The South Korean k-pop idol group Bangtan Sonyeondan – better known around the world as BTS – has taken over the international music scene by storm.
Every year, they rake in multiple awards from both Asian and Western awards shows, and at this point, the only thing missing from their crown is a win from the Grammys.
It’s not just their vocal prowess, insanely difficult choreographies, jaw-dropping performance productions, or devastating good looks that their fans – collectively known as ARMY – love about them, though. They’re not the four-time Billboard Music Awards Top Social Artist winner for nothing, after all.
They also periodically release their own reality shows: behind-the-scenes at concerts/photoshoots, the Bon Voyage series that documents their holidays, the recent In the Soop series, and my personal favorite: the Run BTS variety show!
Watching their shows reminds ARMY that they’re regular people too, and takes them from “worldwide superstars” to “normal, relatable 20-something-year-olds”. It certainly helps that they are just so chaotic when they’re together – in the best possible way!
Their variety show Run BTS has about 140 episodes as of writing, and there are some truly hilarious ones in there! If I had to describe Run BTS in a nutshell, it would be this: the perfect remedy for when you’re having one of those Not So Great Days.
So we put together a quick list of the best and funniest Run BTS episode sets (as most consecutive episodes are connected to each other) that are guaranteed to have you falling out of your chair – and falling in love with each member of BTS.
Without further ado, except for a minor spoiler ahead warning, let’s get to the best and funniest Run BTS episodes!
Episode 24
Why we love it: BTS thought they were being treated to a trip to a night safari, only to be scared out of their seats with a “zombie” invasion.
After being divided into teams, they had to complete missions to win free tickets to the amusement park.
Several of the members get scared easily (Jin, Suga, J-Hope – I’m looking at you), and having zombies jump out at them out of nowhere is always a barrel of laughs.
BTS chaotic energy moment: J-Hope being dragged off the bus to help lift the barrier in front of the bus, only to lose his shoe while running away and screaming for his life.
Episode 33 – 34
Why we love it: We love secret missions! Each member randomly picked a “manito” – someone to receive their pre-prepared gift and also the target of their secret mission for the day.
At the end, they also had to guess who had picked them!
Not only were the games hilarious, but watching them crack up at everything was enough to have us falling out of our seats as well.
BTS chaotic energy moment: Jin and Suga failing miserably at the “Freeze Frame” game, everyone shamelessly cheating off each other in “Find the Difference”, and V offering to sell Suga’s gift to him to ARMY online.
Episode 39 and 41 (ep. 40 is an unrelated New Year special!)
Why we love it: Jin is an MC extraordinaire, and I’d argue that about 95% of the hilarity came from his skills and energy as the gamemaster.
Even with the slight language barrier in the game using Korean puns and wordplay, international viewers will still bust out laughing thanks to Jin.
We also get a rare view of Suga coming out of his shell and dancing maniacally.
BTS chaotic energy moment: Episode 41 is where Jimin’s absolutely iconic “lajibolala” line came from, and that’s all we have to say about that.
Episode 53 – 56
Why we love it: BTS went on a little road trip to spend some time in another house, and their shenanigans were filmed over four whole episodes of Run BTS!
From the bus ride out and grocery shopping for food to their personal downtime, the games and fun never stopped.
The best part, though, was the very end of episode 56: they gathered around a campfire and read poems they personally wrote for the other members. It really tugs at the heartstrings!
BTS chaotic energy moment: J-Hope, Jungkook, V, and Jimin slapping each others’ butts as hard as they can as punishment for laughing first – and then Jin sneaking into the background to watch them.
Episode 63 – 65
Why we love it: It just doesn’t get any funnier than watching ultra-talented, superstar musicians struggle to read notes and play a classical piece using bells.
Their last game in episode 65 is one of the best even to this day! Each of them is given two unknown “forbidden” words assigned by the other members – every time they say the words, they get sprayed with water and the results are hysterical.
BTS chaotic energy moment: J-Hope getting sprayed with water almost every time he opens his mouth because one of his forbidden words is “hahaha” – and he’s known for laughing at pretty much everything!
Episode 81 – 82
Why we love it: BTS has done a couple of arcade/gaming episodes on Run BTS, but this was their first using a virtual reality set-up.
It’s no surprise that the competitive golden maknae Jungkook dominated in every game, nor was it a surprise that J-Hope was terrified on the VR rollercoaster!
The horror game at the end even had V and Jin having minor meltdowns.
BTS chaotic energy moment: During J-Hope’s turn to walk on a plank over the edge of the building (VR, of course) and Jin pushed him over as a prank, and J-Hope fell to his knees screaming and swearing at the top of his lungs.
