"Superman Returns" Man Se Cracks His Dad Up with a Punny Age Joke

The youngest of Song Il Gook’s triplets, Man Se, cracked his dad up with an unintentional but brilliant age joke.

On the January 4 broadcast of KBS 2TV’s reality show “Superman Returns,” actor Song Il Gook and his triplets, Dae Han, Min Gook, and Man Se, continued their vacation in Japan. On the way back to their lodgings after a trip to the aquarium, Song Il Gook showed Man Se a white dolphin doll and asked, “How old are you?” or “How many ‘se’ are you (“se” is an age counter in Korean)?”

Man Se gave an adorable, unknowingly punny answer, “Man Se is ‘man’ ‘se.’”

“Man” denotes the number 10,000 in Korean, so Man Se was essentially saying “Man Se is 10,000 years old.” The joke is extra punny because Man Se’s name, which means “long live,” is a homonym of its own. It is spelled and pronounced identically with man se, the Korean phrase for 10,000 years.

Song Il Gook cracked up at his son’s unexpected answer, and obligingly agreed, “Man Se is man se.”

Meanwhile, in the same episode, Uhm Tae Woong and his daughter Uhm Ji On made their first appearance on the show.