As confusion mounted at some polling stations during the 9th nationwide local elections because of a shortage of ballots, a scene from the past MBC entertainment program "Infinite Challenge" drew attention online. The on-air line "There's no paper, either" dovetailed with the situation and quickly spread as a so-called "Infinite Challenge prophecy meme," an online image or phrase that goes viral.
On the 4th, online communities and social media (SNS) were flooded with screenshots from the show accompanied by posts along the lines of "Infinite Challenge even predicted the ballot shortage." In the clip, a citizen, after spotting Yu Jae-seok on the street, looks for a piece of paper to get an autograph.
In the broadcast, the citizen asks, "Do you have any paper?" Failing to find any, the citizen says, "Why don't the staff even have paper?" The person then asks a passerby, "Sir, do you have any paper?"
This scene drew notice online as it was linked to the situation on the 3rd, when some polling stations in the 9th nationwide local elections ran short of ballots, forcing voters to wait or delaying voting. Internet users reacted by saying things like "There's nothing Infinite Challenge doesn't have" and "Even the line about no paper hit the mark."
On the 3rd, some polling stations in Seoul's Gangnam, Gwangjin and Songpa districts saw voters waiting because of a ballot shortage. The National Election Commission said it transported extra ballots to the affected polling stations and took measures to allow voters who were waiting to cast their ballots even after closing time.
Heo Cheol-hoon, secretary general of the National Election Commission, issued a public apology the same day at the commission's office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, saying, "We deeply regret and apologize for inconveniencing the public who came to the polls to exercise their precious sovereignty and for undermining public trust in fair election management, and we take full responsibility." After an early-morning meeting on the 4th, the National Election Commission also said the issue does not constitute grounds for postponing the election or holding a re-vote under the Public Official Election Act, and that the ongoing ballot counting could not be halted.
"Infinite Challenge" was a flagship MBC entertainment program that aired from 2006 to 2018. It is credited with opening the era of real variety entertainment and, over its long run, handled a wide range of topics, including society, culture, politics and sports. For that reason, whenever specific incidents occur, past scenes or captions are often rediscovered and consumed as memes.
The scene linked to the latest ballot shortage is one such case. Online, it is being received less as an actual prophecy than as a way of cleverly tying a past scene to a current issue.