This clip of a 'news reporter' falling into a stream was made by a comedy group

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 2, 2021 at 04:22
1 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

A video of a "journalist" falling into a stream in the middle of a broadcast has been shared in Facebook and YouTube posts in South Korea that claim it shows a genuine news report. However, the video is intended as a joke; it was originally posted to YouTube by a comedy crew, who told AFP the video was created for satirical purposes.

"A legendary broadcast accident on the nine o’clock news at Cheonggye Stream," reads a Korean-language Facebook post shared on August 20.

The video shows a man who seems to be a news presenter accidentally falling into a stream in the middle of a broadcast on summer city getaways.

Text in the top-left corner features the headline: "Diverse getaways you can enjoy in Seoul".

Screenshot of the misleading claim on Facebook, captured August 31, 2021

Similar posts were shared on Facebook here, here and here, as well as here on YouTube.

Comments on them suggest some social media users believed it was a genuine news report.

"I feel sorry for the reporter but I can't help but laugh," wrote one user on Daum Cafe.

"I hope he wasn't hurt," another commented on YouTube.

However, the video was intended as a joke.

The original video can be found here on a YouTube channel run by South Korean comedy team BDNS, which has more than 290,000 subscribers.

The group says on its 'About' page that it makes "hyper-realistic skits and comedy videos".

The group has previously done similar skits mimicking news broadcasts with the same actor, as seen here and here.

A representative for BDNS confirmed to AFP that the video was created by the group and that it was made "for satirical purposes".

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