Monday, August 21, 2006

Reality vs. The Simpsons

This clip of a Japanese gameshow is either the funniest or most disturbing thing you'll see this week.

Bonus points for anyone who can translate the tongue-twister they're trying to say.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The last part of the phrase changes, as after the pronunciation is blown, the next contestant gets a new ending. If they get it right, the same phrase is attempted by the next in line. The goal was, I imagine since I didn't see this episode, for all them to say the same phrase correctly. The phrase itself has to do with an (fictional) upcoming feature on this program (gaki no tsukai ya arahendei). As they don't seem to be doing well, this probably went on for hours and hours. I kid, the program is only an hour long, and usually has a number of segments, so no irreparable damage was done. (Probably.) The members of the program are the manzai group Downtown (the emcee and the last contestant), two other manzai groups--manzai groups are standup combos, Abbott and Costello'ish, the standard form of Japanese comedy-, and the first contestant--Yamazaki. This kind of contest qua corporal punishment is one of many reaccuring themes for this program. The Silent Library bit, same show, same guys. Enter "gaki no tsukai" into you-tube and there should be many examples. A lot of the punishment/practical joke bits are "batsu games", which result from someone losing a wager or a contest. It is a late night show. Thus, this kind of thing, and other kinds of things (breasts, etc.) are tolerated. Indeed, anticipated.