Annoying Mr. Naruhodo advertises Mercedes-Benz in Japan

Mercedes-Benz has a new series of commercials starring a character named “Mr. Naruhodo” who repeatedly says the word “naruhodo” (“I see”) in a annoyingly stupid accent:

Is this the German equivalent of Mr. James?

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20 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - February 4, 2010 at 5:53 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags:

http://snoeksen.blogspot.com snoeksen

Hmm… even though the narrators German is perfect, the accent of Mr. Naruhodo is nothing like a German accent would sound in my opinion. Just the typical, cliché anglo-accent I guess. But anyway, yes, very annoying indeed.
- http://surrealu.blogspot.com Claytonian
  
  Yeah I asked a German and they said the second guy doesn’t sound German at all.
Vonskippy

The A-Class car looks like my daughters Honda Fit.
snowcrash

Judging from his behavior Mr. Naruhodo seems to be anything but “wirklich vernuenftig” ..
kamome

The German is correct, but the narrator doesn’t seem to be a native speaker or just an amateur.
FUUUUUUUU

That was probably the most annoying thing I’ve seen in ages…
http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

I was wondering when you’d post this!

I can’t judge the German, but that Naruhodo! is straight out of the hammed-up genki gaijin English teacher clown mould.

Somebody must know who he is!
weirdo

吹いたｗ
Ajapa

Oh, nein! A Germany based international company Daimler AG, the current owner of Mercedes-Benz brand, is reinforcing a classical stereotype of white people in Japan! It’s like showing that Germany is more than 20 years backward country!

Let’s start protest! Show our Japan Probe power! Here you can find contact information:
http://www.daimler.com/

Danke schön!
http://www.kuujiryo.com Kuujiryo

Ugh, that accent sounds like how some Australians pronounce Japanese words. Like Samurai.. SAMAYURIRYYEEE
Antialias

That accent is as Anglo as it gets. It’s actually pretty surreal for me, since when when I usually hear gaijin trying to speak Japanese it’s the prototypical american fangirl OMG KAWAY DESOO NEY?
nipponjin

Oh,relax. it’s a just cute cm.
Mr.naruhodo is cute．we japanese’ve got no grudge against gaijin.
Please don’t get angry over trivial things．
Quit acting like a anti-japan activist of north japan．
Otherwise, japanese people will keep away from you.

open your mind.
peace
missshibuya

I’m telling u man alot of japanese pplz think a lot of foreigners that are in japan are funky. Ahh the hell with it I think some of them are pretty funky too!! I admit it I think they’re funky as hell!!
- HJH
  
  90% of gaijin (yeah I said it!) is completely otaku. If you gove this comment a thumbs-down, then you know you are one too.
Dev

More like Mr Isuzu from those 80’s Isuzu commercials.
JapanNeedsAnEnema

“Mr.naruhodo is cute”

No nipponjin. He is not.
http://what.com ross

time to retire my Ray Bans. it was about time anyway
Buster

The funny thing is, that “naru hodo” pronounced by a German native speaker (ignorant of Japanese) will be almost equal to the standard Japanese pronunciation, thus making it impossible to add this extra kick of foreign goofiness.
Argh

Feeling the urge of destroying a Mercedes…
Anon

I dunno, as an Australian expat in Japan, I actually found this amusing. But mostly because (apart from being supposodly German? accent doesn’t sound right at all!) he is a spot on parody of more than one long-term expat I know. Around the decade mark in Japan and using そう　and なるほど as every second word exclusively to hide an atrociously near non-exitant Japanese language ability. Wouldn’t be so funny if the attempt didn’t come across as so desperate. Sadly, whilst I dislike the overall stigma attached to such an ad, this one does hold some merit. :/

I also agree, the accent is likely either a heavily Americanised East-coast Australian, or most likely an Aussie faking an American accent whilst “speaking Japanese”.

Annoying Mr. Naruhodo advertises Mercedes-Benz in Japan

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