Right after BOYNEXTDOOR debuted and the group started making videos, TAESAN said, “When people watch us, I don’t want them to think, ‘Wow, that looks fun,’ but rather, ‘Wow, I want to join them’”—a hope that’s since become reality. BOYNEXTDOOR’s original content has become such an important part of who the group is that they even have a playlist of recommendations on their channel curated specially for new fans. The endless memes and ad libs that arise from their group banter, and (according to the captions) the “chaos” of the audio track when the six members are fully absorbed in their games, captures the kind of chemistry that draws viewers in. With an aura that’s exactly what you’d expect from the friendly neighbors they’re named for, the boys are a perfect fit for the world of YouTube. We spoke with the teams behind the idol group’s original variety show videos for a behind-the-scenes look that highlights five ways BOYNEXTDOOR is endless fun to watch.

K-content ambassadors
When TAESAN teases the other members by saying things like, “Don’t you know Myeongja? … You need to watch ‘Infinite Challenge,’” or “You really don’t know it?” he’s really highlighting BOYNEXTDOOR’s undying love of Korean variety shows. The group draws on cultural touchstones from iconic K-variety shows of yesteryear like “Infinite Challenge” and “Gag Concert” to make their own shows that much more entertaining. If one of them shouts “ssambap?” then the rest of the group chants “ssambap!” and dances. If one of the boys uses a catchphrase like “Please let me go, I’m begging you” from “Infinite Challenge,” everyone else catches the reference and bursts out laughing. The videos they make draw on this group of similarly aged boys’ shared memories and feelings around pop culture, giving them a natural camaraderie that gives their videos their signature rhythm. “The group is so articulate that any topic we give them becomes way more amusing once they start discussing it together,” KOZ Artist Contents Team Leader Yina Kim notes. Their unique knack for being entertaining particularly shines when they debate each other on video, where their back-and-forth banter happens at lightning speed. In the video “Win the king’s heart,” when the topic revolves around choosing between calling or texting, JAEHYUN works at persuading LEEHAN through miraculously clever wordplay, explaining how “phone calls are the most important thing in the world”—where “phone calls” (jeonhwa) sounds almost the same as “Your Majesty” (jeonha) in Korean. Similarly, in “BOYNEXTDOOR Debate: Boys Need to Debate,” RIWOO sits quietly as the others speak, later summarizing the discussion in a single sentence: “No news is good news.” Even when JAEHYUN, as the moderator, tries to rein in the discussion with a gavel and the words “let me just say one thing more,” the overenthusiastic group can’t be stopped. The whole spectacle is quintessential of BOYNEXTDOOR’s videos. “As an all-Korean group, BOYNEXTDOOR is well-equipped to try their hand at specials themed around holidays that reflect Korean culture like Hangeul Day or Teachers’ Day,” as HMS Planning 2 Team Leader Mina Lee explains, and which naturally extends to the staff planning content that plays on the cultural context the group members all share in. KOZ Artist Content producer Jihye Jin echoes the sentiment, adding, “The fact that the group is so lively and fun together is enough to appeal to international fans and make for an enjoyable viewing experience.” Their Korean memes and wordplay resonate beyond cultural boundaries, their chemistry perfectly clear and delightful to viewers all around the globe. Nobody can be K-content ambassadors and variety show stars quite like BOYNEXTDOOR.

