TV in Japan

Danger Zone - Another Painful Japanese Game Show Experience

This is how you make contestants really work for their dough. By putting them on giant shuffleboard pieces. And then allowing them to end up in the “Danger Zone”. Where really bad things can happen. Hence the name. On TV. In Japan.

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Posted in: Action Packed!, Comedy, Competition, Japanese Sports Like Stuff, Ouch!, Super Game Show!, Truly Awesome

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Action Packed!, Comedy, Competition, Japanese Sports Like Stuff, Ouch!, Super Game Show!, Truly Awesome. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “Danger Zone - Another Painful Japanese Game Show Experience”

ttancm October 22nd, 2007 at 3:56 am

It’s not a “game show”, and those aren’t “contestants”, it’s a variety comedy show.

The two men are comedians and the women are a pinup model and former singer.

shoyo October 22nd, 2007 at 6:01 pm

So commenter, you’re saying it’s not a competition? It’s just a skit? Really?

DMack October 23rd, 2007 at 12:59 am

Well, I thought that was just dumb as hell… But I laughed out loud when the guy got snapped in the head by the big elastic thing.

zex October 23rd, 2007 at 10:10 am

@shoyo: I think the prizes are real, but this isn’t a game show the way we’d usually think of it. The contestants aren’t normal people off the street, they’re comedians and entertainers who do pratfalls as part of their job. This show is less like Jeopardy and more like Jackass.

And one of the guys in the silver suits is Ishibashi Takaaki, one of the hosts of Utaban. Here’s a clip of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0oXEWttH_4

ttancm October 23rd, 2007 at 1:55 pm

Yes, that’s what I am saying.

The two guys in silver are the comedy duo Tunnels and this is a skit from their show “Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Deshita“.

This is closer to a skit from Saturday night live than a game show. While not every single line uttered or slight movement is choreographed beforehand, the major details, including who is going to win, whether or not the guests (also always other famous entertainers, etc.) are going to do anything where they can potentially get hurt, or put into a position that in any way compromises their “image”, etc. are all determined beforehand.

99% of the Japanese videos on this site and the web in general that are labeled as game shows, are actually from skit comedy shows.

Jake Was Here October 23rd, 2007 at 3:32 pm

ttancm: Most Japanese comedy shows, basically, are somewhere between Saturday Night Live and Jackass.

ttancm October 24th, 2007 at 1:08 am

@Jake:

A lot are something like that, but the Japanese have been doing it for longer than either of those shows existed.

The rest are mostly “manzai” shows, which is the pair of comedians doing a stand up skit thing (think Abbot and Costello).

Jake Was Here October 26th, 2007 at 7:44 am

When you think of Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy… you could almost make a case that it was the AMERICANS who invented manzai.

gavinpurcell October 26th, 2007 at 10:21 am

I have a feeling that there were probably cavemen playing “do not laugh” games.

ttancm October 27th, 2007 at 12:07 am

Where as I think a lot of modern manzai owes a lot to what we consider the classic comedians (Abbot and Costello et. al.) I think they may just have us beat on date of creation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzai#History

Originally based around a festival to welcome the New Year, manzai traces its origins back to the Heian period (794 to 1185).

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