Series / Invincible Youth

The first season's initial cast (L-R): Shinyoung, Hara, Hyomin, Taewoo, Yuri, Juhyeon, Hyuna, Nam Heeseok, Sunny, Sunhwa, Narsha

The longest-running iteration of the second season's cast (L-R): Sunny, Hyoyeon, Bora, Yewon, Suzy, Jiyoung, Boom, Shinyoung

Invincible Youth was a South Korean variety show which took female Korean Pop Music idols and tried to teach them how to live in a self-sufficient rural lifestyle. The first season took place (IY1) in a farming village, and the second (IY2) in a fishing village. It was notable for featuring members of girl groups which were (And in many cases still are) among the most popular in K-Pop at the time.

Season One Cast

• Hosts
  • Noh Juhyeon
  • Kim Shinyoung
  • Kim Taewoo
  • Nam Heeseok ^* Left early in the show's run for personal reasons.
  • Song Euni ^* Replaced Kim Taewoo after he left for throat surgery.
• Idols (Also known as G7)
  • Narsha^* Brown Eyed Girls
  • Yuri^* Girls' Generation
  • Sunny^* Girls' Generation
  • Hyomin^* T-ara
  • Hara^* KARA
  • Sunhwa^* Secret
  • Hyuna^* 4minute and solo singer
  • Jooyeon^* After School, joined after Yuri, Sunny and Hyuna left
  • Victoria^* f(x), joined after Yuri, Sunny and Hyuna left
  • Kim Sori^* Solo artist, joined after Yuri, Sunny and Hyuna left

Season Two Cast

• Hosts
  • Boom
  • Ji Hyunwoo
  • Lee Sugeun
  • Kim Shinyoung
  • Lee Young-ja
• Idols (Also known as G8, and later G6 after Woori and Amber left)
  • Hyoyeon^* Girls' Generation
  • Yewon^* Jewelry
  • Bora^* SISTAR
  • Jiyoung^* KARA
  • Suzy^* miss A
  • Woori^* Rainbow
  • Amber^* f(x)
  • Sunny^* Girls' Generation

---

Invincible Youth contains examples of:

• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Victoria is VERY flexible thanks to her background in ballet.
• Accidental Pervert: When the Korean National Judo Team came to visit, Yeongja tried to pick up the coach, but fumbled her grip and ended up with a handful of his butt.
• All for Nothing: In IY2, Jiyoung and Boom spend almost an entire day harvesting and shucking hundreds of oysters from the mudflats. Not long after their arrival back at the house, Jiyoung spills a good amount of them.
• Ascended Extra: Bora, Hyoyeon and Jiyoung make guest appearances in season one, and return as full-time cast members in Season 2.
  • Shinyoung's friend Oksim became a popular occupant of the crocks in IY2 because of her violent nature and signature thumbs-up from beneath the crock rim.
• Badass Adorable: Many of the girls aren't afraid to catch animals like chickens, octopus or fish with their bare hands.
  • Hara came very close to getting a license to operate agricultural machinery, but still got to drive some vehicles even after she failed the test.
  • Bora was a judo practitioner when she was younger, a skill which she shows off on one episode by throwing three members of the Korean National Men's Judo team.
• Blatant Lies: Ownership of the donkeys in IY2 was determined by a quiz to guess the length of Boom's philtrum, with the closest guess winning. Hyoyeon tried to convince Sugeun that she wrote 1.75cm, even though she said she wrote 1.73cm^* The 3 looked like it could have been a 5. She got caught by playing back the old footage, and Sunny was declared the victor.
• Butt-Monkey
  • In IY1, Sunhwa and Jooyeon made a lot of mistakes and were known for being a bit airheaded, and as a result were made fun of by the rest of the cast a lot.
  • Yewon quickly became this for IY2. She was frequently made fun of for her laminated teeth, her funny accent, inability to win any games, and much more.
• The Cameo: In IY2, a group of baseball players were taken on a tour of the KBS studios. While there, they had the chance to interact with several Korean TV stars and other celebrities.
  • Although not part of the show proper, the KBS-uploaded episodes on YouTube retain the show's ending credit sequence. KBS would frequently air clips from music videos in this time, leading to appearances from artists such as Crayon Pop, FTIsland, and many others.

