reveal to Jin-ho that he's that guy from GTA. Perhaps this scene, also from GTA Water Margin, demonstrates best his speech pattern:
  Guard-Hyuk-soo: 게 섯거라 (Stop right there!)
  Japanese-Hyuk-soo: ちょっと待って (Hold it right there!)
  Soldier-Hyuk-soo: 영창 가자 (Confinement time!)
• Big Bad: Kwon Hyuk-soo (played by Kwon Hyuk-soo), the developer of all the GTA games In-Universe.
• Butt-Monkey: Min-kyo. As if having a subpar school report, being abused by his mom and having not got a job to this day wasn't awful enough, playing these horrendous GTA games surely ruins his day even more so.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • The announcer technically has some:
    • "당신의 캐릭터를 선택하십시오." (Please select your character.)
    • "[blank]를 선택하였습니다." (You have chosen [blank].)
    • After choosing a character: "당신은 [blank]입니다," (You are [blank]) often followed by an order to do something.
    • "사망하였습니다." (You have died.)
• Character Tic: Min-kyo dances everytime the GTA games' Leitmotif, Dengue Fever's Integration plays.
  Min-kyo: It's strange... I'm angry but I can't stop bumping my shoulders.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • In Counter-Strike 2: Imjin War, Hyuk-soo (as a reporter) enters the PC bang and shuts down its power source so he can report on "online games causing violence". Enraged, Min-kyo, Jin-ho and the game store owner (who also owns the PC bang) together deliver to him a satisfying Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • In GTA Military, Min-kyo returns to the game store, gives the owner a punch and returns his copy of GTA Gangnam to him. The sequel, GTA Military 2, shows that the previous GTA game he played — GTA Military — messed with him too much that he reached his breaking point, and so he beats the living shit out of the owner.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Kong" for Jin-ho. It means "bean" in Korean. Also his nickname in real life.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
  • The game store owner (played by Kim Won-hae) is only known as "the game store owner". Min-kyo refers to him as the "old man".
  • Hyuk-soo likewise is never addressed or mentioned by name — notwithstanding that one scene at the end of CS 2: Imjin War where his name is visible. Most of the time he's called "that guy", "that son of a bitch", etc.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: A few episodes has Min-kyo playing a different game — Counter-Strike 2 and Resident Evul. They're actually parodies of CS and Resident Evil respectively, made by Hyuk-soo, so the tropes applied to the GTA games also apply to these games as well.
• The Game Come to Life: In GTA Street Fighter, just when Kim Chang-ryul is about to give Min-kyo a nice beating, a person walks into the arcade centre. Said person is — surprise, surprise — Chun-Li. And guess what? She's the owner of the arcade centre.
  Min-kyo and Chang-ryul: Chun-Li!?
  Jin-ho: Bro, that's the arcade owner!
• Gratuitous Chinese: In Counter-Strike 2: 2^nd Manchu Invasion, when Min-kyo plays as King Injo of Joseon, the Manchu NPCs show up, and their leader says to him:
  Manchu Mook-Hyuk-soo: 你吃飯了嗎?^note This Chinese phrase sounds like the well-known Korean curse "이 씨발놈아" (i ssiballoma), which corresponds to "you f***ing asshole" in English. (Have you eaten yet?)
• Gratuitous Japanese:
  • In GTA Gyeongseong...
    • after Min-kyo's character hit a Japanese NPC...
      Japanese-Hyuk-soo: Chotto matte! (Hold it right there!)
    • followed by...
      Japanese-Hyuk-soo: Hayaku! Hayaku! (Hurry up! Hurry up!)
  • In GTA March 1^st:
    Japanese-Hyuk-soo: 朝鮮人놈! (Chosenjin bastard!)
    [kills Min-kyo with his sword]
    Japanese-Hyuk-soo: Sashimi!
• Groin Attack: In GTA Gyeongsong, the NPC Kim Choon-sam^note based on a real figure but unfortunately has no dedicated article on The Other Wiki strikes Min-kyo in the private part three times while he tries to switch weapons (not that the game's broken Real-Time Weapon Change does him a favour, either).
• Holiday Episode: GTA March 1^st has the March 1st Movement as its central theme.