Episode 83 – 85
Why we love it: The question is, why wouldn’t we be absolutely in love with these episodes? The BTS boys are at a water park and they’ve got every inflatable imaginable: giant slides, rings pulled by a speedboat, and even an obstacle course!
Each challenge was a competition amongst themselves, of course, with V’s “BT —- ever” on the giant slide becoming one of the most iconic moments of these episodes!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Honestly, the entire obstacle course challenge with everyone slipping, sliding, and falling flat on their backs trying to get to the rubber ball first. Especially when everyone teamed up against Jungkook and he still won!
Episode 89 – 90
Why we love it: Because the BTS telepathy is so real here, plus it’s so soothing to see how well they really know their own songs.
After dividing into two teams, their challenges in these episodes involved guessing their song titles and/or lyrics based on the other members’ drawings, charades, and audio tracks played backwards!
And let me tell you – they’re pretty good at it!
BTS chaotic energy moment: It’s a toss-up between Suga’s goofy dancing to avoid the penalty and V just staring open-mouthed at him, and Jimin falling out of his chair (again) and Jungkook coming over to help him up only to trip over Jimin’s feet and fall over himself.
Episode 102 – 103
Why we love it: J-Hope being both MC and judge, first of all, was absolute sunshine.
On top of that, the challenge was to cook the chosen dishes in two teams of three members, led by the BTS resident chefs Suga and Jin.
The thing is, the leaders can only observe from another room and instruct their two team members through a walkie-talkie – one cooking while the other passing on instructions. Cue *chaos*.
BTS chaotic energy moment: When an impatient Jin turned into a rapper when telling V to slide the chicken onto the pan and to use a spatula instead of his hands, followed by both Jin and Jungkook shouting when V picked up a ladle instead. Protect V at all costs!
Episode 112 – 113
Why we love it: Jin is the “teacher” here, and BTS is back in “school”; the members are paired up as teams and each challenge is disguised as a school subject.
Music was playing a recorder and melodica; Korean was a grammar quiz; Art was finding the difference; Chinese was secretly eating behind Jin’s back; and P.E. was team limbo!
Personally, I loved this because I stan TaeGi (V and Suga’s friendship nickname) and they had so many hilarious moments!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Jungkook blatantly cheating off of RM and then having a tantrum when they got the answer wrong! Also, Suga arguing with V about taking another turn at limbo, only to crack and give in to whatever V wants.
Episode 116
The challenge: The theme of the episode was “teamwork”, so the challenges were intended not to pit them against each other but for them to work together to achieve the goal: to clear 5 of the 16 challenges and get to go home earlier.
Needless to say, they were pretty confident, and rightfully so – they worked so well together that they immediately cleared the first two challenges with hardly a hiccup.
BTS chaotic energy moment: In between each challenge they’d get a 30-minute break to eat or play with the various arcade games provided to pass the time.
At one point, there were just so many things happening at once: Jin and Jimin dancing, RM shooting hoops, J-Hope munching on snacks, V and Jungkook doing karaoke, and Suga quietly doing a jigsaw puzzle in the middle of it all. This is also when Jungkook decided to use a, erm, “trick” to score the highest in arcade basketball!
Episode 119
The challenge: We love a solo challenge; there’s nothing funnier than seeing their competitive sides rise to the surface and cause them to sabotage each other.
This time, they needed to collect post-its hidden around the cafe that indicated a “who”, “what”, and “where”, put them together to form one situation, and then take a photo according to what it says. For example, “stretching with J-Hope in front of a plant” was one of Suga’s tasks – that J-Hope ended up running away from!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Okay, I don’t want to spoil how this episode ends because it is just TOO. GOOD. Just pure *chef’s kiss*.
All you should know is that it caused Jungkook to lose it, and anything that gets a reaction like the photo below is bound to be hilarious!!
Episode 121
The challenge: Ah, BTS big brain things. Ever so often, the crew will devise an amazingly complex challenge that involves gathering clues and solving a “whodunnit” type of mystery. This episode is exactly that!
Each member is given a role within the BTS Village (detective, hairdresser, businessman, etc.) and through investigating each member’s home or workplace, they needed to find clues to figure out who broke the village’s precious ARMY headstone!
BTS chaotic energy moment: When they were right down to the last bit of debating who the two-man culprits were! There’s always a lot of yelling (and low-key good acting) to convince the others that they’re innocent, and this episode did not disappoint.
Jungkook was floored that they kept pinning him as one of the criminals!
Episode 123
The challenge: Earlier in the article, I included the Avatar Chef episodes and now we’ve got the latter half of their Reverse Avatar Chef segment!
