For example you be the noodles and I'll be the soup.

I've been meaning to mention this in a post but what can I say I'm a little lazy. About a week ago I got an email from a friend of mine with the subject "quality Japanese television". Upon opening the email I found a URL too a video segment on YouTube. The segment was about a Japanese comedian calling himself "Hard Gay" who dresses up in a leather bondage outfit and walks around Tokyo doing various good deeds. "Hard Gay"? Yes "Hard Gay". I'm not saying he calls himself "Hard Gay" in Japanese I'm saying he calls himself "Hard Gay" in English but instead of "Hard Gay" it comes out more like "Haadu Gay". Who is "Hard Gay" well if you want the long version you can go check out Wiki, if you want the short short version and I know everyone likes a good quicky now and again I'll tell it to you now. "Hard Gay" is Masaki Sumitani who also goes by the names "Razor Ramon", "Razor Ramon Hard Gay" among potentially others. He is one of the many comedians in Japan who either has their own variety show or has their segments shown on a variety show.

JAPANESE CULTURAL CONTENT

The whole thing, err well not the leather outfit and the pelvic thrusting but traditional Japanese comedy dates back to a Japanese style of comedy called "Manzai" where you generally have two guys standing up talking and exchanging jokes. The "Boke" says stupid things and the "Tsukkomi" corrects the "Boke" in a berating fashion and in many cases hits to the "Boke". The style dates back to the Heian period (~800 - 1200 A.D. ) a time when the Emperor actually had power and books like "The Tale of Genji" and "Sei Shonagons Pillow Book" were written. That last bit didn't have anything to do with the rest I just thought it was cool that the comedy style still popular in Japan dates back more than 800 years. If you want a western analogy I guess Abbot and Costello would be a good match. The modern style of Manzai came out of Osaka after WWII and with the help of T.V. and radio became the dominant style. That's enough, if you want to read more about "Manzai" and "Owarai" go to here.

Again what does all this have to do with "Hard Gay"? Nothing. Seriously nothing, I just thought it was interesting. Fooooooooled you. For whatever reason variety shows are all rage in Japan, sure they have dramas, and comedies and all that but it seems like it's mostly variety shows. The topic of variety shows is varitous, shit must I tell you everything. There are lots of variety shows about food, traveling, traveling to places to eat food, food fights, music and food, rock stars eating food, music, comedy and music, comedy, etcetera, etcetera.. There was this one show on when I was studying in Japan that was called "Yoshimoto Chogokin" and it was about these four comedians who I think were out of Osaka. This one episode they would take random people off of the street and put them in front of the camera. They would then have them drink a bunch of milk and then have each contestant try to keep it in their mouth while each member of the comedy team would then try to make the person laugh. They called it Milk Fight or if you want GYUNYU FIGHT-O.

The first thing that you are going to notice when you start watching these "Hard Gay" clips is that periodically subtitles in Japanese will appear. Why do they subtitle something in the same language that they are speaking? Why do I keep watching SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Why do I call SG with all of my stupid questions, Why is my Brain Age only at 40 and why doesn't Brain Academy understand the word blue? Shit who knows, this is Japan remember. My assumption and this is just an assumption mind you is that it is to give extra emphasis to what is being said, kind of like a verbal bolding. I imagine this falls into the same category as using katakana (Writing system used to write foreign words and concepts in the Japanese syllabic system) to write Japanese words in written materials or using English in advertisements. Another question you might ask is why doesn't anyone react to an over 6' tall man walking around in a leather sleavless shirt, leather short shorts, sporting a leather hat and sunglasses pelvic thrusting. Huh... I don't know either. I can't even fathom it, but I do love it. And I don't just love it because it's one of those things where you say "Those wacky Japanese what will they think up next" I just think it's damn funny.