#53. 창렬 -- There's barely anything there!

Have you ever been unhappy that your bag of chips contains just a little bit too much air (okay, nitrogen, actually), and not enough chips? If so, the Koreans have a perfect expression for you. They would say:

감자칩 양이 창렬이네. (The amount of potato chips is "창렬.")

 So, let me tell you about what this word means. The word "창렬" is short for "김창렬,"which is the name of this guy.

Say hello to 창렬.

He is a Korean singer, who is actually quite good at singing. Due to his celebrity status, he signed an advertising contract with 7-Eleven Korea (a convenience store), over their own brand of frozen food. The contract specified that the frozen foods will be branded as "김창렬의 포장마차 (roughly, 김창렬's street food)."  Unfortunately, the quality of the food wasn't so great. Here are a couple of examples. Compare what's pictured on the package, versus what the consumers actually got:

Pig's feet and pig's head meat

Blood sausage stir fry

Understandably, the consumers were pretty upset. The whole thing started, because one of the internet users, who had seen these pictures circulate on the internet, came up with an admittedly very good 드립: He called it "에미창렬."

Now, "에미창렬" is a clever 드립 because it almost sounds like a swear word in Korean. One of the worst insults that you can tell someone is "에미창녀" meaning that "your mother (에미) is a prostitute (창녀)." Here, "에미" is a dialect form of "어머니," and in this case, this has the effect of adding vulgarity. (Okay, just to add to this, although this is a terrible insult in real life, this is actually not that bad of an insult on the Korean internet forum -- Korean internet is truly a wild place!)

And you see that "에미창녀" and "에미창렬" sound very, very similar. And it also expresses the rage the consumer must have expected opening this package of frozen food!

So that stuck, and by dropping "에미," 김창렬's first name, 창렬, became the newest Korean slang. (because, why bring your mother into it, right?) By calling something a "창렬," you're basically saying that it has no content. And that's how a new Korean internet slang is born! Use this word with young-ish Koreans, and they will most likely understand you. With the older Koreans, I'm not so sure. It's not that offensive, other than the fact that you're using this random guy's first name without even knowing him (and you're probably younger than him, too).

If you're wondering how 김창렬 took this neologism, well, he didn't take it well. He believed that his public image took a hit because of this Korean slang, and he sued 7-11 over his damaged reputation. On February 3, 2017, he lost the lawsuit (although perhaps he'll appeal). The judge cited the reason that his image was already not that great with the public (i.e. his image was already 창렬?!) -- he had settled many assault cases with his victims, and he also had some DUI records under his belt. The judge also said that the public was already making fun of a lot of over-packaged food items, and this was just one of these instances, and not directed personally at him. Fair? Unfair? I am not so sure. But there you have it.