Gen Z memes
“JAEHYUN and TAESAN are especially into memes from ‘Infinite Challenge,’ but really, the whole group is deep into memes,” notes HMS Planning 2 Team producer Younjoo Jun. In fact, the boys manage to work memes into practically every inch of their original videos. For DOORJANCHI, the group’s first-anniversary party, they recreated the dinner party scene from “Infinite Challenge” using cups shaped like champagne glasses. In their “Athletics Championship,” JAEHYUN chooses LEEHAN, the leader of the opposing team, creating “Team LEEHAN Without LEEHAN” in a parody of the “Team Hong Chul Without Hong Chul” scenario—another “Infinite Challenge” reference, the likes of which have become a familiar part of BOYNEXTDOOR’s videos. “It's fascinating how they can pull out just the right meme for any scenario and all six of them get it and all laugh together,” Jun adds, acknowledging their keen ability to read the room and pinpoint the exact moment a meme will land best. And it isn’t just their love of old variety shows that helps them here—they’re also up to date on all the latest memes thanks to watching YouTube Shorts and their natural Gen Z aptitude for social media. But in the world of BOYNEXTDOOR, there’s more to memes than copying those that came before them. The boys took the phrase “respect all moms,” which first found life on Weverse LIVE, and turned it into a meme in their “2024 Recap at the Year-End Party” video. Similarly, on “FUTURENEXTDOOR,” the group repeatedly gets in the way of WOONHAK’s dream of throwing the first pitch at Sajik Stadium, which he finally counters with, “You want me to fail, huh? … Nope, never! You can’t stop me”—which became a meme in itself that they later reenacted in the “Whatdoor Man” episode of their “WHAT? DOOR!” series. In other words, while they love to use memes they find in the wild, they also actively create and build up memes that arise simply because of the nature of their chemistry. “Fans seem to have found another way of enjoying the group’s videos, which is to almost make a game out of discovering new memes within them,” Jun notes. In this way, such memes also act as a direct bridge of communication between BOYNEXTDOOR and ONEDOOR. For example, when the boys attend freshman orientation for BOYNEXTDOOR University, they imitate a famous catchphrase from “Culinary Class Wars” while playing the Orange Game, providing a glimpse at both the kind of trending content they’re into these days and their one-of-a-kind bond. Clearly, BOYNEXTDOOR’s unique sense of humor and the way they act in their videos has the power to spawn memes all their own.

Performers with a director’s mindset
“The members of the group have a director’s mindset,” producer Younjoo Jun shares. The boys work with the producers, carefully considering things at both the directing and editing stages to ensure the best possible content. KOZ Marketing Team Leader Suhyeon Lee confirms this, adding, “They continually think about which lines people will find funny and work hard to analyze things from an entertainment angle.” Jun offers a further look behind the scenes, explaining how “there are many scenes where the rest of the group teases or gangs up on WOONHAK, and he personally asked the producers for background music just for him for those parts.” SUNGHO plays it off like he’s joking around about how to edit the videos, but whether he’s pointing out onscreen where captions should appear, or briefly wondering if catching a seagull would help him tip the scales until joking that “it couldn’t be aired anyway,” he’s actually considering the editing process in earnest. WOONHAK, meanwhile, hears LEEHAN speaking a different dialect and confidently announces, “This part should be saved as a clip—it’ll make a great meme.” Moments like these all highlight the BOYNEXTDOOR members’ clear understanding of everything that goes into the overall content creation process. “When the group’s given the freedom to play their roles with minimal constraint, it leads to lots of entertaining situations,” which in turn enables the staff to grant them even more creative autonomy, Yina Kim says. The group improvises by tweaking or adding rules to games on the spot for added entertainment value. They spontaneously add an acrostic poem challenge during a game of Mafia, and in the Santa Maria dance segment, “although they were given simple example moves beforehand, LEEHAN immediately upped the difficulty with more dynamic moves as soon as the game began,” HMS Production 1 Team producer Shinjung Do reveals. As Jun puts it, “Idols of their generation don’t just consume content but actively create it themselves.”

What’s most striking is that, despite their calculated involvement in the production of their videos, it’s never scripted or rehearsed. Even when jokingly saying things like “Why are you doing so much?” or “Why are we doing this?” the group members tackle every scene with unmatched enthusiasm. “Rather than simply doing as they’ve been directed by the producers, they compete to put their own spin on things,” Mina Lee notes. The boys’ active extension of the directing process has led the producers to try new and more varied things alongside them. The group’s ideas naturally expand to include real-time, interactive content, as with the series “WITH BOYNEXTDOOR,” for which “the group spontaneously suggested that they make a wager with the loser taking on a punishment on Weverse LIVE,” producer Jihye Jin explains, which allowed them to “make use of multiple platforms by bridging YouTube and Weverse LIVE.” “On the operational side of things, we’ve been making active use of new features on YouTube,” Jin adds. For instance, for the release of their “Chuseok Special Dinner Show,” they used the site’s premiere function to stream the next episode immediately after the previous one ended, keeping the flow of the show organic while making it even more accessible. “As the BOYNEXTDOOR members are not only excellent in their main roles as idols but also have a sharp sense for variety shows, working with them inspires us to try different things, leading to diverse subject matter,” HMS Planning 2 Team producer Sulyeon Lee says. The group’s original content is crafted both through the efforts of the producers and the group’s heightened understanding of, and passion for, making the videos. The result is a wealth of video series that capture exactly what makes BOYNEXTDOOR so unique.

