Here’s the latest bit of Japanese weirdness careening through the Interwebs.
Direct link for the feedreaders.
After watching this, I had some questions. Besides the usual WTF? normal in this situation.
[ad#longpost]1) What must a Japanese liability waiver read like? “You agree to waive any right to sue if one of the women in the human slip-and-slide raises her knee at an ill-timed moment.”
2) Does Japan have a greater surplus of superfluous model/actresses so that some would agree to be part of a human slip-and-slide?
3) Were the two male contestants given two pair of the same boxers or was that a happy accident?
4) Most game shows make money by plugging the merchandise they have on screen. A perfect example is The Price Is Right. Now, I’m not 100 percent on this but I think the show is missing a golden opportunity to pitch whatever oil or lubricant they’re using. “Our contestant is using the appropriately named Astroglide to work his way through our line of bikinied beauties. Astroglide, when you need help a little help to slip and slide”
5) What is it with Japanese game shows? Seriously, we’ve all laughed at the strange antics people will do for cash and prizes, but the Japanese game show is just at a different level. A culture that is supposed to pride itself on reserve and self-control has shows where members of the studio audience getting hit in the balls in they miss a question. Did we have something to do with this? Did our vulgar crass Americanism do more damage than Fat Man and Little Boy? Or was this something in the Japanese mind that just needed a TV camera and a year’s supply of Rice-o-Roni to pop out?
If you have any ideas or resources that can answer, please comment below.
It’s been my experience that disciplined cultures tend to have the wackiest modes of relaxation and entertainment – Japan is an extremum case of this.
As a counterpoint, I will say that Japan has some of the best, most intelligent, and very entertaining and interesting documentary programming anywhere… Japanese public television (NHK) has some awesome history, science, news etc. shows, mainly because they don’t “dumb” material down. They assume the viewer is willing to work to understand something.
Japanese game shows are pure spectacle, on the other hand. A semiologist can probably have a field day with it.
H.
Gawd bless them one and all! I can never get enough of this stuff!