Foreigners amazed by giant garbage claw

A very good point.

Yea I meant on television. Back in the states we don’t have a lot of variety shows, it’s mostly dramas or “reality” shows. You might get some things similar in a reality show but I avoid them like the swine flu. I’d say the closest thing I can think of from the states that is similar to the talento on Japanese TV is some of the infomercials will feature fake audience members in a talk show format who will react with amazement at the awesome product they are trying to sell. So yes the talento format was new to me when I came here and the first thing I noticed is how easily impressed Japanese people seemed to be. Of course then you meet actual people and figure out they are just normal. What a disappointment.

As for people on the street, that must depend on what street you are on. I think most people some “normal” as far as their reactions. I don’t really know how someone under reacts, I guess it would be hard to notice there lack of reaction unless it was truly an extreme situation.

I live in Shibuya now and I can tell you I frequently see Japanese gentlemen with hand help megaphones at Shibuya crossing that seem to be over reacting about something.

Also I guess the story should have been called “Talento amazed by giant garbage claw”.

Also I guess the story should have been called “Talento amazed by giant garbage claw”.

They did not behave like a stereotypical foreigner and did not show an “unique” insight as a foreigner to entertain Japanese audiences in the above clips, furthermore, Sahel Rosa who appeared in the previous post is a Japanese living in Japan for more than 15 years and Kaytlyn Girson (an Australian woman in a brown jacket) seems to have grown up mostly in Japan. Maybe, the only reason to hire “foreigner-looking” reporters is the similarity between the title “東京見聞録” of this Tokyo local reports and “東方見聞録” (Il Milione) by Marco Polo?

I could have used the word “gaijin” here to implicitly denote non-Japanese people who may be often confused with “typical” Americans. (I’ll not go into more details…)

I’d say the closest thing I can think of from the states that is similar to the talento on Japanese TV is some of the infomercials will feature fake audience members in a talk show format who will react with amazement at the awesome product they are trying to sell.

Ironically, that must be exactly what I often saw on midnight TV show from the U.S. here in Japan about 10 years ago. I think it became a cult midnight show.