Great chemistry in the FAMILYNEXTDOOR
“Looking at the group, they’re like a family, each with their own clearly defined role,” says producer Younjoo Jun, and their unique chemistry—which goes far beyond that typical of members of an idol group—immediately stands out in BOYNEXTDOOR’s original videos. “LEEHAN wanted to film with his dog” for season three of “FUNNEXTDOOR,” producer Shinjung Do shares, “but since his dog Koni couldn’t make it, RIWOO happily volunteered to bring in Daebak instead,” allowing them to “film with Daebak as their mascot.” There are countless examples in their videos where the group members eagerly support one another, with plenty more instances from “FUNNEXTDOOR” alone: In one scene, SUNGHO comes back into a game of bottle cap curling just because JAEHYUN and WOONHAK want him to stay in, and in another, JAEHYUN and LEEHAN enthusiastically step in to help WOONHAK bring his dream of making “cauldron dakbokkeumtang” to life. “People tend to avoid trying anything that might inconvenience them in the slightest nowadays,” Do notes, “but the BOYNEXTDOOR members don’t seem to worry about things like that,” emphasizing the value the group places on doing things together over what it could mean for them as individuals. “They joke around like it’s nothing, play pranks for laughs, and pay each other compliments amidst all the chaos, even showing their sweet sides at times,” says HMS Planning 2 Team producer Baeksan Jang, highlighting their easygoing, loving family dynamic. “BOYNEXTDOOR is such a multifaceted group that they remind viewers that this group they like is made up of actual real people”—a core sentiment of the group captured in meme-able interactions like, “Are you going in or not?”—“I will if you will.” Watching the group’s videos while “not knowing where they’re headed next” makes following their continuously evolving comedy chops endlessly exciting, marketing head Suhyeon Lee explains, adding that they “wanted to use BOYNEXTDOOR’s original videos to show how they’re adapting, growing, and maturing within the variety show space.” As JAEHYUN says of their shared experiences, “I don’t wish you happiness only—I want you to experience as much as possible and grow into a stronger and healthier human being.”

Prioritizing content for ONEDOOR
“On typical variety shows, being funny is the top priority, but for idols’ shows, there’s more to consider,” producer Baeksan Jang says, explaining how, when it comes to BOYNEXTDOOR, “the number-one goal is to show off what makes the group members alluring.” According to producer Sulyeon Lee, the “Chuseok Special Dinner Show” was “designed not just as a simple homage to Infinite Challenge Song Festival but as a way for the members to fully showcase their talents and individual charms.” To that end, they were sure to include unexpected sides of the boys, like SUNGHO rapping and JAEHYUN singing. Producer Younjoo Jun similarly explains that “it was the group members who suggested switching to a relay race for the final game of their ‘Athletics Championship,’ saying they wanted us to show them running,” showing how the group comes up with ideas with ONEDOOR in mind and the staff then reflects that. Other times their considerations were directly incorporated include one-hour videos like “2024 Recap at the Year-End Party” and “Winter Boy Academy,” where the producers “made sure to include every scene fans would likely enjoy, even if it meant a longer running time.” Similarly, during the “Athletics Championship,” “instead of using close-ups of whoever’s speaking, we deliberately used wide shots,” capturing SUNGHO’s subtle movements in the background. “Since this is content made for fans, we’re always looking to include scenes that will resonate with them,” Jang explains, but emphasizes they’re also aware that viewers “will click off less if the content is inherently entertaining, even with longer runtimes,” seeking to create content that keeps both fan’s interest and a wider audience in mind. Thanks to the goals set out by the team in creating the group’s content, they’re able to “reach out to fans by highlighting how energetic the group is and do everything we can to give the fans content that they can continue to enjoy for the long term,” Suhyeon Lee explains. Fans’ reactions to the videos add to the process as well. “Our fans, ONEDOOR, turned so many of our unintentional comments and actions into memes,” SUNGHO once noted, putting a new spin on the group’s content. And, Lee adds, “By observing how ONEDOOR and the current generation respond to the content, and which parts they enjoy and find funny, we’re able to better understand them and continuously reflect that in content going forward.” In other words, BOYNEXTDOOR’s original content provides an even greater opportunity for interaction, and for ONEDOOR to be even more engaged with the world of the group.