We’re back with another variety show article with K-Pop at its heart!
Like our previous articles on the best episodes from BTS’ Run! BTS and TXT’s To Do, we’re putting together a list of funniest episodes from a K-Pop variety show and this time, we’ve got idol boy group ENHYPEN at the front and center.
ENHYPEN is a seven-member idol group from South Korea under the Belift Lab label – a company formed by music industry giant Hybe, which also manages both BTS and TXT.
The group was formed through a competitive reality show called I-Land back in 2020, and the top 7 winners (Jungwon, Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, and Ni-ki) debuted as a group on November 30, 2020.
Like BTS and TXT, ENHYPEN has their own variety show too – and it’s just as entertaining and downright hilarious!
Theirs is called En-O’Clock and new episodes drop on YouTube, Weverse, and VLive every Thursday at 8 pm KST.
So, we’ve put together a list of the best and funniest episodes of En-O’Clock so far!
It was tough to narrow it down from the episodes available, but here we go!
Episode 9
Why we love it: The boys were taken on a trip out of the city in Episode 8.
When they arrived, they were given 90 minutes to set up their ‘base camp’ with a tent and even interior design.
They also got some free time to play and eat before starting their Sports Tournament – which brings us to this episode. We love a little friendly competition!
Laugh out loud moment: The second game of their Sports Tournament was foot volleyball with a twist: every English word they said would result in -1 point from their current score.
However, because they kept slipping up with “okay”, neither team could even get 1 point on the board!
The staff had to change the rules to start the scoreboard at 10, and they were losing points so quickly that Jay, who was their referee, just fully gave up and tossed the scoreboard onto the ground.
Episode 12
Why we love it: After watching them play sports during their outdoor retreat, we were excited to see the ENHYPEN members having fun outdoors again!
This time, they were headed to an adventure park that had all sorts of obstacle courses and activities set up.
In this episode, their second task was a suspended obstacle course, and oh boy was anyone really surprised that Ni-ki blazed through it like it was nothing?
Meanwhile the other members, well, struggled.
Laugh out loud moment: Probably every time one of the members hesitated, shouted about how scary it was, or begged one of the others to hurry up or stop shaking the hanging bridges!
One moment, in particular, stuck out: Heeseung, the eldest, crawling out of the circular bridge and gripping onto the pole for dear life.
This was only made funnier by the subtitles saying “[Losing it]” and “[Having a brief break with the log]”!
Episode 21
Why we love it: We love Christmas, we love a themed episode, and this is both of those put together!
Episode 21 is the show’s first Christmas episode, and the filming area is decked out in Christmas decorations with the boys even wearing festive sweaters.
Their first game was to “wrap Christmas gifts blindly”. Two members need to wrap their chosen gift within 2 minutes, but only the remaining 5 members could give them the instructions in order to match the example photo as closely as possible – in paper pattern, ribbon, and wrapping style!
Laugh out loud moment: When Jake and Sunghoon are tasked with wrapping a small basketball, Jay just, well, cheated!
Instead of giving detailed instructions, he just pointed out a similarly wrapped gift behind them and said “Wrap it like that!”, even justifying his cheating with “the staff made it that way, it’s not my fault”.
Episode 22
Why we love it: We know the ENHYPEN members are talented and all very athletic – whether it’s Sunghoon’s previous career in figure skating or Jake and Ni-ki’s well-known football skills.
Well, their athleticism is really put to the test in Episode 22 and 23, where they’re taking a Taekwondo class!
It was a joy to see them have so much fun learning the different techniques! They did well, too; Jungwon and Jay, both of whom have had experience, especially.
Well, most of them did well. Sunghoon was a slightly different story.
Laugh out loud moment: Not that potential injury is ever a laughing matter when it’s serious, but even their teacher and the other members couldn’t stop laughing when Sunghoon just…fell…flat on his butt while practicing their high kicks.
He recovered really well, but he was definitely not kicking as high during the next exercises.
Episode 32
Why we love it: Their team staff put together a real-life version of the popular mobile game Among Us, even having the members dressed in color-coordinated tracksuits to reflect the in-game characters!
There were two impostors amongst the members, and they had to explore their company’s building to find mission cards to complete.
If the ‘citizens’ completed at least seven missions and guessed the impostors before the latter could ‘kill’ their three targets, they would win!
Laugh out loud moment: Jay is known as the member who can, and will, sleep anywhere and at any chance he gets.
He lived up to this reputation seriously by lugging around a sleeping bag with him as he played so he could just lie down and sleep if he was ever ‘killed’ by an impostor (by the way, he was almost immediately ‘killed’ and he did, indeed, take a nap).
Episode 33
Why we love it: At the end of the previous Episode 32, all we wanted was another round of ENHYPEN’s version of Among Us so we’re so glad that Episode 33 gave us just that!
This time, the citizens only need to complete five missions; additionally, if only two citizens and at least one of the impostors’ identity remains unknown, the impostors win.
Laugh out loud moment: Once again, it was Jay that really cracked us up in this episode.
