[Sportschosun, Jo Min-jung] YouTuber Park Wi, who has been facing intense backlash after CCTV footage of his fall on KTX-Sancheon was made public, is once again drawing attention for a past award-show moment in which he mentioned the absence of a ramp. The clip has also spread again, showing host Jun Hyun-moo visibly flustered by the sudden remark and telling him, "Don't make jokes like that."
The scene came from the live broadcast of the "2024 MBC Entertainment Awards" on January 28 last year. The event had originally been scheduled for December 29, 2024, but was postponed after the Jeju Air passenger plane disaster at Muan International Airport and was held during the following year's Lunar New Year holiday. Jun Hyun-moo, Yoon Eun-hye, and Lee Jang-woo hosted the ceremony.
Ahead of the announcement of the Best Couple Award, Park Wi and his wife Song Ji-eun appeared on screen while the hosts were speaking with the nominees. Song said with a smile that she had no particular desire to win and was ready to congratulate another pair. Park then took the microphone and said, "I don't think it will be me, since there is no ramp." He was pointing out that he could not see a ramp that would allow him, as a wheelchair user, to get on stage if his name were called. As the unexpected comment briefly made the atmosphere serious, Park quickly added, "I'm joking." Jun, who was watching, looked somewhat taken aback and wrapped up the moment by saying, "Don't make jokes like that."
At the time, reactions were mixed. Some praised Park for cleverly drawing attention to accessibility issues for people with disabilities, while others said he had put the production team in an awkward position during a live broadcast meant for celebration. Now, about 1 year and 7 months later, the clip is drawing renewed attention as Park faces criticism over how he brought the KTX-Sancheon fall incident into the public eye.
On the 14th, Park fell while getting off a KTX-Sancheon train in a wheelchair using a portable ramp. He later posted CCTV footage of the accident on his YouTube channel, which has 1 million subscribers, and criticized the response of the staff member on site. However, many said it was excessive to publicly criticize a social service worker who had already apologized at the scene through a major channel. Concerns were also raised that even if the person's face was blurred in the video, people nearby could still identify them through details such as the workplace and the time of the accident.
As the controversy grew, Park deleted the video and posted an apology. He said he had not intended to attack or blame the on-site worker, but added, "The way I conveyed the incident was immature, and I was not considerate enough toward the person involved," before bowing his head.
Even after the apology, however, the fallout did not subside. A lecture scheduled to be held at Seoul Metropolitan Government and a talk concert organized by the Gangnam Foundation for Arts & Culture were both canceled one after another, and his YouTube subscriber count fell below 1 million. Questions over how he obtained the CCTV footage in such a short time, along with renewed attention to his past speaking fees, have kept the controversy alive online.
Meanwhile, Park has shared his rehabilitation process and daily life through his YouTube channel "Weracle" since being diagnosed with quadriplegia after a building fall accident in 2014. He married Song Ji-eun, formerly of the group Secret, in October 2024.
Jo Min-jung mj.cho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
