aespa burst into laughter during acceptance speech at the '2025 Asia Star Entertainer Awards', opinions divided over group's 'unprofessional' attitude

On May 28 KST, girl group aespa took home 3 trophies at the '2025 Asia Star Entertainer Awards', held at the Yokohama K-Arena in Japan. 

First, the group was called up to the stage for 'The Platinum' (Bonsang), receiving the award alongside fellow teams like ENHYPEN, IVE, NiziU, NCT WISH, and more. 

While delivering their acceptance speech, member Karina made a mistake by calling aespa "aespo". The idol then burst into laughter at her own mistake and could not continue with her speech, tossing the baton to Winter.

However, Winter also burst into laughter and turned away from the microphone on her first attempt, before eventually tossing the baton to Ningning after squealing, "I can't do this!". Ningning finally wrapped up the group's speech quickly with "Thank you" spoken in Japanese. 

버블 몇시간 지나고 바로
카리나랑 윈터 저렇게 한참 낄낄대서 수상소감도 못하고 박장대소 하다가 내려감 ㅋㅋ
더말은안하겟음 https://t.co/U2szgjImj7 pic.twitter.com/Js4YOxq8QW

— 클레오파트라명언봇 (@gimmepurr) May 28, 2025

While many fans found aespa's uncontrollable laughter on stage hilarious, there were some netizens who expressed disapproval toward the group's alleged "unprofessional" attitude. 

Some also overlaid the situation with member Karina's recent controversy over an SNS post, where she was seen dressed in a red jacket with the number '2' on its chest. The photo was interpreted by some as expressing political support for the People Power Party, the major conservative-leaning political party in South Korea symbolized by the color red and whose presidential candidate is represented by the number '2' on the ballot. 

Those who criticized aespa's "unprofessional" speech commented,

"Wow honestly it's not that funny.."

"They're acting like the world revolves around them and the rest of the people are just npcs.."

"This is what happens when big companies just buy out awards for their artists. They start to become ungrateful."

"This is their workplace and they are acting extremely unprofessional."

"That kind of attitude makes you question if they even put in the kind of effort that would make them truly deserving of so many awards."

"That is an award given to them by their fans. Why are they acting like a bunch of immature school girls at a professional event?"

"The laughing definitely does not help when the fact is, she was the center of a major controversy just yesterday."

"People who act unprofessional and don't know when it's the right or wrong time for jokes really turn me off."

"Sorry if I'm being too stern but what a poor attitude."

Meanwhile, aespa also took home 'Song of the Year' and 'Artist of the Year' at the '2025 Asia Entertainer Awards'.