Loopy Hatoyama
Back on April 14th, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen wrote the following about the nuclear summit held in Washington:
By far the biggest loser of the extravaganza was the hapless and (in the opinion of some Obama administration officials) increasingly loopy Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. He reportedly requested but got no bilat. The only consolation prize was that he got an “unofficial” meeting during Monday night’s working dinner. Maybe somewhere between the main course and dessert?
The Japanese government complained about the disrespect shown by the Washington Post in its use of the word “loopy,” but a few days ago Hatoyama admitted that he might actually be loopy.
With Hatoyama’s approval ratings plummeting, it would seem that some people agree about the loopyness. Ampontan writes about an online poll conducted by Nikkei:
To the question, Do you support the Hatoyama Cabinet, only 11.8% answered yes.
More interesting was the response to another question: “What do you think of the harsh criticism Prime Minister Hatoyama received from the American media during his American visit?”
A total of 84.7% of the respondents answered, “They took the words right out of my mouth.” (同感だ)
Meanwhile, anti-Hatoyama internet users in Japan seem to have embraced the word “loopy,” using it in both English and Katakana formats ["loopy鳩山" & "ルーピー鳩山"]. Somebody has even created a hilarious parody video that inserts Hatoyama’s face into Kewpie Mayonnaise commercials (edited to read “Loopy Mayonnaise”) and “Loopy Hatoyama” t-shirts are being sold over the internet. Since “Kewpie” and “Loopy” sound so similar, it seems that a lot of the parodies involve turning Hatoyama into the Kewpie mascot [pun + Hatoyama with a chubby baby body = more loopy lulz].
As long as Hatoyama remains Prime Minister, it seems that we will continue to see the word “loopy” a lot on the internet.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
