Dallyeora, Bangtan! Run, BTS!

Which is not to be confused with Run BTS. Or the song, Run.

Sigh. 2025. I don’t want to wish away more than two years of my life, but man. The thought of not utterly laughing my ass off at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday is sad. Nothing has brought my more pre-work joy on a random Tuesday than BTS’s reality show, called Run BTS! (also known as Dallyeora Bangtan in Korean.) I get the notification from Weverse (and also now YouTube, props HYBE), and I click. I know that I will be smiling hard for the next 30 minutes.

The show is silly and the game rules never make sense. Taehyung is cheating. Joon is a klutz. Jin is the spy. JK is strong as hell. Jimin is often last. Hobi is shrieking. Yoongi is stealth.

ALWAYS name your team Kim Seokjin.

Those are the truisms. It’s nuts, silly, stupid, all of it. But it is always charming, pure, has a sweet heart, and delivers every time. I delight in the utter willingness of now seven very wealthy men politely fight over illustrious prizes such as rice cookers, mall gift cards, and snacks. Run BTS is the inside joke of all inside jokes for ARMY.

The show is now on indefinite hiatus, thanks to the members heading off to serve their mandatory military/civil service duty for Korea. Tuesday’s show, number 171, was shot last December, before Jin headed to the Army. Everybody knew it would be the last one for a long while, so watching it was both sad and happy. Tae was the star, winning nearly everything. He’s unsung athlete in BTS, with Jin’s flexibility and JK’s brute strength often overshadowing. (Don’t sleep on Jimin or Yoongi - small but mighty.)

The joy of Run BTS centers on smart business, as usual, for the group. They were not often invited on variety shows when they were starting out, because they were from a small company (Big Hit) that was not in the clique that is K-pop. So instead of waiting for the invite, they made their own show. Some of the early Run BTS’ are cringey, especially the ones where they did the confessional sketches (6 and 7), made the guys terrified of heights bungee jump (9), and the infamous one where they played school and made Yoongi turn into Yoonji (11). (Two notes on that one: 1) gives a whole new spin on Marry Me Yoongi, and also, oof on them having his character carry a gun to school in their backpack. No. No. No.)

They soon hit their Dallyeora stride, and the classics started. Yes, I have watched every Run BTS, at least once. (Thank you pandemic! And thank you YT before Weverse got the - cough - legal archive up.)

There are a few returning concepts for Run eppys: somebody is the spy/X-man, cooking, ridiculous sporting events, fashion, and the word quizzes. The penalties usually had some element of shame/pain - wearing goofy clothes to the airport, to get nailed by the paparazzi, wearing BT21 gear, or…climbing a mountain at dawn. They evolved from the “penalty” of forehead flicks, cross-dressing or kissing somebody on the cheek (which will be another discussion for another day.)

We will be missing the show for a while, but the good news is, it is always funny to dive into. I have never left a viewing without a big smile on my face.

My list of the greats (links are a mix of YouTube and Weverse):

(And chime in with what your favorite moments/episodes are! I’m curious!)

• Episode 20: Where the famous Tae creation of Squirrel in Garden came up, and JK’s magically superglued potatoes debuted. Cooking gone wrong, Bangtan style.

  

• Episode 24: BTS vs. Zombies. I don’t even know where to start. From Hobi, Yoongi and Jin being beyond scared, the whole insane premise, and the lost shoe. In an amusement park, with “foreigners”. This was not the night safari they signed up for.

• Episode 28: BTS Insane Noraebang (karaoke). I don’t know how much sugar they had before this…but it was a lot. Chaotic Bangtan.

  

• Episodes 30/31: Game shows of past. Come for the dance off at the start, stay for the MC Suga, and go all the way through for the Tomato song sleepy disaster.

• Episode 32: The one where Hobi turns scary. It made complete sense for a Christmas episode - run around some space rocket-themed Chuck E. Cheese, with one member trying to kill their balloon, named Pig-Dolph (as in Rudolph). Hobi going rogue was a thing.

• EPISODE 31: Hall of Fame. The camera game. A thousand memes was born this day. Mostly from Yoongi and Jin.

• Episode 41: HALL OF FAME Lachimolala. The inside joke that never dies. But seriously, how did Jin figure anything out, much less nail it, in this episode? A must-see for any ARMY.

• Episodes 47/48: HALL OF FAME. The Blue Village. Aka, the one where Jin got framed so bad that he lost it. Joon, on full prosecutor mode. And the villagers, hahaha. Never forget the Blue Village.

• Episode 54: The place where the foot volleyball legend was born. BTS can dance and do athletic things on stage. But make them play foot volleyball for reals, and damn they are awful.

• Episodes 63-64-65: HALL OF FAME. BTS School. Teacher Min Suga is in charge. And chaos is everywhere. Yoongi may be hearing those bells in his Genius Lab nightmares.

  

• Episode 80: HALL OF FAME. Liar, liars, Bangtan’s on fire. They all were lying, and as usual, WWH is the master of the game.

• Episode 96: HALL OF FAME. The birth of Rock Bison, another never-dying inside joke. Poor Rock Bison, denied victory.

• Episode 104-105-106: HALL OF FAME. Ever wonder where that Boy Scout looking viral/meme photo of Jimin came from? Yep. Here. Thanks to JK. Jin’s fashion design is a horror show, but it is meant with love…

  

• Episodes 118-119: Beware of the helpful Jin. Bangtan’s smooth operator really fools them all, and by the end, JK and rest are begging for mercy.

• Episodes 129-130: My faves because I play tennis. I would love to play with Jin, Tae and Hobi. The rest can be our ballboys.

• Episodes 131-132: HALL OF FAME. The debate in the pool. So many things happening here, from the weird chicken fights at the start to the completely irrational debates. As usual, the comedy is in the chaos, and less in the real.

• Episodes 140-141: BTS/Game Caterers cross-over event. Na PD works the guys out. And gives them clever gifts. DDENG!

• Episode 147: the back half of the Joseon Village cosplay episodes. Yoongi was in rare form here. Hilarious. And as always, watch for sneaky-ass Jin and we don’t-believe-you Tae.

• Episode 155: The one where we cried. It was Oct. 12, 2021 and the guys were telling us they were taking an indefinite break from Run BTS. Oh man. No. The wailing from ARMY was real. But they said they would be back. They were.

• Episode 156: They’re back. Whew. Nearly 10 months later, they come back with new Run, and this time, the batch will be off their ideas. The telepathy game, not to be confused with Yoongi’s COVID-era masterpiece “Telepathy”. Also: the legend of Hobi’s strict dance leader is further cemented.

• Episode 158: Flying Yoga. They were as bad as it as I was. But it is fun. Leave it to the maknaes to make a party of the strain.