xinmsn picks our top 10 favourite “variety-dols”!

Text: Joelle Chong

Being a Korean idol is difficult, but being part of a Korean idol group is even harder.

Korean idol groups can no longer be contented with just performing on stage. There's a rising trend with a need for them to branch out in other areas, not only to make a name for their group, but also to let the audience get to know them individually -- especially for those in big groups like Super Junior and ZE:A.

In recent years, Koreans coined the word "variety-dol" to describe idols well-received on variety programmes because of their personalities, silver tongues or comedic timing.

The first few idols to be crowned "variety-dols" were probably the members of legendary group Shinhwa, who dominated old-time variety shows such as X-Man where they showed TV audiences another side of themselves. Beast's Yoseob was even quoted as saying, "Shinhwa members are variety-dols' 'textbooks'."

Click through the gallery to see who our top 10 favourite "variety-dols" are and what their means of survival on variety programmes are!