• Catchphrase: A couple, used mainly as a Signing-Off Catchphrase
  • Season One: "Youth don't lose! Invincible Youth!"
  • Season Two: "Youth is forever! Invincible Youth!"
• Clip Show: Understandably, the ending episodes for each season had clips reminiscing on the more memorable events from their runs.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Victoria has a habit of doing strange things, most notably talking to plants.
• Companion Cube: In IY1, the film crew used their Jimmy jib camera to help with harvesting pumpkins off a roof, the cast members developed an affinity for it and treated it like a living being.
  • Another Jimmy jib makes an appearance in the Dano special of IY2. The cast and guests interact with it, and Hyoyeon "wins" it after launching her shoe onto it.
• Cool Old Guy: Road Lee, Wanggu, and the other various Yuchiri villagers who came to lend a hand in Season One.
• Crossdresser: Boom dresses up like a princess for the Dano special in IY2.

• The Cutie: Sunny in both seasons
  • Jiyoung and Suzy in Season 2, especially after Sunny left.

• A Day in the Limelight: For some rounds of IY2's "Crock Game," the girls would switch places with the staff who normally hid in The crocks, ready to dish out a punishment to those who guessed incorrectly.
• Designated Girl Fight: In IY2, a pillow fight between Bora and Yewon turned into an actual play fight after several vicious pillow blows were exchanged, escalating to the point where Boom and Yeongja had to intervene, and ultimately ended with Bora having Yewon in a headlock.
• Distaff Counterpart: In one episode of IY2, Jiyoung, Bora Sunny and Hyoyeon all were gone for a concert. To make up for only Yewon and Suzy being there, six male celebrities were brought in as guest cast. Their title? B6.
• The Ditz: Sunhwa isn't nicknamed "White Paper Girl," "Airhead Sunhwa," and "Blank Sunhwa" for nothing.
• Evil Matriarch: Yeongja, but played for laughs as part of her character on the show. Most often, it manifested itself in her throwing shoes at the other cast members for misbehaving and frequently loudly scolding them. In reality, she was actually very hospitable towards the guests, and treated the rest of the cast quite kindly when not in character or in quieter moments.
• Game Show: Ownership of the Idol Village's various animals was determined through a quiz format, with the idol who won the quiz gaining ownership of the featured animal.
  • In IY2, almost every activity was accompanied by a game.
• Gentle Giant: Choi Hong-man might be a 7'2" former MMA fighter, but as his appearance on IY2 showed, he's a big, timid and kind-hearted softy who's afraid to touch fish.
• Gratuitous English: The background music of the show is often pop or rock songs in English. The melody usually fits the situation, but they lyrics can sometimes be a mismatch.
  • A group of foreigners visit G8, and are asked to choose who should win 3rd Best Worker based on who makes the best appeal. The ensuing barrage of English (Ranging from Amber's fluency to Hyoyeon's lack of words in any language.) makes for one of the more entertaining moments in the show's run.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Choi Hong-Man during his guest appearance on IY2. At 7'2" tall, he towered over the rest of the cast, even Boom.
• Idol Singer: All of G7 and G8 started out as singers before appearing on this show in various idol groups.
• I Have Many Names: Every cast member received at least two to three nicknames during their time on the show.
• Laugh Track: Deployed as it would be in any other show. A stock "WOOOO" is also used to denote interesting items.
• Lethal Chef: In one episode of IY2, the cast has a contest to see who can make the best kimchi (Without knowing how to properly make it). Almost all the teams' kimchi ends up being so salty that it is judged inedible.
• The Load: Jooyeon was given the nickname "Dead Weight" shortly after her arrival, as her general clumsiness made her a burden when trying to perform tasks.
• No Inside Voice: Yeongja, with shades of Large Ham.
• No Sense of Direction: Hyoyeon was tasked with driving a car to pick up Boom and Woori. On the way to get Woori at Incheon Airport, she inadvertently started driving home^* She is originally from Incheon, leading to them being 1 1/2 hours late picking Woori up, and nearly running out of gas. Fed up with her antics, Boom decided to take over driving duties before she could do any more damage.
