Netflix’s Squid Game has caused a lot of buzz globally and has reached the top of the charts in a number of countries. The show’s popularity has even caused an incredible surge of traffic on South Korea’s Internet as well as a phone number that was featured on the show to receive over 4,000 calls from fans!
Jumping on the hype train is Rapid KL who decided to draw inspiration from one of the most iconic scenes in the series to promote their MyRapid card.
A video posted on Rapid KL’s Facebook page on 29 September, showed two men playing ddakji (a popular traditional game among South Korean children using paper tiles) at the Merdeka MRT station. The game requires its participants to take turns to throw folded paper tiles on the group in an attempt to flip their opponent’s paper tile.
If the challenger manages to do flip over the paper tile, he receives some money but every time he doesn’t manage to flip over his opponent’s card, the participant receives a slap on the cheek.
The caption of Rapid KL’s post reads, “Are you still using tokens to ride the train? It’s easier to use our card!” It featured a man in a suit and another man dressing casually taking turns to flip the other’s paper tile.
Funnily enough, the Rapid KL parody video also featured the slapping (which Rapid KL says is just a camera angle trick) and when the challenger actually manages to flip over the paper tile, the man in the suit only gives him RM1.
In the video, the man in the suit suddenly gets on the MRT and drops a card which is shown to be Rapid KL’s MyRapid card with the other side featuring the iconic “Squid Game” logo.
The video, although is based on the hype of the series, hopes to convince commuters to use their MyRapid smart cards, instead of tokens, when boarding their trains.
The game was featured in the first episode of “Squid Game” where the main character Seong Gi-Hun was handed a card in a subway station by an anonymous man in a suit who offered him a place in the notorious games after playing ddakji.
Hilariously, Rapid KL’s take on it wasn’t the first Malaysian version of it as other Malaysians have also parodied the iconic scene.
The video has garnered over 240,000 views, almost 7,000 likes as well as plenty of comments from netizens who appreciated the skit and joked along with the clip.
One netizen said, “I thought you can buy a ticket with slaps. Dato Keramat station to Kelana Jaya: 15 slaps.”
“Don’t promote this, later everyone is going to crowd the MRT in order to enter the Squid Game.”
“Which station is this? I want to join,” said one user.
Another user said, “That guy took those slaps only to get one ringgit???”
Perhaps receiving slaps in return for a free ticket or free credits on our MyRapid card doesn’t sound too bad?
Watch the full video here.
What would you do if you were offered to play this game? Let us know in the comments.
Also read: “Is this the squid game?” Duo Spotted Playing South Korean Traditional Game At MRT Pasar Seni