Instead of resident chefs Jin and Suga relaying instructions to their team members, it’s the members instructing them both through walkie-talkies. And, ooh boy is it a doozy.
This episode has V and J-Hope teamed up and despite it being one mishap after another, their dishes actually turned out pretty well!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Their team was supposed to make kimchi sujebi, a soup-based dish with hand-torn noodles. In true “I don’t know what to do in the kitchen” fashion, the dough was a complete disaster without enough time to rest. Jin even called it an octopus because it was just a giant, sticky…blob.
This episode also has a very rare glimpse of a frustrated J-Hope, which makes it even funnier.
Episode 126
The challenge: The crew prepared 14 games, some with solo tasks while others had them competing in pairs, and their mission was to complete all 14 before being allowed to go home.
The punishment for the member who came in last? Complete a successful domino trail saying “BTS”; if the dominos stop, he’ll have to start over. Lots of whining, and a whole lot of yelling.
BTS chaotic energy moment: Every single time Suga failed or lost at one of the games and whined (which happened pretty much every time), but absolutely rocked that last one (in the next episode) and still managed to go home first.
Episode 127
The challenge: We just had to include the continuation of the previous challenge because it was too difficult to choose between the two episodes!
Now the members are well into the second batch of challenges, some of which include blowing a bubble through a hoop, flipping half-filled bottles of water, and the last one everyone (except Suga) got stuck on: flicking the bottle caps out from under the upturned bottles.
BTS chaotic energy moment: J-Hope having an existential crisis, saying “I am a singer but why am I doing these things?” had me wheezing!
Then him cracking up and just losing it in the hoop challenge was a riot.
Episode 128
The challenge: As sad as I am that Suga is absent from this episode while still recovering from his shoulder surgery, this episode still had me laughing uncontrollably.
There were three games: the first was to guess the liar, the second to guess the song played by harmonica, and a stop-go relay race of sorts.
This episode celebrated the Korean New Year so everything – even the punishments – was good, lighthearted fun.
BTS chaotic energy moment: Can I just say the entire 41 minutes of it? Randomly calling Suga to choose between RM and Jimin as the liar, J-Hope shamelessly stealing V’s (correct) answer in the harmonica game, Jungkook’s giggles as J-Hope caught up to him in the stop-go game, and of course: V smoothly planting a swift kiss on Jin’s cheek as he got too close.
You could even hear the crew members laughing so loudly throughout the entire episode!
Episode 132
The challenge: After dividing into two teams of three, they had to debate over a random topic; there were 7 rounds of 11 minutes, with each member taking turns to be the debate moderator.
The twist? They would be endlessly barraged with either a fountain of water over their heads or water jets straight to the face every time they said the “forbidden word” or “forbidden action”.
Needless to say, it was a neverending water assault over both this episode and the first half before it!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Sometimes, they would intentionally trigger the water jets just for kicks, other times it was because they couldn’t figure out the forbidden actions.
Also, their debate rebuttals just kept getting more and more ridiculous. Between RM arguing that rice grains have “grain rights” and Suga diving into the wordplay origins of kelp, by the 4th round absolutely nothing was making sense anymore.
Episode 134
The challenge: This is the second installment in a three-part series, and it’s the episode that featured the two dance challenges.
First, they had to guess which of their songs was being performed by a non-dancer in the video; second, they had to continue guessing but the choreography instructions were simply written down – they had to make sense of it first!
BTS chaotic energy moment: As dance leader, you’d think that J-Hope would have these challenges in the bag. The fact that he kept getting his answers wrong, on top of Jin’s teasing, made his mistakes all the more hilarious.
Watching them completely misunderstand the written instructions for their dances was definitely the highlight, though! Not sure what V was trying to do in this photo, honestly.
Episode 137
The challenge: Suga is still missing from this episode (I’m sad) but this means the three teams are evenly divided with two members each: Jimin and Jungkook, RM and V, and Jin and J-Hope.
Their goal is to accumulate points through a series of games; these points will allow them to claim food prizes and use these as bets to double their points. Bet a snack and get the answer wrong, however, and you lose the betting snack. The winning team gets a set of prime Hanwoo beef!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Definitely when Jungkook, V, and Jin jump up at the same time to answer the question, with Jungkook just SCREAMING their team name at the top of his lungs.
The show’s editors superimposed a pterodactyl on top of his face and, I mean, that’s an accurate comparison.
Special mention to when Jimin and Jungkook get another correct answer after he uses a “chance” lifeline to ask his mother for the right answer (and again, he just yells into the phone to thank her).
