IU Palace: Running Man: Episode 148

Get ready to eat enough food until your stomach bursts in this week's episode of Food Jumanji. It takes a serial eater to eat through the bowls of noodles and acorn jelly, which should be a nicer welcome than discovering a lion in your aunt's bedroom. Be careful of where you land on this game board or you may need to consume more than your stomach can handle.

EPISODE 148. Broadcast on June 2, 2013.

We begin with a traditional opening, and even the weather can't escape Jong-kook's fury as he gripes about the rain. The marrieds advise him to redirect that energy to go out on a date rather than to annoy Kwang-soo.

Jo PD wastes no time to introduce today's guests, who rise from a life-size game board behind them: comedian Jung Joon-ha and actress So Yi-hyun (Cheongdamdong Alice).

The boys warmly greet Yi-hyun as they usually do with female guests, and pointedly pretend to ignore Joon-ha. Infinite Challenge fans will recognize him as a fixed castmate (along with Jae-suk and Haha) of the show which airs on Saturdays.

With Joon-ha's appearance today, the cast jokes that Kwang-soo isn't the only with a "dummy" variety persona. In order to keep things organized, they decide to stick with "Saturday Dummy" for Joon-ha and "Sunday Dummy" for Kwang-soo for now.

Looks like there's no chance of a possible loveline between Jong-kook and Yi-hyun today. She politely declines with a reference to his previous pseudo romantic pairing with her former co-star Moon Geun-young. Ha.

Today's race is based on the 1996 movie Jumanji (a supernatural board game that brought jungle flora and fauna to life), and in lieu of stampeding animals, our cast will face various challenges where they must consume all of their food in order to move on.

Gah, food missions always make me hungry, and everything always looks so delicious on this show.

This race brings a smile to serious eater Joon-ha, who calls upon his own superpower: "The power to wield power over food!" Hahaha. Is that so much a superpower or a super stomach?

Everyone is divided into teams, and Joon-ha is teamed with Jae-suk and Suk-jin to create the Red Team. At least it's not as awkward for them as it is for the Yellow Team where Kwang-soo is sandwiched between a failed loveline. Still yet, there's the Blue Team with the Monday Couple and Haha as the third wheel.

Each of our teams is given a portable game board and Joon-ha pretends to be affected by the "magic" of the game when he rolls his turn. Then Kwang-soo joins in and the pair both react dramatically to the CG effect. Aw, you've got to give the man some points for his earnestness.

In the car, Kwang-soo warns Yi-hyun that she will inevitably be scolded by Jong-kook sometime today. That doesn't stop her from teasing Spartakooks about his previous loveline with Geun-young, which he vehemently denies.

As the team maknae, there's little Jae-suk can do but to endure his hyungs' endless ribbing about his rookie days. They pass a string of restaurants as they drive down the road, and Joon-ha's elaborate descriptions of all the various foods (complete with sound effects, heh) are making my stomach grumble.

Then, they actually make a pitstop for steamed corn. And it looks delicious. *munches on toast*

Fear quickly settles in as they approach their destination: a bungee jumping structure. Granted it's nowhere as high as the Macau Tower at 55m but all three teammates are deathly afraid of heights with Joon-ha as the biggest (okay, maybe just the loudest) scaredy-cat of them all.

But what awaits them at the top is a makeshift badminton court. Whew, at least there's no jumping. Here they'll need to collectively beat Myuk PD in a 3 vs 1 game of badminton while linking arms.

Suk-jin looks pretty confident about the game when he says that he's the president of the celebrity badminton club. Then the ajusshi trio starts fighting over who gets to be in the middle of the pack. Hahaha.

Meanwhile, the Blue Team is briefed on their mission where they will need to protect their balloons in a crowded car until one member finishes their bowl of cold acorn jelly. The cast is quick to notice that there must be a catch and they uncover their eating utensils to be… toothpicks.

And if that wasn't bad enough already, they're joined by those who will be riding in the car with them—about a dozen Spartakooks-sized men. Their jaws drop in amazement.

Oh gosh, these guys are no joke. They don't hesitate to climb inside the car and we see Haha and Gary's faces already reeling in pain before we cut away.

