무야호

Origin

The line comes from the March 6th, 2010 episode of MBC's Infinite Challenge, the overnight special titled "Oh My Tent." The cast travelled to Anchorage, Alaska, and asked elderly members of the local Korean community whether they knew the show, inviting them to shout its catchphrase. Choi Gyu-jae shouted "Mu—ya—ho—" instead of the actual chant, "Muhan—dojeon!" According to the Korean Wikipedia entry, he had simply misheard it.

The joke is less that he got it wrong than how he got it wrong. He delivered the non-existent word at full volume and without hesitation, so a meaningless sound came across as pure, unguarded delight. That is why the bystander's line — "that's just how excited he is" — is quoted together with it as a set.

Spread

It took more than a decade for the clip to become a meme, by an unusual route.

• 2012 — MBC Entertainment uploaded the clip to YouTube for overseas viewers
• July 2019 — it was included in MBC's highlight series and began picking up algorithmic traction
• 2020 — remixes and mashups proliferated on YouTube, establishing it as a genuine internet meme
• January–May 2021 — it exploded as slang for excitement

The remixes performed especially well: a hip hop remix reached 5.9 million views, and a mashup with BTS's "Dynamite" reached 7.6 million. The derivative works, in other words, did more to build the meme than the original broadcast did.

At the peak of the revival, on January 28th, 2021, the YouTube channel Recent Status Olympics interviewed Choi Gyu-jae by video call — remote because of COVID-19. The interview revealed that he had no idea he had become a meme, which made news all over again. Choi had served as head of the Anchorage Korean association and later led its senior citizens' association.

How it is used

• As an exclamation at a happy or exciting moment
• As a joke: shouting anything at all when you cannot recall the correct chant
• Paired with "that's just how excited he is" to explain someone's excessive enthusiasm
• As a case study in an old broadcast clip becoming a meme long after the fact

Sources

• Korean Wikipedia, "Muyaho" — the March 6th, 2010 "Oh My Tent" broadcast, the misheard chant, the timeline from the 2012 YouTube upload to the 2021 revival, and the remix view counts
• Namuwiki, "Muyaho" — the circumstances of the scene and the line quoted alongside it