• Jerkass to One: Hyuk-soo is implied to be this to Min-kyo. Given that the games he's made always let anyone but Min-kyo himself make progress and win, it's not hard to see why.
• Karma Houdini: Hyuk-soo never gets punished for messing with Min-kyo with his twisted GTA games. There is one subversion though; where he shuts down the PC bang's power source and gets beaten for that.
• Les Collaborateurs: Implied in the case of the game store owner and to an extent, Jin-ho. These guys have a stash of Hyuk-soo's GTA games for unknown reasons; and every time Min-kyo takes a GTA game from them and leave, they always give a Psychotic Smirk, indicating that their "plan" of some sort is working. Not to mention, in some of the GTA games, there are NPCs bearing the face of either of them, or both. With these evidences, it's possible that they have some kind of connection with Hyuk-soo...
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Severely downplayed.
  • The game store owner owns the game store, but he also runs a PC bang, as seen in CS 2: Imjin War.
  • Jin-ho is usually seen working in the game store. The only time he works elsewhere is in GTA Street Fighter, where he works at a local arcade.
• Pun-Based Title: Hyuk-soo's Resident Evil parody is titled Resident Evul. The word Evul is pronounced "ibul" in Korean, and it actually means "blanket". At first, Min-kyo is confused about why the game is titled like that, but when he gets to the game's ending, he sees that his in-game character and the zombie^note that's zombified G-Dragon, by the way... are sleeping together under a blanket.
  Announcer: Resident Evul!
• Put on a Bus: The game store owner disappears from GTA: March 1^st onwards, after which Jin-ho inherits the whole store.
• Running Gag:
  • Anytime a Hyuk-soo-face NPC shows up and hinders/kills Min-kyo.
  • Also, after doing the latter, said NPC attacking Min-kyo even when he's dead as well.
  • Anytime a game requires Min-kyo to perform... bizarre actions in front of the webcam, because, well, motion control.
  • Hindering Min-kyo's progress with/penaltise him over real life logic.
  • Messing with the character selection screen. Whenever Min-kyo wants to choose a more interesting character, the game removes that character off the screen, giving him a "reason" that only applies... in real life.
    Min-kyo: Then why did you let me choose anyway?
• Same Character, But Different: Hyuk-soo normally appears as an eccentric, cunning game developer. In Counter-Strike 2: Imjin War, a parody of Counter-Strike taking place during the Japanese invasions of Korea, Hyuk-soo appears as a humble reporter.
• Scrappy Mechanic: In-Universe, this is pretty much common in almost all GTA games.
• Shout-Out:
  • This one to Arrow: The Ultimate Weapon. In Counter-Strike 2: 2^nd Manchu Invasion, when Min-kyo plays as a Manchu Mook, he gets shot by an archer NPC, who not only dresses like the film's protagonist, Nam-yi; but is also yet another Author Avatar of Hyuk-soo. The NPC afterwards delivers this line:
    Archer-Hyuk-soo: 최종병기활 (Arrow: The Ultimate Weapon.)
    Min-kyo: That bastard was a Manchu soldier earlier!
  • GTA Gyeongsong: Kim Choon-sam breaks Min-kyo's character's balls so hard he was immediately sent to a hospital. Cue the obligatory Yainsidae reference (you know, the memetic scene where Shim Young laments that he loses his dick).
    • As soon as Min-kyo is healed, he goes on a killing spree because he can't "have fun" with the geishas without his in-game dick. Then Bridal Mask from the eponymous drama shows up and kicks his ass.
  • Speaking of Bridal Mask, Min-kyo gets to play as the character in GTA March 1^st.
  • GTA Gangnam has a reference to Gangnam Style: the game has PSY as a playable character. Too bad the game removes that option.
• Special Guest: Per SNL's tradition. Where do we even begin...
  • GTA Super Life Game and GTA Dooduklee Online has the legendary manhwa artist Lee Mal-nyeon.
  • GTA Gangnam has the comedian Kwak Han-goo.
  • GTA Lineage 2 has the singer Bae Ki-sung as the Big Bad.
  • GTA Girlfriend Simulator has Narsha. Yes, the Narsha. She appears as both the in-game character and the girl who rejected Min-kyo.
  • GTA Street Fighter has Kim Chang-ryul and Choi Jung-moon as Chun-Li.
  • GTA Winner Eleven has the football player Lee Chun-soo.