Episode 140
The challenge: Episodes 140 and 141 were in collaboration with a popular Korean variety show called The Game Caterers; in fact, these two are only half of the entire collab while the other half is on The Game Caterers’ YouTube channel!
BTS was originally told that this would just be another team event, so imagine their surprise when Na PD, the host of The Game Caterers, popped up!
I may be biased but these collab episodes are probably my favorite so far.
BTS chaotic energy moment: Oh, so many.
The side-splitting stuff came during the first game with Na PD: the figure quiz, where they had to name the celebrity whose picture was shown and every wrong answer led to one less dish for lunch.
Them immediately giving up their album, Jungkook’s stutter and swearing on ARMY that he said the right answer, Jin lowkey threatening Na PD, V’s “Ricaprio” and the uproar at not knowing RDJ, J-Hope’s “Curtain” and Jimin just… not knowing anyone, basically.
Episode 141
The challenge: Most of the episode was dedicated to one game: a music quiz.
Basically, there’s a makeshift board set up like Jeopardy, with categories and their corresponding points to choose from.
Each category chosen will reveal a hint that they would then use to provide their answer.
The kicker was that each category also had another hidden point system, and you would lose this value for every time you answered incorrectly.
BTS chaotic energy moment: In order to answer the hint, the BTS members would have to shout out the individual slogan they had made before the start of the game.
You can probably imagine just how loud it got with multiple members shouting at the same time!
However, it was probably Jungkook doing a random headstand after getting a wrong answer that really hit home.
Episode 147
The challenge: It’s the concluding episode of a three-part serial that had BTS in historical costumes, playing roles, hunting for clues to solve a mystery, and of course, figuring out who among them are the thieves!
The first two parts of this focused on them collecting clues; this last episode, however, stood out because of how extremely confusing it got when they were trying to pinpoint the thieves – especially when SUGA’s spectacular body language skills really shone a spotlight on Jungkook as the culprit.
BTS chaotic energy moment: The back-and-forth over whether Jungkook was a thief or if he was innocent; the way he kept pouting when they’d accuse him was both hilarious and adorable.
This was made even funnier when the staff pranked him into thinking he was a thief even when he wasn’t, and the confusion on his face made them all burst out laughing.
Add to this V’s absolute tantrum at being blamed as a thief because they said he kept playing with the stray cats; “Is it wrong to love animals!?” is iconic.
The punishment for the two thieves was just the cherry on top; V definitely got his revenge!
Episode 154
The challenge: Not gonna lie, this episode was bittersweet. Viewers were given the heads up that this was Part 1 of a “finale” before they would ‘rest’ from Run! BTS for a while.
After over 150 episodes and around 7 years, they definitely deserve a break.
The theme for this finale was basically a walk down memory: reliving previous Run! BTS episodes through categories that ARMY had voted on weeks prior: first episode we watched, funniest episodes (most of which are on this list!), games that we’d like to see again, and more.
BTS chaotic energy moment: It was just generally a fantastic time watching clips from some of their greatest episodes, and watching them relive it and laugh as well.
It was heartwarming to realize that they’re all just as much of a fan of the show as we all are!
One particular moment that made us actually LOL was at the beginning when RM said the theme was “literally Run! BTS” and that they would have to run the entire 30km back to their company building – the looks on their faces were priceless.
Episode 155
The challenge: If Episode 154 was bittersweet, Episode 155 was pretty much heartbreaking.
We were prepared for it to be a finale before a long break of an unknown period, but Run! BTS has been such a huge source of comfort for ARMY that even though the boys themselves assured us that they’ll be back, we knew we were going to miss it dearly.
Thankfully, this was quite a lengthy episode and we did get our fill (of laughs and tears)!
BTS chaotic energy moment: They revisited some of our favorite games: trivia games from previous episodes, the photo zone game from episodes 33-34, and the water gun debate from episodes 63-65!
Almost every part of this had me in tears – either from laughing so hard (especially at RM losing his cool at his forbidden word being “butt” when their debate was literally about butts) or from crying because of their individual speeches about what Run! BTS has been for them over the years.
Special Episode Telepathy Part 1
The challenge: A whole 10 months after Run! BTS (which is arguably BTS’ most popular and well-loved online content) went on a break, ARMY rejoiced when a teaser for a ‘special episode’ was released out of the blue.
Based on the title alone, Telepathy, fans knew that it would once again be centered on a common favorite theme: testing how well the members actually know each other!
Telepathy Part 1 was mostly them playing games that require knowing how the others would think in order to complete a word (one Hangul character at a time) or strike the same pose.
BTS chaotic energy moment: Definitely during the writing game that required them to write just one character each to complete a phrase/word correctly. In particular, when the clue given to them was apparently so obvious — to everyone except J-Hope, that is.
