Korean Idol Kim Jaejoong Jokes About Contracting COVID-19 & Receives Backlash
April Fool's Day jokes are all fun and games until you receive backlash for being insensitive about a real problem that is currently affecting billions of people around the world.
Kim Jaejoong, a Korean idol from boy group JYJ, made headlines today for joking about contracting COVID-19 and the Internet is not having it.
Read on to find out more!
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On 1 April, Kim Jaejoong took to his Instagram account to announce that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Below is a translation of his post by Soompi:
Photo from Soompi
Shortly after he posted that, he began trending on social media platforms such as Twitter as fans translated his words into different languages to keep international fans posted.
His agency, CJeS Entertainment, released a statement informing everyone that they were trying to confirm the news as Jaejoong is currently in Japan.
Fans were very worried by then because of the vague response from his agency and started commenting on his Instagram post telling him to"stay strong".
Photo from @jj_1986_jj via Instagram
Moments later, he edited his caption on the same Instagram post to clarify that he did not contract the virus and admitted that this went "quite far for April Fool's Day". See the full translation of his updated post below by Soompi:
Photo from Soompi
He mentioned that "when negligence turns a sad premonition into reality, it's not something that we can simply end by wiping our tears away" and posed the question of what if someone precious to us contracted the virus to get people thinking. He then ended off his post by saying that he accepts "all punishment" he receives from the post and hope that everyone stays healthy.
However, his decision to joke about contracting the virus did not sit well with fans and Internet users alike despite his good intentions.
Photo from @kdramascenes via Twitter
Photo from @dailyhappiness357 via Instagram
Photo from @monbeaujohnny via Twitter
Most had a problem with him being insensitive during such trying times where thousands of people lose their lives each day because of the virus and expressed their disappointment in him.
What do you think? Did his joke go too far or were his good intentions misunderstood?
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Text by: GirlStyle SG
