Webcomic Creator’s Website On Japanese TV!? Crazy Movie Guessing Game Brings Laughter And Recognition!
Understand that I’m a great fan of Japanese TV. I’m old enough to have seen the first dubbed run of Speed Racer in the US. I learned about Japanese ghosts and demons from barely-subtitled broadcasts of Gegege no Kitaro. Long before the Food Network had heard of it, I was watching untranslated Ryori no Tetsujin every Saturday night.
And nothing, I repeat, nothing has held me in wordless thrall as much as this one cracktastic game show I saw where two poor guys were held in a warehouse without sleep for something like 56 hours until they could win a competition whose rules were never explained and constantly changing. They were variously:
- threatened by a dozen fundoshi-clad men screaming and carrying a phallic mikoshi on their shoulders — a mikoshi that was shooting sparks
- held in a bathtub and pelted with boiling-hot noodles from a ramen vendor’s cart
- forced to ride public buses around Tokyo while dressed in ill-fitting clothing appropriate to an 8 year old (while a screaming middle-aged mother-type repeatedly slapped them for talking back)
- serenaded with the the theme to Space Cruiser Yamato (by the original vocalist, no less!) until tears of memory welled up in their eyes
Forget sumo, porn vending machines, random English on clothing, and the Great Buddha at Nara — this show was destined to be Japan’s cultural legacy to untold generations of the future.
Until now.
Bernie Hou (of Alien Loves Predator and The Burgg fame) reports that his identify-the-movie site was recently featured at length on Japanese TV. So watch in wonder as the in-studio panel on Webtama (including the obligatory token white guy) play guess-the-movie for a prize of delicious dumplings. Oh, yes.
[…] ago, I’ve discovered around the world, guys of a certain age know that this cartoon holds a special power over them. It predated the ability to record TV cheaply, boxed sets of favorite stories, and […]
By Fleen: Try Our Thick, Creamy Shakes » What They Don’t Teach Us Pseudo-Journalist Hacks on 12.23.09 4:46 pm
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