Sans sleeping bag, he was much more active in this round and even immediately set out to complete their missions.
In the end, it was Jay who delivered the winning clue: screaming for a team meeting at the top of his lungs after witnessing Jungwon ‘kill’ Sunoo.
Episode 35
Why we love it: Both BTS and TXT had mini esports tournaments in their respective shows, so we had just been waiting for ENHYPEN to have their turn, too!
It’s always fun to pinpoint which member has gaming skills and in which particular game. Plus, these tournaments always bring out a touch of the competitive side in them.
Episode 35 is the second of their esports two-parter, and it starts with them playing PUBG – first individually and then in pairs.
Laugh out loud moment: We were already laughing at Sunghoon – very surprisingly – being the group’s ace in the individual round, though he was eventually beaten by Sunoo.
In the pair round, Sunoo teams up with one of their team managers; Sunghoon gets his revenge by taking over the manager’s game controls and attacking Sunoo, resulting in a team kill and a very frustrated Sunoo.
It was him shaking their manager’s chair and yelling “Why did you kill me!” that sealed it.
Episode 36
Why we love it: Any time a Mafia game is played, you can be sure that there’s going to be plenty of chaos and betrayal.
This is the last episode available as of writing, but it’s pretty clear that the next one (or next few, even) will continue this saga.
Episode 36 seems to be their ‘pre-game’, where they are undergoing a series of tasks to ‘improve their Mafia skills’.
In particular, this first one has them undergoing a polygraph test – with a real polygrapher! – while answering questions tailored specifically for them by the remaining members.
Laugh out loud moment: The members crafted the questions with the sole purpose of catching each other in a lie.
While some had chosen to just be honest, it was those moments of being caught red-handed in their lies that had us rolling, especially when it’s revealed that Jungwon, the group’s leader but also the second-youngest, does get annoyed when the older members don’t listen to him.
Episode 37
Why we love it: After the chaos and confusion in the previous episode, we just couldn’t wait for this one where they’re actually playing the real Mafia game.
The first round had them split between 3 mafia and 4 citizens, and it’s always that moment when the mafia’s identities are revealed to each other that raises stakes – now they have to secretly protect each other so they don’t lose.
In the second round, there were only 2 mafia: one of whom we had to guess too!
Laugh out loud moment: The first round had Jay, Jake, and Jungwon as the mafia.
For most of the first round, the members kept repeating that Jake is horrible at these kinds of games because he can’t lie and it’s really obvious when he’s the mafia.
So when Jake was picked to be the mafia again in the second round, they all knew there was no way he would be getting away with it.
Episode 43
Why we love it: Episode 43 is a continuation of the previous episode; sadly they were supposed to film a big race episode outdoors but a heavy downpour of rain the previous night had them switching gears to an indoor shoot instead.
After an impromptu “meeting” among members and staff on what they can do for the next episodes, they just began playing an assortment of games.
Laugh out loud moment: At the start of this episode, they’re about to start the Speed Quiz where one member has to jump on a trampoline while giving clues about a keyword, and the other member has to guess what the word is.
They were doing so well until they got to Ni-ki (who, to be fair, could justifiably struggle with a Korean word game as a native Japanese!), and their allotted time ended with Jungwon exhausted on the floor and no points.
Episode 44
Why we love it: We’ve gotten ‘horror’ content from ENHYPEN before in the form of their short videos exploring dark buildings during their various filmings.
Now, we’ve got a full-blown horror mystery set-up going for them and OH BOY did they deliver.
Their task was to find all 7 keys in order to escape this seemingly abandoned building, while also following these rules: no entering restricted areas, no moving in groups of more than 4 people for more than 1 minute, and no eye contact with the masked “safety agents” roaming the hallways.
Laugh out loud moment: It’s the moment of pure fear and shrieking with Jake that will have you in tears.
He had already had a scare just moments before with Sunghoon, Heeseung, Jungwon, and Ni-ki when an agent turned up to chase them since there were 5 of them together.
Jake and Sunghoon went off on their own and Jake was midway through explaining what the agent looked like.
As they turned the corner, Jake caught a glimpse of another agent and practically barreled backwards into Sunghoon while screaming.
He even dropped his camera while running away, Sunghoon hot on his tail despite not even knowing why they were running.
Honestly I’ve replayed this scene a few dozen times and it never gets any less funny.
Episode 45
Why we love it: Several of the ENHYPEN members are known to have a preference for maintaining their toned muscles — Sunghoon in particular, and Jay on occasion has mentioned working out more as well.
So it makes sense for an exercise episode to come out at some point!
They were divided into 3 groups and 3 levels of the HYBE company gym, with each round consisting of a different challenge they would have to complete to gain a benefit for the next: a free pass, fewer workout minutes, and even snacks.
Laugh out loud moment: Heeseung and Jungwon definitely got the short end of the stick in the first round, having to do a wall squat against each other’s backs (as seen in the photo above!).
Heeseung made his pain known to literally everyone by screaming “Just kill me now!” at the top of his lungs.
