Kim Yong-min, the podcast star who earned fame through his raunchy humor, was undone by the foul jokes he made eight years ago.

Early returns and exit polls showed the candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party was headed for defeat from his rival from the governing Saenuri Party in Seoul’s Nowon-A constituency.

Lee No-geun, former head of Nowon Ward Office, led Kim by some 5 percentage points. 

Kim, a political commentator by profession, is one of the four panelists of “Naneun Ggomsuda,” an anti-President Lee Myung-bak political satire show popular among young people.

He was chosen to contest the seat formerly held by Chung Bong-joo, another panelist of the show now serving jail time for slandering the conservative president.

Kim had come under attack from opponents over comments he made on a different internet show eight years ago about U.S. government officials, including Condoleezza Rice.

Even his party had asked him to give up the race, fearing that public anger might spill over to other contests.

Kim, however, had refused to bow out, insisting that the electorate would judge him.

“I can’t let the Saenuri Party and ‘Cho Joong Dong’ go on like this anymore,” he had said, referring to the ruling party and three conservative newspapers that have criticized him.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)