“Fantasy Boys” Contestant Comes Under Fire For Fat-Shaming Remarks Towards Fellow Contestants

Fantasy Boys is an ongoing K-Pop survival show that first started airing on March 30 this year, where 55 contestants are competing against each other to be chosen as part of a boy group made of trainees from around the world. It’s a male sequel to the show My Teenage Girl, which resulted in the creation of CLASS:y.

Fantasy Boys contestants | MBC

On June 1, previously unseen footage from past episodes of the show was released. And among the footage were clips of behavior from one contestant that has viewers concerned about his potential debut due to how he was seen treating other contestants on the show.

K-Soul

K-Soul is the contestant in question, and the two other competitors that seemed to get the brunt of his harsh comments were Kim Wooseok and Hikari. In one clip, Wooseok shares that K-Soul had commented on a photocard of Hikari, calling it “ugly”. He adds on that K-Soul had also touched his chin and called him “Wooseok with the fat chin”.

Seemingly prompted by Wooseok’s words, K-Soul then reaches out to touch the other contestant on camera and says, “You’re already handsome, but to look more handsome, you should lose some chin fat”.

K-Soul commenting on Kim Wooseok’s chin

Finally, one of the other contestants once again brings up Hikari and his looks, asking K-Soul what he thinks of them. Hikari vocalizes his discomfort by saying “don’t”, but K-Soul promptly calls him a “pig baby” anyway.

You can watch the entire clip below.

seeing that ksoul will debut meaning we are gonna see these fat phobic jokes for years pic.twitter.com/SPG1ffNGzy

— my princess hao (@haorulovely) June 1, 2023

The fat-shaming comments have drawn a lot of attention online, with many viewers criticizing his words and calling for people to work together to get K-Soul voted off of the show.

we all need to collectively vote him out https://t.co/EPwFFjD9nT

— ary ♡ zb1 debutation ???? (@intakiewaseoyeo) June 2, 2023

Wth is wrong with him??? https://t.co/RjmKybgDns

— Bamboo Beans (@Bamboo_Beans) June 2, 2023

JUST STOP SAYING HE JUST BEING HIMSELF AND HE IS JUST SAYING HIS THOUGHTS DUDE THOSE THOUGHTS SHOULD BE KEEP FOR HIMSELF IT’S NOT NICE TO SAY THOSE THINGS TO PEOPLE. DON’T EVEN SAY I’M BEING SENSITIVE, IF I CALL YOU FAT AND UGLY AND I SAID I’M JUST JOKING WILL YOU BE COMFORTABLE? https://t.co/cGuD38nEJw

— Junnie (@cutieejunniee) June 2, 2023

it’s crazy how fast people would turn their backs because of an evil edit but then turn a blind eye on people who are blatantly showing that they’re a horrible person .. why are the general public still voting for him ? ????‍ https://t.co/WP52ZX8yvi

— (@jjangowri) June 2, 2023

these idols really tell the slimmest people to lose fat like… https://t.co/UREzyHt1n0

— es #★⁵ (@pinkstrays) June 2, 2023

Additionally, this isn’t the first time that K-Soul has been the center of controversy. In the past, he’s been criticized for cultural appropriation, rude attitude, and even faking his age, among other unpleasant behavior.

debut with our talented and kind boys. There has been several threads made against k soul and I will link them below.

— ★ (@00MFCHAN) May 25, 2023

First.
The jealous look he does everytime someone gets a praise, here is an example of the first episode but there is tons of those in this and the following episodes~

you can see in the close up shots and when the camara far, so yes that is really #ksoul real-time reaction pic.twitter.com/7rUdfKpBxO

— ♪ (@ssfantasyboys) April 23, 2023

But the fist big red flag I notice on #ksoul was the way he talk back at soyeon after she made a observation as his mentor to help him keep improving…

you can see the difference between how Hikaru take the feedback and him side to side (Hikaru nod and accepted it while he…) pic.twitter.com/ABvXa1mSX8

— ♪ (@ssfantasyboys) April 23, 2023

ksoul update :
• caught lying about his age https://t.co/K6X2It5ZXq

— ★ (@00MFCHAN) April 17, 2023

Whether his behavior is enough to get him voted off of the show is not yet known, but time will tell if his comments have gone too far according to the show’s viewers.