Episode 47
Why we love it: To honor their recently released webtoon titled Dark Moon, Episode 47 is themed after the concept — two rival schools of werewolves and vampires.
Of course, the episode has none of the supernatural elements and instead has the ENHYPEN members dressed in their uniforms and forming their own two after-school clubs.
The catch is, they have to keep their group’s club name and purpose a secret while trying to guess the other groups’!
Laugh out loud moment: It was chaotic almost from the get-go with Sunoo complaining about his group’s suggestions (one of them was Sunghoon’s “club for people with flat feet”, so you can’t blame him!).
It’s during the real-life fruit card game, however, that’ll have Engenes uwu-ing over the non-playing members snacking on the game props and snickering at Ni-ko falling straight out of his chair.
Episode 49
Why we love it: The ENHYPEN members were split into 7 individual rooms with nothing to keep them preoccupied, which one it’s own is already a recipe for boredom and disaster!
They were given a budget of ₩1,000,000 and a menu with one instruction: anything they ordered off the menu (food and items to keep them busy) would cost them, and they all also had one forbidden action each that would cost them money if accidentally triggered.
Laugh out loud moment: Before going into their assigned rooms the members had to suggest prohibited actions for each other and it’s just so adorable how well they know each other!
They thought of everything that could possibly trap their fellow members, from their common phrases, not saying anything in English, mannerisms, and even Jay not being allowed to get up!
Episode 50
Why we love it: Episode 50 is a continuation of the previous Forbidden Room episode, but now they have to search for the code to the combination lock keeping them locked inside.
Once they’re all out, they have to randomly choose a secret item to keep hidden and intact over a certain period of time.
The members who are successful get to share the leftover prize money from their initial ₩1,000,000 budget!
Laugh out loud moment: Just the absolute chaos of the boys when trying to keep their secret items out of reach of each other.
They were supposed to hide them, but they ended up chasing after each other to destroy the items before even giving anyone a chance to hide theirs!
Poor Jake had his weakness to tickles used against him as Jay, Jungwon, and Sunoo had him on the floor at their mercy.
Episode 54
Why we love it: Just watching them play around on the ice during their free time at the start of the episode is a heartwarming reminder that despite being talented worldwide idols, they’re still just kids who love to mess around and have fun!
In this winter-themed episode, they’re playing a modified version of Freeze Tag where the end goal is for the team of “runners” (Jay, Jungwon, Sunoo, and Sunghoon) to fill up the ice box at the center of the skating rink before the “taggers” (Ni-ki and Jake) freeze ¾ of them at the same time, or before they have both their balloons popped (signaling they’re out of the game).
Laugh out loud moment: In the second round, after Sunghoon and Sunoo had been caught and frozen, Jungwon is seen trying to creep his way around the area to get closer to the ice box.
His tactic? Walking behind a cardboard cut-out of the Little Prince — a scene that was both hilarious and adorable.
He even attempts to unfreeze Sunoo, which just leads to Sunoo’s second balloon popping and an ungodly screech of “Why did you unfreeze me!?!” ripping out of his mouth.
Episode 56
Why we love it: The boys are baking under the tutelage of a chef from the renowned culinary institute Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and it’s clear they’re really leaning into their pastry chef personas!
They were so eager to learn and do well, and they immediately got along with their instructor — so much so that Heeseung had almost had him believing that he also lived in France!
It’s always a pleasant episode when the members really get into the task at hand (and considering this one was to bake a chocolate tart, that’s not surprising!).
Laugh out loud moment: HYBE editors for their groups’ variety shows are notorious for making great edits and captions, and En O’Clock is no exception!
When the members are introducing themselves at the beginning, the editors had hilariously nicknamed Sunghoon “Elsa Park from the Ice Kingdom” — a poke at his history as an Olympic figure skater!
Another golden moment can be seen in the photo above: Jake (who is known for being easily surprised) almost jumping out of his skin when the boiling cream popped out of the pot.
Episode 57
Why we love it: Both BTS and TXT (ENHYPEN’s 선배, or ‘seniors’ at their company, HYBE) have had their versions of the pajama party episodes on their respective variety shows.
Going on those episodes alone, we knew right away that ENHYPEN’s pajama party episode would be just as entertaining to witness.
It’s filled with fun and games and food of course, and their friendly competition is always so endearing especially when it comes to food!
There’s a shout-out to BTS and TXT as well and as a fan of all these groups, I live for these crossover crumbs!
Laugh out loud moment: During their free time at the beginning, Heeseung grabs the microphone and after confirming that the episode would air BEFORE their next album release, cheekily starts singing one of their newest yet-unreleased songs.
Knowing their history with accidental spoilers, the other members froze and they even zoomed into Sunoo and Ni-ki’s face to show their wary eyes practically shaking.
Jungwon saved the day by saying it’s fine if it’s blurred out, which is exactly what the editors did!
As an Engene myself, I’m thankful they edited out that spoiler because as of writing, their newest album (and said song that Heeseung spoiled) is coming out in just two weeks!