  • The Counter-Strike parodies features the professional StarCraft player Lim Yo-hwan a.k.a. SlayerS_`BoxeR`.
  • Oh boy, we save the best for last: Resident Evul and its sequel's ensemble of zombified Korean stars...
    • The first zombie Min-kyo encounters in the first Resident Evul is — of all people — friggin' G-Dragon. Complete with a Shout-Out to one of his songs, Heartbreaker:
      Zombie-G-Dragon: "I don’t give in no matter what!"
    • The next one is — guess what — Cho Yong-pil. When Min-kyo shoots him, he recites the lyrics from his song Bounce:
      Zombie-Yong-pil: *BANG!* Bounce. *BANG!* Bounce, *BANG!* bounce, *BANG!* bounce.
    • After that, Min-kyo stumbles upon two more zombies: Lim Jae-beom and Kim Yuna of Jaurim (the band).
      Zombie-Yuna: Hey hey hey...
      Min-kyo: Shotgun, shotgun!
      Zombie-Yuna: *BANG!* Hey! *BANG!* Hey! *BANG!* Hey! Jaurim...
    • Aww, man. They dragged poor Park Jung-hyun into this, didn't they?
      Min-kyo: Why my artists, of all people? Seriously...
• Take That!:
  • At the end of CS 2: Imjin War, the Big Bad Hyuk-soo (this time working as a reporter) shuts down the PC bang's power source, right when Min-kyo is about to defeat the boss. Min-kyo, Jin-ho and the PC bang owner later beat him up. Many viewers pretty much do not know that this scene takes a jab at MBC Newsdesk's infamous report.
  • The GTA Street Fighter episode features Kim Chang-ryul of DJ DOC fame. It even references his infamous cases of assault.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Played for Laughs. Every time an NPC kills Min-kyo's character, that NPC continues to attack the character's dead body. Min-kyo isn't a fan of this, however. For example, in GTA Street Fighter:
  [Guile-Hyuk-soo launches Sonic Boom on a fainted Ryu, who's still being beaten by Gangnam mothers]
  Min-kyo: Why are you sonic booming a dead guy?
• Troll: Hyuk-soo is the developer of all GTA games, which are known for messing with poor Min-kyo like hell, yet giving other players varying degrees of advantage. You do the math.
• Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: Exaggerated and parodied to ludicrous extent. The gameplay of every GTA game is deliberately designed to be as absurdly realistic as possible, all for the sake of messing with Min-kyo.
  • This example in GTA Lineage takes the cake. Min-kyo has to wear armour to go hunting — but when he drags a piece of armour to put on the body, the piece moves abysmally slow. The game explains that the mouse's weight has been adjusted to the piece's actual weight... in real life. Even Min-kyo and Jin-ho don't know how the game managed to manipulate the mouse's weight.
  • In GTA Gangnam, Min-kyo tries to outrun the police after stealing a car from an NPC, but it turns out he can't go any further because in-game Gangnam is crowded with cars^note and yes, this is Truth in Television, much to his dismay. The police NPC arrest him and he gets a game over.
    Police Mook-Hyuk-soo: Dirty car thief.
    Min-kyo: Shit, the police! Gotta run, run!
    Announcer: You can't run any further during the rush hour in Gangnam.
  • GTA Military: Min-kyo's player character can't drive the Kia Retona because the game states that it doesn't know how to. This makes Min-kyo's attempt to escape the training center fail horribly.
• Unwinnable by Design: Hyuk-soo specifically designed all the games Min-kyo has come across just to make sure only Min-kyo loses/gets a Downer Ending.
• With Friends Like These...: Min-kyo and Jin-ho are friends, but they do not get along well. Possibly because Jin-ho works for the game store owner, who sells twisted GTA games to Min-kyo. There's also the fact that Jin-ho occasionally screws up when him and Min-kyo play games together, much to Min-kyo's annoyance.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when Min-kyo is about to make some progresses in the game, an NPC bearing Hyuk-soo's face shows up and screws things up, effectively undoing all the progresses, much to Min-kyo's frustration.
• Yellow Peril: Japan is definitely portrayed as this in GTA Gyeongseong, GTA March 1^st and Counter-Strike 2: Imjin War.

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사망

Wasted

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