Park Wi's KTX Controversy Turned Into Comedy Material... Hong Seung-sang Says, "Is It a Ramp or a Diving Board?"

[Sportschosun Jo Min-jung] Stand-up comedian Hong Seung-sang brought Park Wi's controversial KTX fall video back into the spotlight on stage. While satirizing Park's response, he also argued that the accident could not be blamed on one person alone and pointed to structural problems with train boarding and disembarking facilities.

Hong released a video of his recent stand-up comedy performance on his personal channel on the 30th.

In the video, Hong opened with a sharp joke, saying, "I saw an article saying Park Wi was controversial, so I thought Park Wi had stood up. But that wasn't the case." He then referred to Park as a person with a disability and a socially vulnerable individual, and said he would revisit the circumstances of the KTX accident rather than attacking one person one-sidedly.

Hong explained the fall accident involving Park Wi, the operator of the YouTube channel 'Weracle,' which once had 1 million subscribers. Park, who uses a wheelchair, fell forward while getting off the KTX after his wheel caught on the foot of a social service worker who was holding the ramp in place.

However, Hong said the real issue was the ramp, not the social service worker. "The ramp's only purpose is to connect one surface to another," he said. "If it cannot do that, then it's not a ramp. It's a diving board." He continued his satire by suggesting that the equipment installed by KORAIL for wheelchair users may have created a dangerous situation instead.

He also used his trademark wordplay to comment on Park's decision to release the video. Hong said the incident should not be seen as Park's fault alone, and that he had not fallen into so-called "ruin." He added, "This wasn't being targeted by someone else. It was more like targeting himself," and described it as "closer to a stumble than a fall," drawing laughter from the audience.

Park fell onto the platform on the 14th after arriving at Daejeon Station on a KTX-Sancheon train and getting off with a wheelchair ramp. On the 21st, he uploaded a video to his YouTube channel showing CCTV footage from the accident and himself confronting KORAIL staff. After the video was released, opinions split between those who said Park had raised awareness of safety issues for wheelchair users and those who said it was excessive to also reveal the social service worker, who had already apologized at the scene. Criticism grew especially over the claim that the content was produced in a way that highlighted an individual's mistake, and the controversy spread.

Park later deleted the video in question and apologized. He said the social service worker had done his best to help him and had politely apologized at the scene, but that he had not fully considered the other person's position.

After the controversy, a lecture in Seoul Metropolitan Government and a talk concert hosted by the Gangnam Cultural Foundation, both of which Park had been scheduled to attend, were canceled one after another. The fallout continues, with the subscriber count of the YouTube channel 'Weracle' also falling below 1 million.

Jo Min-jung, mj.cho@sportschosun.com

This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.