Back at the badminton court, Jae-suk gives a word of advice about future team distribution to the staff: "Next time, divide the [scaredy-cat] hyungs to one per team!" And miss watching the three of you scared stiff and bicker about who should take control of the racket?

So it's a chaotic mess as they miss turn after turn, blaming each other for their mistakes. The hyungs try to wrench the racket out of Jae-suk's hands, citing that he doesn't know how to play. But they're equally as bad without him, and lose their first match anyway.

As punishment, the team is tasked to squat three times together before their second match. But there's no sense of synchronized teamwork here either, and it hilariously comes out looking like a wave instead.

Reshuffling their positions for their next match turns out to be another ordeal in of itself. Joon-ha gripes that he can only stay at Jae-suk's right because he's left-handed, and Suk-jin has the opposite problem. Are they going to be stuck here all day?

As Haha and Gary get crushed by the Spartakooks clones (who continuously chant "Acorn Jelly!"), they urge Ji-hyo to hurry. Haha: "Think of [the dish] as your favorite liquor!"

Unfortunately, one of their balloons pop just before Ji-hyo can finish, and I love that they eat the rest of it. After all, you can't let good food go to waste.

Yi-hyun volunteers to eat for the Yellow Team, and she's so focused on her own task that she barely listens to her teammates jokingly complain about their balloons. Kwang-soo gives her an earful when she jumps the gun and starts to eat before the whistle blows. He teases, "Are you playing the game or just hungry?"

The look of determination on Jong-kook's face cracks me up. Yi-hyun is all smiles as she eats whereas the boys struggle against the mounting pressure. They also fail the mission at the sound of a pop, and Kwang-soo earns another round of scolding from Coach Kookie.

Haha jokes that there's no teamwork among the Yellow Team, and comments, "All they do is fight!"

In an effort to see the Blue Team fail, Kwang-soo hilariously climbs into the car after Haha. The tactic works, but when Haha swears that he saw Kwang-soo deliberately pop the balloon, Ji-hyo marches over and angrily grabs his hair.

It's the Yellow Team's turn again and Haha is in awe at Jong-kook's ability to withstand the pressure. ("You could fit two balloons there!") Yi-hyun raises her head to check on her teammates and bursts in laughter at the sight. Hahaha, it really does look like a clown car from here.

Haha tugs on a bit of Kwang-soo's hair to return the favor, and the Monday Couple joins in to disfigure his face. Ha, and they even take a selca together to document the moment as Kwang-soo yelps in pain.

Yi-hyun is still busy consuming the rest of her bowl and she's just about to whistle to end it… and no sound comes out. Then she quickly explains, "I usually can't whistle!" Both of her teammates' faces read, What?!

She does manage to do it after a few more tries, and when her exhausted teammates look to her for a word of encouragement, she tips her bowl towards them as if to say See, I did a lot too! The Yellow Team rolls the die and advances two more spaces.

Even though the Red Team's reshuffled positions look a bit awkward, they manage to easily beat Myuk PD. Omg, did Joon-ha really just finish his bowl of noodles in five bites? Ha, then he looks at his teammates bowls with these hungry eyes that make me laugh.

In the car, Yi-hyun acknowledges that she was too busy eating to see her teammates suffer in the clown car. She then tunes them out as they jokingly rib her for not encouraging them earlier, and Kwang-soo points out: "Look how she's just staring at her nails!"

They arrive at the market where they'll use their five senses to identify a type of food and then buy the correct item. When Coach Kookie instructs his teammates to pull their ears through the hole to "hear" the food better, Yi-hyun comments, "Jong-kook nags too much."

Kwang-soo is up first and he instinctively reels at the squishy sound. Then he freaks out when the mysterious food item is put up to his ear. (It's a sea cucumber.) Ack, it's always scarier when you can't see what it is.

His teammates have a similar reaction, and Jong-kook whines, "It felt like a tongue!" Hee. On their way out, Yi-hyun alerts Kwang-soo to the pile of poo on the ground. Astounded, Kwang-soo asks: "You didn't put this on our ears, right?!"

