그 잡채

Origin

The phrase is a pun that replaces 자체 (jache, "itself") with the near-homophone 잡채 (japchae), the Korean glass-noodle dish. Appended to a noun — "happiness itself," "love itself" — it says that the thing in question is the very essence of that concept.

The pun long predates its popularity. According to Namuwiki's account, the oldest traceable use is a 2015 post on the Hearthstone gallery of DCInside; at the time, under the influence of the game card known in Korean as "King's Japchae," swapping 자체 for 잡채 was an occasional internet joke and nothing more.

In other words, nobody launched this phrase. It is a pun that drifted around for years on the strength of a sound resemblance alone, and was promoted to catchphrase status long afterward.

Spread

It broke out around March and April 2022, consumed en masse on Twitter as fan gushing about celebrities. A single line of "X itself" praises the subject extravagantly while not sounding earnest — a combination that suited fandom speech well.

As it grew, Korean media picked it up in neologism coverage: outlets such as Asia A used "MZ itself" directly in headlines for features scoring reporters on new slang, and food publications recycled the pun in their own headlines, introducing actual japchae as "happiness itself."

It burned out about as fast as it spread. Changing a single syllable of the original phrase leaves little room for variation, and the same construction repeats no matter which noun it attaches to.

How it is used

• In the form "X itself," to praise something as the exaggerated epitome of a concept
• As light adulation aimed at a favorite celebrity within a fandom
• To deliberately undercut sincere admiration by making it sound silly
• As a pun in writing that genuinely concerns japchae or food

Sources

• Namuwiki, "Love Itself (사랑 그 잡채)" — the oldest use on the 2015 Hearthstone gallery, the influence of the "King's Japchae" card, the explosive spread around March–April 2022, and its use on Twitter
• Asia A, "[Gen MZ #77] 'MZ itself' — how do reporters score on new slang?" — an example of press coverage treating it as neologism
• Mindgil, "Japchae is 'happiness itself'" — the phrase recycled as a food headline