Jeong Hyeong-don

Jeong Hyeong-don
Born	(1978-02-07) February 7, 1978 Busan, South Korea
Medium	Stand-up, television
Nationality	South Korean
Years active	2002-present
Genres	Comedy, Entertainment
Influences	Yoo Jae-suk, Park Myeong-su
Influenced	No Hongchul, Gil Seong-jun, Jeong Ga-eun
Spouse	Han Yu-ra, television writer
Notable works and roles	Member of Infinite Challenge and Gag Concert

Jeong Hyeong-don (born February 7, 1978^[1] ) is a South Korean comedian and entertainer.

Biography

After graduating Busan Electronic Technical (senior) High School in 1996, he served for Samsung Electronics in Suwon as an engineer. Before entering the Korean entertainment industry, he was a member of a comedy team with his colleagues at Samsung.^[2]

His television debut was on the KBS Gag Concert in 2002, with a segment called "Doremi Trio" (도레미 트리오). In this segment, he sang parts of K-pop songs with comedic punches at the end. After its huge success, he joined as a panel (and co-host) of Korean variety shows, including MBC's Sunday Sunday Night, ! (exclamation mark), and KBS' Imagination Plus, etc.

As of January 2009, he is a part of both Infinite Challenge and We Got Married. After initially being paired up with Saori, Jung was eventually given a "roommate" role alongside Crown J and Seo In Young. After their departure in January 2009, Jung was then paired up with Girls' Generation leader Taeyeon, which made headlines but also caused a major uproar among netizens due to the 11-year age difference and SNSD's (and Taeyeon's) large fanbase. The 'couple', along with the rest of the 'couples', left the show since WGM was to follow a new format with real celebrity couples. Also, Hyungdon was already in a relationship at the time of WGM.

He now hosts the program Weekly Idol in MBC Every1.

Infinite Challenge

Characters

He is a founding member of MBC's flagship real-variety comedy program Infinite Challenge. During early episodes, he presents his ability for anything, except making people laugh. That makes his character as an "Awkward Piggy" (어색한 뚱보). He has the least amount of nicknames among the members of Infinite Challenge. This was pointed out on the 100th Episode (101st on TV) during the 100 minute debate. He is often seen as amusement because he can do anything well besides entertaining. In the 100th Episode (101st on TV), he was doing archery and was to get exactly 100 points, he often hit high points and got up to 100 points pretty quickly for a first-timer. But he went over 100 and was scolded by members because none of them so far succeeded in any of the 100th Episode competitions.

On January 1, 2011, during its 230th episode broadcast, he awarded MuDo Member of the year 2010, with almost half of the netizens on iMBC.com voting for him. (49 percent; 8,940 votes). He received twice as many votes as the highly-recognized and host-in-chief of the program, Yoo Jae-suk(4,393 votes; 24%). During his acceptance speech, he said "It took a 5 and a half years from 'Awkward Piggy' to 'Mijon Gaeoh'.(an abbreviation of 'Michin Jonjaegam Gaehwadong Orangejok, see below). My victory presents to everyone that even an ordinary person (like me) can reach the top".^[3]

However, as time progressed, he was slowly able to become funny on his own. He and fellow co-host, Jeong Jun-ha, dubbed as "Jung Brothers", due to their similar family name, and "Fatty Brothers". Unlike Jun-ha's timid personality, Hyeong-don is more aggressive, more witty and highly active despite his stature. He usually makes fun of himself through body gags and any slapstick activities, gaining him the nickname "Crazy Presence" (미친 존재감 Michin Jonjaegam). His other famous nickname is "Gaehwadong Orange Gang" (개화동 오렌지 Gaehwadong Orangejok) due to his fashion style that was teased by other members as "20 years late" (Orange Gang being an old term used for decadent youth fashion during the 1980s and Gaehwadong being the name of suburb where he formerly lived at that time). He also considered Big Bang's leader, G-Dragon, who is notable for being a fashion icon, as his greatest rival. Every time the latter made guest appearances on the show, he always threatened to change G-Dragon's fashion.

Hyungdon and Daejun

Since June 2012, he has been forming a hip-hop duo with his close friend and fellow co-host of MBC Every1's Weekly Idol, rapper Defconn. The album's title is "Gangsta Rap Volume 1". They have sung a total of five songs; Intro, The Gloomy Song, Yes or No, Hanshimpocha (한심포차), and Olympic Expressway.

Personal life

On September 13, 2009, he married his girlfriend, television comedy scriptwriter Han Yu-ra.^[4] The couple finally welcomed their first daughters, twins, on December 11, 2012 after three years of marriage.^[5]

Television appearances

Current programmes

• MBC's Infinite Challenge (무한도전) Co-host (Since 2005)
• MBC Every1's Weekly Idol (주간 아이돌) Co-host with Yoo Dae-joon (Since 2011)

Former programmes

• KBS's Gag Concert (개그 콘서트, 2002)
• MBC's Sunday Sunday Night (단비 Danbi, Helping for Developing Countries) Co-host since 2010
• KBS2's Explore TV-Cool Guys (TV탐험 멋진친구들) Co-Host
• KBS2's Imagination Plus (상상플러스, 2005~2007) Co-Host
• SBS's Mystery Commandos(미스터리 특공대,2008)
• tvN's Rollercoaster (재밌는TV 롤러코스터, 2009~) Leading actor with Jeong Ga-eun
• SBS's GO Show (고쇼, 2012) Co-Host
• KBS2's "Ba-ra-dun Bada"-Pilot (바라던 바다, 2013) Co-Host
• QTV's "Uh-rap Show!" (어랍쇼, 2013) Co-Host
• tvN's "Noon-Ssul-Mi" (눈썰미, 2013) Co-Host

References

External links

• Jeong Hyeong Don's Corporate Homepage(Korean)
• Jeongsamo, official fanpage(Korean)
• 'Muhan Dojeon' official Homepage(Korean)