The ever-cowardly Jae-suk pulls back at the rough texture of the herb root. Suk-jin seems pretty confident about his guess ("Didn't it feel like dried squid"), but they set off to the market without the faintest idea of what to find.

The Yellow Team picks up some rice cakes, convinced that the sensation against their ears is similar to the mysterious item. It's kind of adorable how Yi-hyun brightly asks the ajumma if they can have a taste, even though it's still in the packaging.

They soon run into the Red Team, who teaches Kwang-soo the proper way of eating his snack by stealing it. Aw. However, I am more concerned about how they're snacking on rice cakes—how do you expect to eat all the food today if you fill yourself up on rice?!

Joon-ha stumbles upon the herb root, and though his gut feeling suggests that this might be right, Jae-suk talks him out of it. Aw, so close and yet so far.

We catch up with the Blue Team who are tasked to consume sweet potatoes without blinking. Gary retorts, "Blinking is a habit for me." Hahaha, it is for everyone.

Ji-hyo impressively stuffs her piece in one bite, but she doubles over in laughter when Gary bursts in horror: "It's spoiled!" Oh god, I'm dying. The best part is that he keeps eating it. Which, ew.

Both teams at the market are disappointed to find that they've missed the mark. But Jong-kook doesn't miss an opportunity to rub salt into the Red Team's wound and acts as if their item was easy to identity. They spar for a few rounds, but Jae-suk's big mouth stirs Jong-kook's ire and the hyungs step in to apologize on his behalf.

Once they're alone, Suk-jin acknowledges Joon-ha's keenly sensitive ear. So when Jae-suk expresses his lack of confidence with his ear, Joon-ha asks, "Then what is your strength?" Then Jae-suk points to his mouth. HA.

They catch a whiff of their next item (a type of fish), but just to make sure, they try to sniff each other's ears. Eww. A PD steps in to wipe any trace of the smell away, but at least they have something to go on this time, and head out.

Ha, did Kwang-soo just place a live crab near Jong-kook's ear? They wonder if they're on the right track this time… and the staff show us that they should really be looking for a pineapple. Hahaha.

It's not long before the two teams run into each other again and Jae-suk gets a few jabs in before they part ways. Both teams gather again after they pick up their respective guesses (and more snacks, ha) and engage each other in another spat.

It's pretty hilarious to see Jong-kook uncover a large pineapple which makes their guess of a conch look miniscule.

This time, Jong-kook places a mango by the Red Team's ear, and all of them are left confused by the fruit's smooth texture. ("Is it your hand?") And then, Jong-kook actually pinches Jae-suk's ear.

After another round of sniffing each other's ears, the Red Team heads to a fruit stand. They test out a few fruits before deciding on a mango. Eventually all the teams succeed their respective missions, and head out to their next location.

The Blue Team grows nervous at the sight of water jets when they arrive at the creek. As Ji-hyo leans on Gary for support as they walk down the steps. Haha gripes about being the third wheel, adding that he really does feel like Bang-ja next to the Chun-yang and Mong-ryong couple.

(The characters refer to a famous folktale Story of Chun-yang of two lovers, Chun-yang and Mong-ryong, in the Joseon era. Bang-ja was the servant of the nobleman's son, Mong-ryong.)

What's ironically amusing about this scene is that the background music is his wife Byul's new single, "You Are the Best." Ha.

When the cast is instructed to take off their mics, Haha is quick on the uptake and figures that they'll get a little wet today. His jaw drops when he hears that the creek is 170cm deep and looks envious at Gary, who says that he's only a few centimeters taller.

The cast will face off in a food quiz, and the entire Red Team volunteers to answer the questions. A few straightforward rounds of rock-paper-scissors later, Jae-suk stands next to the ladies on a rock while the others step into the chilly rock.

The first question is about meat, and I love how nervous Haha and Gary get when Ji-hyo shoots up her hand to answer the question. In their defense, we have seen how well it's worked out for them in the past.

Jae-suk fires any and every answer that comes to mind and the hyungs get blasted with water again and again and again. Hahaha. At one point, one of the jets malfunction, so the staff "correct" the issue by blasting them again.

