96 replies to this topic

[foofoo]

can someone recommend good episodes for beginners? i've watched gangs of seoul, the cooking in new york one, west coast highway festival, and the chase the tail special! i loved them all and i wanna watch more, but there are hundreds of eps and i don't know which episodes would be good for a beginner.

[yjs1]

foofoo, on 02 January 2013 - 04:14 PM, said:

can someone recommend good episodes for beginners? i've watched gangs of seoul, the cooking in new york one, west coast highway festival, and the chase the tail special! i loved them all and i wanna watch more, but there are hundreds of eps and i don't know which episodes would be good for a beginner.

I think you should just continue from Ep 182 onwards.

[verti]

foofoo, on 02 January 2013 - 04:14 PM, said:

can someone recommend good episodes for beginners? i've watched gangs of seoul, the cooking in new york one, west coast highway festival, and the chase the tail special! i loved them all and i wanna watch more, but there are hundreds of eps and i don't know which episodes would be good for a beginner.

Someone on something aweful forum came up with a good list of recommended episodes, i have followed most of the episodes and they are indeed good so you might want to give it a go. I will paste the big list in a spoiler tag as it is very long, expand if you wanna read up on them

Spoiler

INFINITY CHALLENGE Recommended Episodes


2007 One of the greatest years, but might be hard to get subs for these.
E39 - "English Village Special"
Members go to an English Village, but none of them speak fluent English. Problems start at the immigration office, and culminate in a situation where they try to complete everyday tasks in English, with jail being the punishment for speaking Korean. Of course, the everyday tasks such as sending a package from the mail office have a twist, like a gunman trying to rob the store, etc. Oh, and attempts at translating Korean folk stories into English.

E40 - "Alaska Special" (Guest: Cha Tae-hyun)
They don't really go to Alaska, but set up in a ski resort. They have minigames involving snow or ice, one of them being getting a banana out of a solid chunk of ice. Ends with "Saving Private Ramen", where they climb up a snowboard half-pipe to cups of ramen, with balls of varying sizes being thrown at them from the tops of the pipe.

E56 - "Rice Planting Special"
Original plan was to have a rice planting episode, but crazy rains prevent that from happening property, and so other minigames are done. A lot of slapstick-y comedy involving physical gags. For example, they have to carry a kettle+tray on their head for a 100m stretch of short dirt embankment that divides two rice paddies. Of course, the crazy rain has made it muddy as hell.

E57-58 - "Thierry Henry Special" (G: Thierry Henry, the internationally famous soccer player) - One of the older classics
Awesome special where Henry comes to play with the IC members. Each episode has two parts; one has members training for their meeting with Henry with a variety of soccer exercises, the latter part is them playing games with Henry. Henry fits surprisingly well with the members and is absolutely hilarious, even when talking through a translator. Oh, and they really don't play soccer the entire time. One activity involves IC members choosing one of two soccer balls to head. One of them is filled with water; slow-mo hilarity ensues.

E59-60 - "Uninhabited Island Special"
The IC crew travel to an uninhabited island for 2 days and do everything from trying to get coconuts down from a palm tree to making a fire and building shelter. Nothing goes smoothly.

E64 - "Gag Silmido Special"
A sort of Gag bootcamp special - members have to be funny with given prop or be subject to bootcamp-esque punishment. Latter half of the episode involves physical gags with tons of mud.


2008

E100-101 - "Episode 100 Special"
To celebrate their 100th episode, they try to complete challenges they set for themselves. I think the 2nd part (E101) isn't as funny as the first but probably worth watching. Oh, and trying to eat noodles on a rollercoaster (ends as well as you think it will).

E102-103 - "Gyeongju Treasure Hunt Special"
A sort of a scavenger hunt around the historic city of Gyeongju, capital of Silla (57 BC – 935 AD). It's sort of a precursor of the chase battles to come, but this is more about getting to places first. Also lays the foundation for similar episodes later on. Whether this is legendary or not is somewhat debatable (some merely consider it good), but it's worth a watch if you like "1 Day 2 Nights" or trivia-based races. And it also gives you a tour of one of the most popular tourist destinations in Korea, soo...

E105 - "Creating a Children's Song Special"
As the title suggests. A mini-version of the other years' music specials, except it's for children. I feel like the lyrics of these songs are a big part of what makes it funny for the Koreans, so not sure how funny this is by subs.

E110-E112 - "Run with the Moneybag" - Most commonly and highly recommended episode
All members are given briefcases that might or might not have money in it. Goal is to get the real moneybag to a certain place to win the money in it. Filled with crazy betrayals, thriller-esque brain battles, and chase scenes. The first of the "Chase Battle" episodes, which are all great. This episode is basically present on every list of favorite/legendary episodes, and you don't need to be that familiar with IC to enjoy it.

E123-124 - "PD Report Special"
Each member gets his own camera and has film a short feature, which will be featured on IC PD Report. The members have varying degrees of funniness, with Noh-hongchul having the most hilarious ones trying to create a "Hero Hongchul" report by staging reactions and such. Jun-jin creates a UCC-esque music video, Yoojaesuk and Jungjunha team up to find some ordinary people that featured in their previous episodes, and Junghyungdon just sort of fails. Interesting if you care about the production side of these shows.

2009

E141- "'Boys Over Flowers' Drama Parody Special"
I'm not too sure of this one since it parodies Korean dramas, but I didn't watch the main one they parodied and still laughed a shitton. Might be worth to get a synopsis of "Boys over Flowers" beforehand. They try to recreate a drama, with each member taking turns writing the script on the spot - based on the drama "Boys Over Flowers" mentioned before.

