"How is this okay?": Fans angered following ENHYPEN staff's uncomfortable and insensitive prank plot in the recent EN-O'CLOCK episode

On Thursday, January 11, the latest episode of ENHYPEN's variety show, EN-O'CLOCK was released, exciting fans who were looking forward to it. They were soon disappointed, however, after witnessing two members, Heeseung and Jungwon, execute a prank on their fellow members at the staff's request throughout the show.

While fans were not against the idea of a prank, they were rather angered and dissatisfied with the nature of it, which put Jungwon and members of the group in an uncomfortable situation. Throughout the episode, Jungwon was asked to make mistakes on purpose and was also told to faint to capture the ENHYPEN members' reactions.

But because it needed Jungwon to act in a way he doesn't usually and isn't comfortable with, the prank didn't work out well. While the staff members apologized for making the ENHYPEN member do something that ran counter to his usual way of being, fans were unhappy.

---

ENHYPEN fans angry over recent prank during the EN-O'CLOCK episode

On Thursday, the 77th episode of ENHYPEN's variety show, EN-O'CLOCK, was released, where the members were asked to play a variety of guessing games. However, Jungwon and Heesung were beckoned separately before the filming, where staff members asked them to pull pranks on their fellow members. Jungwon was expected to be the main prankster, with Heesung helping him out.

The staff gave him several tasks, such as knocking down things, dropping a mic, and even fainting at the end of the episode, to elicit reactions from the members. However, both Heesung and Jungwon were skeptical about the prank since it didn't align with how they usually act around the members. Fans noticed that when the episode started, Jungwon looked nervous and wasn't comfortable doing the assigned tasks.

When he did manage to drop his mic and act as if it were broken, none of the members seemed to react or even look at him, despite Heesung's efforts to make it a big deal. The captions for that particular moment in the video also revealed how ENHYPEN is the kind of group to look away when someone makes a mistake since it's the most polite thing to do.

Towards the end of the video, Jungwon confessed about the prank and revealed to his members that his dropping the mic was a prank. He also stated that he was supposed to faint but chose not to since he felt that the members wouldn't react then either. Upon hearing the prank's plot, even the members agreed that these kinds of pranks wouldn't work with them since they don't interact with each other in that way.

Fans were noticeably upset with ENHYPEN's staff for assigning the kind of tasks they did, knowing how it was uncharacteristic for the members to execute them.

On the members' way back from work, they were discussing why the prank didn't work. They stated that they are usually very considerate towards each other and rarely criticize or scold one another over mistakes.

After realizing the failure of the prank, the ENHYPEN staff added an apology note along with the video, stating that they regretted not understanding the members' relationship and making Jungwon do something he wasn't entirely comfortable with.

"We apologize for not knowing Jungwon well enough and coming up with this ridiculous situation. We will take this opportunity to deeply reflect on ourselves and study harder."

---

Fans felt that they should've either let Jungwon and Heesung take full control and come up with their own pranks that would've actually worked on the members, or at least stopped when Jungwon and Heesung expressed their hesitation.