Japanese Government Complains After French TV Show Jokes About March 11 Disaster

N-H-K reports that the Japanese embassy in France has officially complained to the Canal+ channel after a television show made some insensitive jokes about Japan after the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident:

The offending jokes were on Les Guignols de l’info, a famous satirical latex puppet show. According to the embassy, the following types of jokes could offend and hurt the feelings of disaster victims:

Putting a radiation mark on the Japanese flag.
Depicting rescue work like it was a video game.
Commenting on how the wreckage of Sendai city looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bombing.

Canal+ has responded to the complaint by stating that the show’s creators were exercising their right to freedom of expression. The network has refused to apologize.

N-H-K notes that the video it used came from YouTube, so I searched around and dug up a few examples. Here are some screen captures, with links to the actual clips. (As I am not fluent in French, I do not know what kind of jokes are introduced in each clip.)

Prime Minister Naoto Kan introduces Mr. Burns to deliver some remarks about the nuclear accident in Fukushima:

The Mario Brothers discuss rescue work:

Surfers excited by footage of the tsunami:

N-H-K said this clip apparently shows photos of post-March 11th Japan with post-bombing Hiroshima with the comment that not much has changed in the last 60 years:

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29 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - April 30, 2011 at 10:05 pm

Categories: Anti-Japan Tags:

DeDeMouse

that’s awful
guesto

ｄｉｓｇｕｓｔｉｎｇ
http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/ Mr.S.

What can the French do next to make the Japanese loathe them as much as English speakers already do?
- http://www.readableblog.com/ LQ
  
  France seems to have been working really hard to make Japan’s love affair with them end rather abruptly.
Ap

The idea with Burns is great, as it is clearly satirical.
As for the other stuff, I’m not sure.
Gsdgds

I don’t know this show very well, but maybe one can can think of it as the French South Park. That is a show whose basic idea is to make provocative jokes. So get over it already. It’s satire ffs.
- Gsdgds
  
  And in fact after watching the clips I realize these jokes are actually quite harmless and much less offensive than the average South Park episode. (Caveat: I don’t speak fluent French either, so there were some parts which I did not understand).
Anonymous

Interesting to compare this with the BBC QI row of a few months back, when Japan complained about comedians talking about the A-bombings in a slightly amusing way. The main differences are the timescale (66 years ago vs. last month), the network response (BBC issued an apology-that-wasn’t, Canal+ claim freedom of expression), and the nature of the humour (QI mostly gagging about British railways and actually discussing Tsutomu Yamaguchi quite respectfully; Canal+ putting out plenty of bad-taste jokes).
- Gsdgds
  
  FYI, in the first clip one of the jokes is about the French postal service being crap.
  - Anonymous
    
    Ah, so the differences are starting to dissolve. Probably we’ll find the only differences are the timescale and Canal+ refusing to apologise at all.
nescire

Issuing an official complaint about a satirical show. How pathetic can you get?

This kind of overly sensitive behavior isn’t something that should come from an embassy or any government body for that matter. There isn’t anything in that video anyone should apologize for.
stüpdüdü

one of the ebst satirical shows on television, they make fun of everything not just japan, france too ben laden and 9/11 nothing is safe 😀
fish_taco

Wow, I know it’s a translation but that dialogue sounds nothing at all like Mr. Burns.

In my opinion I don’t think complaining about a new topic each week is the best strategy for Japan. Just do like I do, instead of complaining, when people act like jerks just remember who pisses you off and when they need your help next time tell them to piss off.
fish_taco

Wow, I know it’s a translation but that dialogue sounds nothing at all like Mr. Burns.

In my opinion I don’t think complaining about a new topic each week is the best strategy for Japan. Just do like I do, instead of complaining, when people act like jerks just remember who pisses you off and when they need your help next time tell them to piss off.
lml

I am French, living in Japan.
I actually watch this show regularly.. you don’t need to go on Youtube, all videos are free and good quality on the channels website http://player.canalplus.fr/
I don’t think they will apologize, as this channel is very independent (by viewers, costs about 4000yen a month to view), and has always given lot of freedom of speech to their journalists and comedians.
of course it is offensive, but their jokes are focused on current hot news, not especially on Japan.
As a conclusion I would say that both Guignols and Japanese government are doing what they are best at… one at provocative jokes, and the other at complaining again and again.
http://twitter.com/NagoyaYom Yom

The more the French do to make the rest of the world hate them, the better imo.
Hans

The Japanese government should stop being as stiff as a poker, that’s just ridiculous.
JeanDemesure

Les Guignols de l’Info is not so “famous”, it’s on a private encrypted network (even if the daily puppet show is not crypted) mostly famous for its soccer matches and its saturday night porn films. Its producer, Bruno Gaccio, is an avowed crypto-communist and fervent anti-capitalist and its favorite punching balls are rightist presidents, currently Sarkozy.
So the Japanese complaints is irrelevant. Given all the craps that have been sensationnalized about nuclear in Japan by the ultra-alarmist, irresponsable and ignorant French media, there is much better complaint targets than the Guignols.
- Glubibulga
  
  Not so famous?? More than 3 million people watch it every evening in France. And even if it’s on a encrypted channel, I hope you knew that at that time of the evening, everybody can watch it (from someting like 6 pm to 8.45 pm).
Sueichi

Instead of sending a complaint, we should do the same. Like making a satirical show about the French’s intolerance towards immigrants. If this TV show has any integrity, they wouldn’t be able to complain about it.
- Lena
  
  Actually, the show already did this kind of joke towards the french government and the immigration. They do it every day. That’s the purpose of the entire show, criticizing the politic! I know what i’m talking about, I watch it every day!
- Lena
  
  Actually, the show already did this kind of joke towards the french government and the immigration. They do it every day. That’s the purpose of the entire show, criticizing the politic! I know what i’m talking about, I watch it every day!
- Lena
  
  Actually, the show already did this kind of joke towards the french government and the immigration. They do it every day. That’s the purpose of the entire show, criticizing the politic! I know what i’m talking about, I watch it every day!
Robin

I actually found this to be very funny. It’s clearly satirical and in the spirit of the show, making jokes about stereotypes etc.

I wish Japanese TV shows could come up with comedy as good as this instead of the stupid unintelligent nonsense that they usually put on TV.
Aym

This show has been of very poor taste for years now. It has never been really good to start with, but it just grew into something as bad as this. Nothing new here, French media are about the same level as Fox News: something to stay away from generally speaking.
Yet again ashamed to be French…
Andy Pandy

mis-education, bigotry, it all starts with a few too many jokes..
Snowcrash

Meanwhile another french initiative =) (really more intresting than this show)
http://cfsl.net/tsunami/?page_id=656
rlh

Criticizing everything and everybody is their specialty. Japan is no exception, but at the same time they were part of a charity show/concert for Japan on april 11th. They are not hating japan, I guess they are just making a difference between satirical jokes about world’s news and the support they can bring to the japanese victims, regardless of the bad comments they could receive about their jokes.
CF

Okay, one thing to do, if they don’t like it: Start a smear campaign on all national and international media produced in Japan about France, French companies and their products, and especially Canal+. After all, freedom of speech works both ways. Especially if France or French citizens die from something. Maybe even have a national subsidy to produce that kind of stuff. And if something untrue is accidentally published, don’t apologize and throw out any lawsuits that may be brought from French companies.

Japanese Government Complains After French TV Show Jokes About March 11 Disaster

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