Comic does his bit to make Korea's Rain household word in America

"King of Korean Pop" Rain is surely proud to be at the top of Time's readers' poll of the 100 most influential people. His place at No. 1 no doubt turned a few heads, but one head -- that of American satirist Stephen Colbert -- seems to have kept turning until it spun like Linda Blair's in the original Exorcist.

On Thursday night (May 10), during his faux pundit program, Colbert shouted in mock indignation, "Rain! I'm going to be all over you like egg on a bowl of bibimbap". The reason? "Time asked its readers to select their own list of influential people", Colbert reported, "and I'm right at the top at number… Two! What? Who's at No. 1. It can't be. … My old nemesis, 24-year-old Korean R&B sensation Rain".

Rain trounced Colbert 470,174 votes to 278,381. Not to be outdone, Colbert decided to take this "Kid Jong-il" on at his own game. "Sure, he's got some good songs like 'Naega nuwotteon chimdae'," Colbert conceded, making the title of Rain's 2006 hit "In My Bed" sound more Chinese than Korean. But the American was still sure he could best Rain with his own Korean R&B video, one sure to "sweep the Korean charts".

After starting his video with "Girl, I wanna dedicate this song to you... and the Time 100. Girl, I love you so much; my feelings can only be expressed... in Korean", the 41-year-old comedian -- dressed in paunch-stretched Rain gear ? let loose with some pretty decent Korean singing. After covering kimchi and Hyundai, Colbert struggled for more things Korean, reaching all the way back to the 1970s American sitcom set in the Korean War "M*A*S*H".

Colbert has descibed his screen persona as a man with a big ego and strong convictions but little sense. Most of the comments on the expat blog The Marmot's Hole (Open the link) seem to have picked up on that underlying sense, saying the skit was a joke on how little Americans know about Korea.

In the Korean media, reviews have been evenly mixed with "hilarious", "juvenile", and "racist" popping up the most, after "good publicity".

Fans of both performers can see the American and his staff must have researched the Korean singer, decided he was worth plugging and gave him five minutes of free publicity on one of the most popular comedy shows with young Americans "The Colbert Report".

As "vivosergirl" posted on YouTube: "Calling this video racist is ridiculous... and for the record, I was born in Korea. ... I know you wouldn't have said anything if the person mimicking Rain was a Korean. Besides, anyone who's ever seen Colbert before knows that this kind of exposure means that Rain may stand a chance if he expands to the U.S".

If Colbert has done nothing else, he has added "bibimbap" and "Rain" to the growing list of Korean things floating in the American psyche.

Both Colbert and Rain were part of the actual Time 100 list back in 2006. Colbert's video "He's Singing in Korean" can be viewed on YouTube. The full clip is available on his show's website at Open the link .