Park Seojin Became His Own TV Director on a Family Trip — and Eun Jiwon Called Him a Madman

There are variety show moments that are simply funny, and then there are moments that capture something true about the lengths entertainers will go to when they sense they are losing the spotlight. Park Seojin's latest appearance on KBS 2TV's Living With Men Season 2 lands squarely in that second category — a transformation so committed and so thoroughly ridiculous that it has become one of the most-talked-about segments of the show's current run.

The episode, airing on May 23, 2026, finds Park Seojin in an unexpectedly determined mode. After recently acknowledging that his presence on the show had been flatter than he would like — "my energy's been low, and I've basically had no screen time lately" — he arrived on a family trip to Ulleungdo island with a new persona, a specific concept, and a megaphone.

Park Seojin and the Living With Men Format

Living With Men (Salimhaneun Namjadeul) is a KBS reality format built around male celebrities navigating domestic life alongside their real families — cooking, household tasks, and the occasional trip away. Now in its second season, the show has built a loyal following for its unscripted, slice-of-life energy. Park Seojin, a trot and ballad singer known for polished stage performances, has been one of the show's regulars. His contribution has generally worked because the gap between his stage persona — composed, professional, precise — and his at-home manner creates easy contrast. But the Ulleungdo episode shows a version of him that is neither composed nor quiet.

The trip itself was meaningful. Ulleungdo, a volcanic island off the eastern coast of Korea, is a destination that requires a sea crossing and some planning — and it had been his father's long-held wish to visit. Park Seojin's choice to fulfill that wish while simultaneously turning it into an elaborate variety show parody is the particular kind of absurdism that works best in these formats: genuine affection and complete ridiculousness, stacked on top of each other.

Enter "Park PD" — With Megaphone In Hand

The transformation Park Seojin debuted for the Ulleungdo trip was a direct impersonation of Na Young-seok, the entertainment producer behind some of the most beloved variety programming in Korean television history. Na Young-seok's credits include 1 Night 2 Days, Youn's Kitchen, and Jinny's Kitchen. His signature style — surprise challenges, pre-dawn wake-up calls, cast members competing for basic comforts — is so recognizable that it has become shorthand for a particular type of Korean variety experience.

Park Seojin's logic was delivered with complete sincerity: "If I direct and appear in it at the same time, like Na Young-seok PD does, doesn't that double my screen time?" He named his concept "Salim 2 Days" — a direct parody of 1 Night 2 Days — and did not break character from the moment the trip began.

In practice, that commitment took the form of a megaphone, used at dawn to wake his family. "Wake up — you'll get more footage if you're up early," he announced, with the total earnestness of someone who has thought about this problem far more carefully than anyone anticipated. His sister Hyojeong's response was wordless and immediate — the kind of expression that communicates precisely how she felt about being woken up this way.

Eun Jiwon Delivers His Verdict

The sequence's most memorable moment arrived courtesy of Eun Jiwon, who is both a cast member of the show and someone with direct knowledge of what a Na Young-seok production actually looks like from the inside. As a founding member of Sechs Kies — one of South Korea's most iconic first-generation idol groups — and an original cast member of the real 1 Night 2 Days, Eun Jiwon is uniquely positioned to evaluate the quality of Park Seojin's impersonation.

His assessment, delivered while watching the Ulleungdo footage, was brief and unsparing: "He has become a madman." Coming from someone who has spent real time on Na Young-seok sets and knows what that version of chaos actually requires, the verdict landed with extra weight. The show's audience appreciated the layering.

The Ferry Ride That Did Not End

Park Seojin's commitment to the bit extended beyond the island itself. Even during the sea crossing to Ulleungdo — a voyage that takes several hours — he remained in "Park PD" mode, continuing to frame the family trip as a production rather than a holiday. The performance on an open-water ferry, with no obvious incentive to keep going and a family that had long since run out of patience, gave the segment a quality of genuine stubbornness that is hard to manufacture.

That kind of commitment is what separates a one-note gag from a sustained comedic bit. By maintaining the persona through the ferry crossing and the first sight of Ulleungdo's volcanic coastline, Park Seojin turned what could have been a throwaway moment into something with actual shape and momentum.

What Makes This Segment Work

Park Seojin's "Park PD" sequence works because of the gap between expectation and execution. He is a singer whose public-facing image is built on controlled delivery and stage professionalism. Watching him decide that what his reality show arc needed was a megaphone, an alter-ego, and a parody of Korea's most recognizable television auteur is the kind of self-aware, fully committed leap that variety formats reward when they catch someone genuinely letting go.

The specific target — Na Young-seok — also helps. His style is immediately recognizable but affectionately regarded, which means impersonating him reads as warmly satirical rather than pointed. And the family's helpless participation, caught between a real trip and a one-man production, gave the whole sequence a texture that audiences recognize from their own experiences of being stuck in someone else's bit.

The Ulleungdo episode of Living With Men Season 2 airs on KBS 2TV on May 23, 2026. Whether "Park PD" makes a return appearance depends entirely on whether Park Seojin feels his screen time metrics have sufficiently recovered.