E143 - "Psychological Help Special"
They invite over a psychologist and try to get the psych profiles on each member. Absolutely hilarious if you've seen them for a bit, but I don't know about starting off with this episode. Make sure you try to watch this after you are somewhat familiar with everyone. Latter part has a therapy session - one activity involves them trying to act as family members (you can see how this will end).

E144 - "What Women Want / Women's Day Special" (Guest: SNSD)
This is only worth checking out if you like SNSD, or if you like to see a trainwreck happen, as Park Mungsoo's attempt at hosting a talk show with the SNSD members goes horribly. Other half is the SNSD members splitting off into 3 teams with the members and going around, trying to figure out "what women want."

E149-150 - "YES or NO special" - One of my personal favorites and highly recommended
Members either pick Yes or No to a question they don't know yet or they know the question and decide by games whether it's yes or no (ie dice roll, one of those pinball roll things). Example question: Go through a car wash in a car without windows - yes or no? The second part is similar, except this time the scale is much larger: some choices end up putting members on a boat to the most southern island in Korea.

E158-159- "Pimple Break Special" (Chase Battle) - Highly recommended
Yet another legendary chase battle, this time parodying Prison Break. Some members act as the cops while the others are the escaping prisoners. Not a literal prison break, but more "catch these guys as they flee across Seoul and find contacts/clues as the prisoners try to get on a ship"

E169-170 - "Catch Me if You Can Special aka Tail Grabbing Special" (Chase Battle)
All the members are given a tail from rainbow colors, and they have to catch the member with the tail color below them on the spectrum (ie Red catches Orange...Violet catches Red). Brain games, scamming. Another good episode to start out with.

2010
E186-189 - "Kind/Quarrelsome Brothers Special" - Highly recommended
Great start to the 2010 year - for the first part they are told to give a giftbox to their favorite member, which involves phone calls to figure out who's going where and attempts to try to not piss off everyone else. This then leads into the Bad Brothers part, where they are given a bag of trash to leave at the door of their most disliked member. And of course, this involves trickery, deception, cooperation, betrayal, and all of those things. The whole thing culminates in a climax that's as gripping and cathartic as a thriller/spy movie/episode of '24'. Another good starter, especially since it starts off the year.

E193-194 - "Crime and Gil Special" (Guest: Lee Hyori, Kim Jaedong)
A courtroom-drama parody with actual lawyers helping the IC members out. Previously, Gil had been accused of getting drunk and pissing on the bedside table when on a trip with the IC members. Now Gil is "suing" YJS for libel, with IC members being divided into the defendant and prosecutor side.

E200-201 - "200th Episode Specials"
Interesting celebration filled with minigames and an elaborate attempt to trick Parkmungsoo. There is a quiz show where the results are twisted - if you get an answer right you have to buy/donate $ and expensive appliances - so you don't want to really get it right, but you also risk sounding ignorant.

E205-215 - WWE Specials - Best long-term project
This one is either a solid hit or miss - some like it and consider it legendary, some consider it too long and boring and too intentionally tear-jerking. I think of it as the former, although I agree it's too long. One of the best long-term IC challenges, though. Some of the episodes in there are half-half episodes with one part being wrestling and the other being something else.

E223 - "Midnight Survival" (Chase Battle)
One episode long survival special, where each get a paintball gun to elimate the other members. Goal? Eliminate all others. Of course this leads to shaky treaties and cease fires followed by betrayal.

Credits to Archer2337 of somethingaweful forum

Edited by verti, 11 January 2013 - 09:37 PM.

[foofoo]

thanks for the recs! i didnt realize they kept filming eps in new york, so i just finished watching the devil wears guida one, and i'm gunna finish all of new york soon. but i started the yes or no one since i always hear good things about that on, and the second episode is so sad for travelling lol. i'll probably just skip around to what jumps out at me. the paintball one sounds great too!!

[verti]

The yes or no special is my all time favourite and i really like the cooking special+the subsequent episodes where they went to film in new york too.

The whole IC calender photo taking arch is pretty decent too, especially the puishment at the end

Edited by verti, 13 January 2013 - 10:11 PM.

[verti]

Finally had time to watch the recent(few weeks ago) "Introduce your ugly friends" special, can't get enough of it! This is one special arch that trumps rm for me, highly recommend for anyone that understands chinese to seek out this special.

[oddiebor]

tataa77, on 06 September 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

I just can't understand at all why there is only one subbing team for this show, I mean Infinity challenge must be the BEST variety show ever in Korea, it inspired Running Man and it's 100 000 funnier in my opinion....
Desperately searching for raws and subs begins to drive me crazy..... pleaase, anyoone, suuub this shooow !!
T_T

when runningman turn into Lee Gwangso,Yoo Jae Suk and guest show i started watch this show is about 2 months ago at first i kinda lost because of SNSD episode but after that what are you saying above is sooo truuueeee!!!
this is the place when everythings happen unexpected....this show is driving me crazy...
you can say this is amplified version of running man or in other words this show is ROCK!!
there's a lot unscripted scene,funny reaction,childish behavior (when they are teasing jung junha) and of course touching moment just like when they became promotor of boxing girls..

in conclusion this show have everything on it..they have fast paced action,funny talkshow,sport,music concert,touching stories and of course a lot of laughter...

sorry for bad english...IC Jjang

Edited by oddiebor, 01 April 2013 - 03:51 AM.