Saturday, October 4, 2008

Oh, come f**king ON!

In a recent post, I discussed a bit on the plight of the "announcer" in Japan, something to which a person calling himself "Colin" had a pretty insightful comment. With the aim steadily focused on the future, I won't dig into the exact details of that post or anything, anyone interested can simply go back and read it.

That said and out of the way, this post is more generally about Japanese "comedians" and more specifically about the comedian going under the name "Dandy Sakano". Now, for those of you living in Japan and/or following the Japanese media, you already know that most of the mainstream comedians that do the circuit in big Japan tv shows have a gimmick or a gag that is extremely simplified and basically repeated ad nauseum until their time has come, the public has grown bored with them and a new fresh "talent" takes their place.

I'm sure many of you can throw out countless of examples of "comedians" like this, but coming to my mind immediately are "Tetsu and Tomo" with their annoying "何でだろう?” ("why is it like that?" ) song, Kojima with his speedos and "関係ない”("What's that got to do with anything?!") thing and "Neko Hiroshi" with his thing that I never figured out what the hell was so great with him!

However, what most of these "comedians" have in common is that the thing they do is usually a little bit amusing, perhaps not to the degree of getting primetime in every f**king tv-show, but at least have a little novelty value.

But, whichever way you look at things and twist and turn, this cannot be said of "Dandy Sakano" (WARNING: Painful video if you click that link!). His "thing" was basically saying "ゲッツ!" ("Get's!") in Japanese English and pointing his fingers as guns in front of him while being dressed in a silly yellow/golden suit. For some reason this caught on and people all over Japan started saying "Get's!" and doing the gesture when they managed to get/win something. This was horribly painful and for this reason I have difficulties looking back at the year 2005.

Then, the inevitable happened and his act was growing thin (it took the general population a good six months to realize this, it was thin the moment it started as far as I'm concerned...) and he faded out for television to do the local circuit where all these washed out comedians end up in the end. New, and less annoying, novelities took his place in the entertainment circuit and all was well.

I had basically forgotten about this horrible act and basically written it off as one huge communal mistake by the Japanese population at large best forgotten. Then, without any warning, he makes a comeback in a tv-show just last week! Same f**king yellow suit! Same f**king lame "Get's" gag! What the hell is going on here?! Usually these type of celebrities go out of fashion and stay out of fashion. This is a major paradigm shift in the world of Japanese comedy and I'm not sure I can take it!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I honestly can't believe this guy is still around!

I remember back in 1999 I think it was when he was first trying to make his break into comedy, and he was still working as a manager at McDonald's (!)

He was actually sort of funny back then, lots of manic energy, and he would randomly blurt out English words/phrases, of which "Get!" was one. (For some reason, "Get!" was popular back in '99. Remember the short-lived "Get" soft drink?)

Anyway, he didn't have the yellow suit back then... And he never really caught on... So I was shocked to see him on TV not long ago. No more manic energy... But I can't believe he's still milking "Get!" You ask me, he's still a damn sight better than Edo fucking Harumi, aka Mrs. "Goo!"

I say we let Egashira 2:50 loose on them and let him kick their asses. I love that guy.

Mr. Salaryman said...

Haha, Egashira 2:50 is pretty disturbing though, I doubt that that man is completely sane... However, that just adds to the comedy. In order for me to refresh my mind I had to you-tube him and found this clip http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=_cfb2RU99Kk the Atari Teenage RIot soundtrack fits disturbingly well with his act...

That Edo lady doesn't annoy me that much, it's something tragically comic about a middle age woman breaking into the "comedy" world of Japan that gives it an unintended flavor I can enjoy a bit.

Chris said...

I am totally lost with this but it does not stop me from posting!!

NOTHING stops ME from posting!!! Woooo Hoooo!!!

Look at my big toe mother fuckers!!!

Who's coming to my Haunted House??? It will leave mental scars on ya!!!

C'mon!!!! Wooooo Hoooo!!!

Anonymous said...

The picture of the yellow-sparklie-suit dude is almost as horrifying as the giant cockroach picture you posted not too long ago (and I have yet to recuperate).

Does he wear the same god awful suit in the new one or did they tone it down and go with kiwi green?

Anonymous said...

I don´t get it. The clip with Dandy Sakano showed lots of other things than his stupid gimmick - Nice dancing, lots of lyrics and sexy girls.
I think you guys are overreacting, the guy seems to have talent. I think you guys are just a bit jealous.

Mr. Salaryman said...

TC - I think he used to have some small varations and sometimes using a slightly different hideous suit. Please not that for an act of his magnitude, changing color of the suit is a major change!

Martin - Well, if you like him so much, maybe I should buy some of the DVDs and CDs for you that he's bound to have released in his time of greatness!

Anonymous said...

Please don´t. I´m fine thx!

Foggia said...

The presence of those guys is a major reason why I won't watch Japanese variety show. (my wife does though, which gives me a lot of headache)

Well, the whole "talento" and "manzai" culture disappearing would do a lot of mental good, too.

Still, I remember seeing the speedo dude once on a hidden camera speaking to a girl posing as a fan and he was all like "no I'm not funny", and looked very clear about his position in the entertainement industry food chain.

HG, while at his peak in popularity, said he was living in a 5mat room too. No surprise.

Probably even the guys that make it to the dubious top don't see any money, thanks to Yoshimoto, the twin brother of Johnny's for comedians.

Anonymous said...

I like japanese comedy. I didn't really understand manzai at first but it's grown on me. Bananaman, Hannya, Morisanchuu, and Oasis are a few of my favorites. I like Edo Harumi because of that dance that she does and how she can incorporate "guu~" into everything! Deliciousing-Gu!!!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if you guys are offended by comedians who make their living imitating foreigners? Dylan & Catherine did that but I didn't really get their jokes...

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