• Only Sane Man: Juhyeon was this to the rest of the cast in IY1.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In IY2, they had a pillow fight to help the visiting handball team air grievances with each other, and the cast also took turns, which led to this exchange:
  Hyoyeon: "I laugh when you say something funny, BUT WHY *smack* DON'T YOU *smack* LAUGH WHEN *smack* I TALK?! *smack, smack, smack* LAUGH AT MY JOKES! *smack*"
• Punny Name: Many of the cast's nicknames are based on some pun.
• Put on a Bus:
  • In Season One:
    • Nam Heeseok left for personal reasons.
    • Taewoo also took a break for throat surgery.
    • Yuri, Sunny and Hyuna all left the show before the first season ended due to commitments with international schedules.
    • On a more minor note, cast members would disappear for one or two episodes due to schedule obligations, then come back.
  • In Season Two:
    • Woori and Amber both left early in the show's run, and Sunny left about two thirds of the way through.
    • Sugeun and Hyunwoo both gave up their hosting duties early in the season.
  • The Bus Came Back
    • Sunny returns when G7 travels to Japan.
    • Yuri made a returning guest appearance to help G7 promote their agricultural products.
    • Sunny, Hyuna and Taewoo return for the one-year anniversary special.
    • When the IY2 cast held their housewarming party, several of their guests included Juhyeon and the villagers of Yuchiri.
    • Many of the first season's cast members made at least one return appearance during the second season, and Sunny and Shinyoung came back as a full-time cast member and host, respectively.
• Running Joke: Every one of the cast members have some personality trait that gets played for laughs at least once an episode. Notably:
  • Narsha's sexy dancing and accentuation of her figure.
  • Sunhwa's ditziness.
  • Hyomin's lack of screen-time stemming from her wallflower tendencies.
  • Taewoo and Yuri's fake love line.
  • Victoria talking to plants and inanimate objects.
  • Yewon's laminated teeth, and later, her general bad luck and Butt Monkey status.
  • Amber's difficulty with Korean, to the point where she is told to say "buing buing" if she doesn't understand a phrase, and given a Korean dictionary for the house library.
  • Woori's status as the eldest member of G8.
• Shout-Out: Oksim's thumbs up while hiding in the crock draws comparisons to the T-1000's destruction in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• The Simple Life is Simple: Subverted. The girls are learning how to farm, fish, and generally be self-sufficient, so they have to do almost all the work themselves or with help from one or two guests.
• Supreme Chef: Shinyoung is quite a talented cook.
• Team Dad: In IY1, this was Juhyeon's role. Sugeun was this initially for IY2, but Boom beccame this after Sugeun left.
• Team Mom: Shinyoung was never designated as such, but for all of IY1 and up until Yeongja's arrival in IY2, she often acted as a mother for the girls. After Yeongja joined the cast, she was the first offically-designated "mother." Shinyoung would be re-cast as a "daughter" with the remaining five girls, and Boom became Yeongja's "son."
• Teen Idol: Although all of the girls were idols, only Hyuna, Yuri, Hara, Sunhwa, Jiyoung, Suzy and Amber were in their teens during filming.
• The Unreveal: One episode in IY2 saw G6's friends and family visit for a Samgyeopsal party. To hide their identities, they were silhouetted behind a screen and had their voices altered. Yewon's mom revealed their identity early on when she mentioned Yewon by name, thus spoiling the surprise.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Suzy tries to store a handheld microphone during an Innocent Fanservice Girl moment.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: G8 and several of their mothers play a quiz game for prizes from Daebudo. Yewon's mom keeps answering questions correctly, only to have the MCs tell her she didn't answer the right question, and then go on to ask the real question, which some other mother-daughter pair would always get right.
• Younger than She Looks: Shinyoung was actually younger than Narsha in IY1.
• And Your Reward Is Edible: Many of the games they played had food as a prize.