The pressure was truly on as the other members goaded him with quips like “there’s no way you could get this wrong” and “you’re something else if you don’t get this”…only for him to get it completely wrong and have the others cause an uproar. Poor J-Hope.
Special Episode Telepathy Part 2
The challenge: Towards the latter part of Telepathy Part 1, the game moved outdoors, where the members were separated into cars, then given ‘keywords’ that they would have to associate with a specific place; the goal was to use their ‘telepathy’ to all end up in the same place.
This continued into Telepathy Part 2. Across several rounds, some of the members would meet up for some keywords while others ended up alone. It certainly took a few rounds but they did end up in the same place in the end!
BTS chaotic energy moment: As far as chaos goes, when it comes to Run! BTS, this one is actually pretty tame.
Just like in Telepathy Part 1 where J-Hope’s telepathy skills were called into question, it’s him on the chopping board this time, too.
He had already ended up alone at the Olympic Stadium during the first round, and he ends up alone again in the second round when he turns up at their old dorm only to find that he had JUST missed the bigger group of members that had found each other in the first round: RM, Jin, Jimin, and V. Poor J-Hope… again!
Special Episode Next Top Genius Part 1
The challenge: The games they played throughout Next Top Genius Part 1 and Part 2 were basically a test of whether they would be able to outwit and outsmart each other!
It’s the second game in this episode that will capture your heart – and your funny bone.
For this second game, the staff had told them it was a game that ARMY had been waiting a long time for them to play, and they were right!
Why? The game involves the members putting on sensory cat ears that would move and twitch as a response to their emotions.
In each round, the boys would receive a sentence prompt that they would have to respond to with ‘X’ (for ‘no’) or ‘O’ (for ‘yes’) on their paddles if they think it applies to them or not.
The thing is, one of them would NOT receive a prompt and would have to respond blindly. Their task would be to find out which one of them is lying!
BTS chaotic energy moment: Every single time one of them had to defend themselves and explain why they weren’t lying!
It’s pretty common knowledge that when it comes to games like these, they would throw each other under the bus in a heartbeat, as evidenced by their eagerness to point the finger of blame on any other member but themselves.
It was funny enough listening to them explain why showering once a week would be enough, but Jimin demonstrating how he would like if he dances while he cries is really what takes the cake!
Special Episode Mini Field Day Part 2
The challenge: Every time you put the BTS members into a competitive environment, you just know it’s going to be a fun time — especially when they’re pitted against each other!
Part 1 of the Mini Field Day special episodes were mostly one-on-one battles: ‘fencing’ with paint-covered styro-swords, mini volleyball, and ‘weightlifting’ with ping-pong balls.
It was the last challenge in Part 2 that really amped up the signature BTS competitiveness with Jin, Jungkook, and V on one team and Jimin, J-Hope, RM, and SUGA on the other.
BTS chaotic energy moment: This last challenge had them playing football in a blow-up pitch… covered in soap.
So yes, this was set up specifically to have them slipping, sliding, and falling on their butts every 30 seconds.
This entire match was chaos personified into 7 individuals; there was always something happening on various parts of the pitch that you wouldn’t know where to look anymore!
From Jimin fighting for his life to not fall over to Jungkook kicking the ball intentionally towards RM, to RM then screaming “I’m sorry!” at the top of his lungs, it was truly a sight to behold.
Of course, this was yet another bittersweet episode that ended up being much more heart-wrenching than the last one that announced Run! BTS would be taking a break.
As ARMYs know, BTS has since announced that they would be going on a years-long break from group activities to serve their mandatory service in the South Korean military.
These special episodes were a gift to tide us over, but Mini Field Part 2 was seemingly the last one (at least until they all return from service in 2025) as soon after filming, Jin was the first to enter into service.
Of course, we all know that it’s not a hiatus or a break-up at all, as evidenced by the releases of their individual music albums and the abundance of other content!
Still, Run! BTS has always had a special place in our ARMY hearts. We’ll all wait patiently until the show – and more importantly, BTS — returns!
To wrap up
I’m not going to lie – narrowing this down was tough because each episode has its moments of pure comedy.
I mean, the members of BTS are hilarious enough on a regular day but when you put them in a playful, often competitive, environment, the chaos explodes. Apparently, they’re not just born singers – they’re natural comedians, too.
Run! BTS may be on a break for now, but we know that we would wait no matter how long it takes for it to return. Until then, there’s never a bad time to jump onto VLive and binge-watch the entire thing all over again!
And you might also be interested in the variety shows of other K-Pop idol groups such as TXT’s TO DO or ENHYPEN’s En-O’Clock.