Squid Game has inspired real-life spin-offs, but not all of them are legit

Dystopian Netflix hit show Squid Game has inspired several real-life iterations — but not all of them are legitimate.

The South Korean show, which is one of Netflix’s most popular series to date, centres around 456 players who compete in deadly tasks in an attempt to win a cash prize of 45.6 billion Won (approximately £28.2 million).

For those that watched the show and fancied their chances at beating the gruesome games, the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) in Abu Dhabi has announced a real-life version (without the gore).

Nam Chan-woo, director of the KCC, told Khaleej Times that 338 players have signed up to take part in their more wholesome real-life version of the tournament tomorrow.

Participants will play a selection of games that featured in the show, such as red light green light where players can only move when the person who is “it” says “green light”. Those who move after the tagger says “red light” will be shot with “sponge guns”.

Players will also try their hand at a game called dalgona in which they have to carve a shape out of a piece of honeycomb, a marble game where people must guess if their partner holds an even or odd numbers of marbles in their fist, and ttakji, a traditional Korean game where you must flip your opponent’s folded piece of paper by striking it with your own.

KCC isn’t the only place to be inspired by the hit show.

A Scottish café has given diners the opportunity to test how steady their hands are by creating a Squid Game pancake challenge. Glasgow’s Kcal Kitchen is serving pancakes topped with a honeycomb circle with a pre-drawn shape embossed in the centre. Diners must extract the shape from the honeycomb without damaging the design to win a free meal.

However, police in London have issued warnings over a less legitimate real-life version of the game that was reportedly advertised on Snapchat.

The Telegraph reports that Londoners have been invited to take part in a spin-off version of the show that involved dodgeball, British bulldog, a “crate challenge”, and a “free-for-all-fight”. The prize money is £10,000 and those who are eliminated will be “rushed for 10 seconds” and will be shot in the face with a BB gun.

The Snapchat advertisement seeks 100 people and says the games will take place at a UB10 postcode (which is in northwest London, including the areas of Ickenham and Hillingdon).

The Metropolitan Police said people should be discouraged from taking part and also said they are working to find further detail to ensure a policing plan is in place. It’s understood that there were no reports of such an event taking place over the weekend.

It’s not just the police asking people not to take part in such games — one Belgian school issued a warning to parents after children were beating up those who were “eliminated” as they copied the show’s games in the playground, The Brussels Times reported.

And, according to The Mirror, schools in England have asked parents not to allow their children to watch the show over fears children will want to copy events from the show that has an age rating of 15.

Although the show’s first series has wrapped up, rumours of a second series are already abound.

The show has already created a buzz of discussion around the chances of the game ever happening in real life and got people thinking what games they would have to play if a similar tournament took place in their country.  The series has also been compared to CBBC’s Raven, The Hunger Games books and films, and the 2000 film Battle Royale.

Like all other Netflix hits, the show has also inspired its fair share of memes. 

Even if a real-life version of Squid Game is played in a safe way, we’d rather watch from the sidelines — just in case.

indy100 has contacted the Met Police for comment.