How to Succeed as Yourself Inside a Big Company — The Four Years of Yoo Byung-jae [Part 2]

"The person who throws the darkest jokes ends up arriving at the brightest place."

One day in June 2015, a man stands in front of a building in Hapjeong-dong, Seoul. The building he walks into is YG Entertainment, the most glamorous music label in Korea, where Big Bang and 2NE1 came to work every day.

What he holds in his hand is not a microphone. It is an old notebook densely filled with short jokes.

He is a comedian, and a writer. A young man who has lived for over five years in a three-pyeong rented room in Mapo. Someone who once failed the KBS open audition, once close to being a complete unknown. And yet YG's CEO Yang Hyun-suk called his name directly. He reportedly even offered to set him up with an apartment.

What he carried with him was a bundle of jokes, and a vague promise from a company that it would leave his color alone.

Today we follow a comedian who walked into the largest company in Korea, kept his color from fading inside it, and built one column called Korean Black Comedy across four years.

By the time you finish this piece, you will see that walking into a big company is not the same path as losing yourself.

Place 1. A Corner of the Building Where Big Bang Came to Work (YG Entertainment HQ, Hapjeong-dong, Seoul, 2015)

After five years of cramped rented rooms, he sits at his own desk inside the biggest music label in Korea. Yang Hyun-suk offered him an apartment. In one interview, he said it briefly.

"I judged that YG's freedom matched my way of working."

This single line carries weight. The usual new hire shapes themselves to fit the color the company is selling. He moved the company in the opposite direction. His color was already set. What he picked was a company that would push that color further.

His daily life in the YG era was split. Outside one window stood Big Bang's building. On the other side, on his desk, short writing piled up every day. Inside the most glamorous building, the thing he did most often was sit at his desk and write a short joke.

What he saw from this desk was this. No matter how big the company gets, if you do not write a single line a day, you are not yourself.

Place 2. The Notebook Where Jokes Stacked Up Every Day (Seoul, 2015 ~ 2017)

Whether at the small desk inside YG headquarters, or at the desk in his own room after work, he kept stacking paper on his notebook, one page at a time, for three years. Short essays, fables, idea notes, unpublished pieces. The jokes he saved like deposits.

In 2017, he bundled that notebook into a single book. The title of the book was also his genre declaration.

Black Comedy (블랙코미디).

138 pieces inside. It hit the bestseller list the moment it came out. It was the first time the market confirmed that a single book written by a Korean comedian could shape the current of a category.

Black comedy is the kind of comedy that leaves you unsure whether to laugh or cry. In the book, he stabs the most painful spots of society with jokes. But the last point of the arrow always lands on himself. The single line running through the whole book is this:

The starting point of this tragedy might, in fact, be me.

The next year came the verse book Wordplay (말장난). After that, the script book Unicorn (유니콘). It was rare in Korea for a comedian to release his own scripts as a stand-alone book.

While doing his job at the company, he wrote one line on the corner of his desk every day. After three years of stacking that single line, it became a book. One line a day. That was how he kept his color from fading inside a big company.

Place 3. The Stand-up Stage with the Mic Turned On (A Performance Hall in Seoul, 2017 ~ 2019)

In the same period, he set up a stage that was rare in Korea: solo stand-up comedy.

The first show shared the title of his book, Black Comedy. The follow-up was B's Joke (B의 농담). The B stands for the first letter of his English name Byung-jae, and at the same time for B-side, the second tier.

The format of one person filling ninety minutes with a single microphone had been foreign to Korean audiences until then. He hit that foreignness head-on. And on the first line of the stage, he threw out the most dangerous self-introduction with his own mouth.

I am B-side. I am second tier. I am a jokester.

The moment the audience heard that declaration, they could decide where to seat him as they listened. A person who places himself first does not get shaken on any stage.

The jokes on this stage were soon packaged into the solo specials Yoo Byung-jae: Black Comedy and Yoo Byung-jae: Discomfort Zone, and delivered to a global audience. Instead of apologizing and disappearing, he pulled the criticism that had been aimed at him back onto the stage. He put his own wound back on the stage.

The formula that the most Korean joke can reach the most global audience was first tested in front of his microphone.

Before Squid Game, one stand-up comedian had already done that work.

Place 4. The Office of a Man Who Walked Out of the Company (BLCAKPAPER Office, Seoul, 2019 ~)

In 2019, YG shook through a series of incidents. Many artists, including Yoo Byung-jae, left without renewing their contracts. He set down one of the most stable seats in Korean entertainment with his own hands.

From this office, the YouTube channel Yoo Byung-jae began to grow. Don't Laugh (웃으면 안되는), Shorty (짧아유). The channel headed toward the two-million subscriber range. It is uncommon in Korea for a single comedian to build a channel of that size without the umbrella of a company.

But the most important thing he did in this office was not his own channel.

A younger comedian from his unknown days sent him a cold message. Moon Sang-hoon of BDNS. Yoo Byung-jae brought him onto his own content, Literature Night (문학의 밤). He showed him the basics of video production from right beside him. He handed over the seat on his own stage.

Moon Sang-hoon still calls Yoo Byung-jae this:

Father.

What he proved in this office is clear. A person who walks out of a big company starts his own. A person who starts his own pins the seat for those who come after him into his own stage.

What kind of adult a person is shows most clearly in what they start after they walk out of a company.

Epilogue

We often say: the moment you walk into a big company, your color fades. If the company is too big, my joke gets smaller. If the stage is too bright, my shadow disappears.

But Yoo Byung-jae's four years show exactly the opposite.

Inside the most glamorous company, he started his darkest jokes. On the most global stage, he threw the most Korean criticism. He set down the safest seat with his own hands, and he pinned the seat of a once-poor, once-unknown junior into his own stage.

The key is that he named his own color first. B-side. Second tier. Jokester. Because he put those words in his own mouth first, his position did not shake inside any company.

Only a person with a clear name tag can carry their own color all the way through, even inside a big company.

Micro-Mission

It is time to rewrite your business card today.

Behind the title your company assigned to you, recall the one word that is most yours. The word you have always thought was too B-side to put on a business card. The line you erased from your SNS bio because it felt too small.

Today, write that one word on your SNS bio, on the first page of your notebook, on your one-line Slack profile.

Before the company calls you, call yourself first.

From the moment Yoo Byung-jae called himself B-side with his own mouth, his stage did not shake.

Note: This newsletter is based on publicly reported sources and interviews, including: the June 2015 contract with YG Entertainment (headquartered in Hapjeong-dong, Seoul) and the reported apartment offer from CEO Yang Hyun-suk; the joke collection Black Comedy (2017, 138 pieces) reaching the bestseller list; the verse book Wordplay; the script book Unicorn; the solo stand-up shows Black Comedy and B's Joke; the solo specials Yoo Byung-jae: Black Comedy and Yoo Byung-jae: Discomfort Zone; the 2019 departure from YG and activity at his own company Dis; the growth of the YouTube channel Yoo Byung-jae and its Don't Laugh and Shorty series toward the two-million subscriber range; and his mentor relationship with Moon Sang-hoon of BDNS.