Jae-suk has this devilishly mischievous smile on his face as he purposely gives the incorrect answer. By now, Ji-hyo has joined in and their teammates get hit with a few more jets before Yi-hyun sweeps in to get the right answer.

Joon-ha is hell-bent on revenge, but he manages to get the first correct answer for his team. Then the Blue Team objects to the questions' difficulty level—they're too hard for Ji-hyo—and she silently nods. Aw.

Soon, both the Red and Yellow Team are tied with two correct answers and need to answer one more to move on. Jae-suk is pumped when it's a question about proverbs (his relative strength), and the boys on the Blue Team advise: "Ji-hyo don't say anything!" She guesses anyway, and they get hit with another jet of water.

Yi-hyun pulls ahead for her team for first place and everyone heads inside to eat a lavish spread of food. Now this is just cruel.

I'm surprised that the food coma hasn't hit earlier and Joon-ha tries his best to fight sleep in the car. Jae-suk tries his best to keep his hyung awake to no avail as Joon-ha succumbs to slumber.

There isn't any food to consume at the next mission, but the Yellow Team must correctly answer a question in order to move on. The catch is that two of them will ride a FlyFish, a massive inflatable that flies in the air. Ha, and Kwang-soo is so tall that his legs hang off of it.

Thankfully, any team member can provide a correct answer, and Jong-kook hangs back. (He's still recovering from a shoulder and back injury.)

The team is given a multiplication question (37x98x26), but before Kwang-soo and Yi-hyun can comprehend the question ("37…98… and what?!"), they go flying. And oh man, that looks both terrifying and so fun.

They can barely get a grip over their fear, let alone calculate the answer in their heads as they zip across the water and float in the air. Yi-hyun keeps repeating the question aloud until they arrive at the starting point. Unfortunately, Jong-kook don't get the right answer and all Yi-hyun can do is laugh at the ridiculousness.

The staff immediately sends the pair out again with another math question, and this time Jong-kook admits defeat just before they pull in again. Oh man, they're going to be out there for a while.

Elsewhere, the Blue and Red Teams gather to play a word-ending game where they'll need to start and end with the same word within a time limit.

After the Blue Team fails their first attempt, the mat-hyungs break into a confident smile and tease them for holding the time "bomb" so close. This is going to literally blow in their faces, isn't it? As expected, they start to panic as the timer ticks down, and they also fail.

Things look good for the Blue Team, who started with goguma (sweet potato). When Haha passes the bomb to Ji-hyo with the correct ending, she panics and yells out "Go-chu [pepper]!" instead.

Back by the water, the Yellow Team finally succeeds and Kwang-soo laments the loss of his hat, which flew into the water when they spun around. Myuk PD informs them that as long as they don't roll a one, they'll move to the final mission location. When they ask what it would be, Myuk PD answers: "A banana boat."

Ha, another water mission? Yi-hyun's legs crumple from beneath her, but thankfully, they roll a two and move on.

The other teams soon follow suit, and they all head to the final mission location, hoping to arrive first.

This final mission is pretty creative, where the first team to assemble their dominos on the life-size game board and knock down the domino hamburger center wins it. Time is the relative advantage, and the Yellow Team is the first to arrive.

Soon, all the teams work to construct their dominos, and Joon-ha voices his disappointment about not being able to participate in name-rippin' today. "That's why I came! Truthfully, I'm a spy!"

Twenty minutes later, the Yellow Team isn't far from the center, but an error on Jong-kook's part set them back a few feet. By the thirty minute mark, both the Red and Blue Teams announce their completed assembly.

They rush to knock over their respective dominos and it looks pretty close. Will the Blue Team's zigzag pattern be faster than the Red Team's curved path?

Everyone holds their breaths as the dominos approach the middle… and it's the Red Team who knocks the center dominos first. They celebrate in glee, and Joon-ha rips off his teammates' nametags. Hahaha, at least you got a taste of what it's like.

The Red Team is awarded with golden spoons, and the cast asks for Yi-hyun's final thoughts. Yi-hyun: "I'll watch from home from now on."