I Survived A ‘Japanese’ Game Show

yes, america should know better. the tripe now gets exported. or is it imported? oh what the heck – it`s all BAD!!!! stupid tricks, bad taste, bad jokes……..another one i won`t be watching.

I don’t get it…they invented their own “wacky Japanese game show” and then put Americans into it to show how “wacky” they think Japanese TV is? Or is this all some kind of fake-out, like Joe Schmoe or Invasion Iowa?

Unless there’s another angle to this, it sounds worse than stupid. It sounds pointless.

why don`t they learn from `bokeh` and `tsukkomi` first

i liked this show ..it’s funny!

(If you received this for moderation twice… I’m sorry.)

A little late to the game. I forgot that all the new shows started this week.

I’ve now seen Wipeout and “Japanese” Game Show.

Initial reaction? Wipeout was ok, some funny moments, the obstacles are absolutely outrageous.

My girlfriend pointed out that it was disappointing that they could get back up from failure and keep going, noting the different between this and SASUKE. I pointed out that SASUKE is hard, but not impossible. Much of Wipeout is absolutely impossible, by design. SASUKE is meant to challenge you, but it’s not meant to be “all 100 of you will fail on the first obstacle”.

If anybody says “But Sasuke is impossible”, then your method of distinction is quite odd.

I personally don’t see Wipeout lasting this whole season, and if it does, it probably won’t go for a second.

The revelation that “Japanese” Game Show, is a fake Game Show, was rather disappointing. If you’re in the WORLD FAMOUS Toho Studios, and you make something up to take place inside… something is seriously wrong. I understand the need for someone to comedically bridge the Japanese-English gap, but… to do it in this manner? In a FAKE manner?

My initial reaction was not “oh those wacky Japanese TV shows”, because I know better. All the constant noise in the crowd (Taiko Drums, Tambourines, and Hand Drums) was entirely out of place, not to mention the manner of crowd control employed by Mr. “Ramu”. I certainly didn’t know while watching it that it was ALL fake, but something stuck out as being out of place from the little bit I know.

Granted, I don’t understand a lick of Japanese, and I don’t exactly camp in front of my computer scouring the web for Japanese TV/Game Shows. But I have seen some (thanks in due part to this wonderful site, among others), so I have at least some semblance of an idea of how different things are.

The bottom line is, I’m going to continue to watch both shows, and see what becomes of them. Wipeout looks like it’s going to keep the same equation, and make subtle variations on them. “Japanese” Game Show might grow old on me, it’s the same reality trash I don’t care for (Survivor Japan, anyone?), layered with some over-the-top-forced-”humor”. I admit that I already began to dislike the show as soon as they were on the bus, and watched their reaction to the “We’re going to Japan” statement.

It reminds me of something said on the behind the scenes interviews on Hell’s Kitchen… but that’s a topic for a different post/comment.

It’s not THAT bad… I don’t like reality TV, but I watch it because I miss Japanese TV.

…and youtube doesn’t satisfy my craving.

One of my students in Japan walked out when we discussed the show in Japan. Thing is:

“Never would this air in Japan as they lead you to believe.”

There ARE shows like this that openly make fun of foreigners, such as “Koko Ga Henna Nihonjin” (“Oh! Japanese People are Strange!” – Google it to decipher why that title is racist against non-Japanese people. Its a long story, perhaps). However, when I told my students “if you watch this, then you can then question your OWN media”, this was still mixed with outright hostility by at least one (admittedly, weird) student of mine, a middle aged housewife.

Thing is, in Japan, Japanese culture, society, etc are often regarded as taboo subjects and rarely, if any, does the mainstream press or media ever offer criticism of the Japanese government, or culture etc. If it does exist, it is usually far removed from the outspokeness or investigative journalism styles that are in the west (and Im not saying that the west is best in that department either).

Merely offering this as a “have a look for yourselves” discussion point actually made some student/s upset, which, if I remember rightly, might also be due to the “victim mentality” of some Japanese, expecially as I think right now, the nationalists, conservatives etc are hawking on about “poor Japan” in WW2 on TV at the moment (although Im not 100% sure if they are right now. A student mentioned it briefly).

All too often Japanese revert to “poor us” and “non Japanese dont understand us”, which isnt helped by the fact that Japanese schools don’t promote and/or actively discourage debate about political or social issues. Thus, there is little or noone to discuss problems and so when something else, usually a “selfish” young Japanese with “crazy” ideas, or foreign media lambast something about Japan, it is suddenly “defense stations” by some, more conservative members when “under attack from the outside”.

Im not saying the show was great. Mama san seems to be able to speak good English (listen to her intonation. Her Japanese voice seems forced). The host too is good at English and is hamming it up. The audience are obviously media students (where are the housewives and Japanese grannies saying “ehhhhhhhh?!!! that so frequent Japanese TV shows?) and the Japanese things even the losing team has to do are not really bad (in fact, HIS Travel offers similar things for foreigners to do on special tours of Japan).

Some of my students (the non-crazy kind) have commented “but we dont drink homemade green tea in the morning!”,and I agreed.

However, some think its ok to depict foreigners as “silly” etc on Japanese TV and express amazement when foreigners like “natto” or can “use chopsticks” or even speak Japanese, and yet think nothing of this while saying “that TV show is bad and foreigners shouldn’t be so ignorant about we Japanese”.

I think the irony isnt lost here, is it?

PS: Its interesting tomention “Banzai” TV. THe show was created in the UK and wasnt shown for very long as it wasnt designed to be shown for more than one or two seasons in the UK. Not once, if I remember rightly, did UK Oriental groups complain. However in the USA, they did. However, when it was “removed” from Fox, was also at the same time that the show ended anyway, making me smell a rat somewhere.