Where I list the books I used...

Works Cited

Davis, Jessica Milner. Understanding Humor in Japan. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2006. Print.

Powers, Richard Gid, Hidetoshi Katō, and Bruce Stronach. Handbook of Japanese Popular Culture. New York: Greenwood, 1989. Print.

Tsutsui, William M., and Michiko Itō. In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.

Where I conclude this blog...

This blog is certainly not enough to cover every detail and the whole depth of Japanese comedy.  Certainly, the roots of Japanese comedy goes back much further than the introduction of manzai in the Heian period.  There are thousands of geinin that are not mentioned on this blog and of those, hundreds that are successful today.

However, I hope you got a taste of the rich geinin culture, and the long history of Japanese comedy and the comedians.  The Japanese game shows you see are the product of this long tradition that developed over time.  It is not as simple as ridiculous people doing ridiculous things.  As I have tried to explain, the majority of Japanese comedy is not the end result of ridiculous, exotic behaviors.  Just like manzai and konto, most of owarai shows are rehearsed and perfected over time.  Every time a geinin falls into the water, it reflects his experiences and skills as a geinin.  Most of them are always conscious about the timing and the tempo of delivery of their actions; in their term, they "read the atmosphere" (kuki wo yomu).  And they are always fighting against the fear of suberu.  Owarai geinin is a more difficult job than it appears, requiring emotional strength, wit, and comedic skills to survive among thousands of geinin.

So finally, let's take a look at a seemingly ridiculous performance.


This is a comedy genre called reaction performance.  The "reaction geinin" use skills to overly react to seemingly painful situations.  It is a performance that is mastered, and on this video, the guy in the pink vest (Kasuga) is learning the art of this performance genre from the guy in tuxedo (Degawa).  These people are aware of what is going on; for example, the hot bath is actually a room temperature bath.  Japanese game shows are the same way.  The ridiculous, funny moments do not come from coincidence and accidents; rather, they are performances.  Geinin are almost always aware, and they are always thinking about the next move.  And they will do (and sometimes, pressured to do) whatever it takes to make people laugh.

Where I tell you about the people responsible for the human tetris: Tonneruzu...

Tonneruzu (or Tunnels)

Tunnels was formed by Ishibashi Takaaki (Left) and Kinashi Noritake (Right).  They were high school classmates and as an amateur duo (then called Takaaki & Nortitake), were stars on television shows such as TV Jockey and Owarai Star Tanjyo (Birth of Owarai Star).  In 1980, they officially formed a duo after quitting their job at a Hyatt Hotel and Daihatsu and changed their name to Tunnels.  They soon became a favorite of a television producer; however, after one year, an argument resulted in the producer using his power to prevent Tunnels from being casted in shows.  During this time, they lived a difficult life as a geinin, performing in the parking lot of supermarkets and at department stores.  In 1983, they were given 5 minutes on a midnight show.  Their radical and sometimes violent style gave them huge success in the late night shows, and their fan base started to grow.  Tunnels soon became a charismatic figure especially for young fans.  In the late 1980s, they see even greater success with shows such as Neruton Beni-Kujira Dan and Tunnels no Minasan no Okage desu.  It is on the latter show that many konto characters that were iconic of the time and throughout their career were developed.  These shows were also highly admired by today's younger geinin and had numerous influences on the development of comedy television shows in Japan.  Tunnels, as part of the show, entered the music industry and also became successful as comedic singers.  Tunnels, because they are independent from the large geinin culture centered around Yoshimoto and Osaka, is frequently given the label "Tokyo geinin".  This Tokyo geinin image solidified by Tunnels carries a more pop and modern (or "city") notion than the geinin image of Osaka and Yoshimoto.

It is in the show that followed Okage desu called Tunnels no Minasan no Okage deshita that human tetris made its debut.  It is one of the game in a konto-like program called Moji-Moji kun HYPER.   Moji-Moji kun started while the show was still called Okage desu, and the characters are part of the comedy theme that goes back to the 1990's.  The program is made for the geinin, and therefore, they are not competing to win the game.  They are trying to win the laughter of the audience, and therefore, at times, a ridiculous way of falling into the water, on purpose, is a more "correct" answer than trying to figure out the puzzle.  Again, they are comedians, and they are making the audience laugh.

Where I think you should learn about Shimada Shinsuke and Downtown...

As you may have noticed from reading this blog now, Downtown had the greatest influence on modern day owarai and today's owarai geinin.  However, without Shimada Shinsuke, the Japanese entertainment industry may have never seen Downtown.

Shimada Shinsuke was born in Kyoto on March 24, 1956 as Hasegawa Kimihiko.  As a teenager, he was an outlaw and experienced several arrests.  He saw the manzai of a duo called B&B at the age of 18, and seeing how funny B&B's manzai was, he decided to enter owarai in order to beat Shimada Yoshichi (one of the B&B duo) in being funnier.  He formed the duo Shinsuke Ryusuke with Matsumoto Ryusuke, and began performing manzai.  They soon became recognized as one of the funniest acts in western Japan and became a regular in Oretachi Hyokin-zoku.  However, as the Manzai boom started to end in the 1980s, the duo disbanded; at the press conference, Shinsuke stated, "He will never be better than Taihei Saburo Shiro and Downtown [in manzai]."  It was at that moment Downtown gained media attention (they were virtually unknown before that time).

Shinsuke began to enter the role of television show host.  He is also a successful producer in the Japanese entertainment industry as well as an entrepreneur.  Shinsuke is the man who started the M-1 Grand Prix.  In a television show with Matsumoto Hitoshi of Downtown, he stated that the owarai industry should decide who is simply the funniest geinin, and he stated in another show that the M-1 Grand Prix is his show of appreciation for the culture of manzai, the first 8 years of his geinin life.  His intelligence and wittiness make him the most liked television show hosts in Japan today.

Hamada Masatoshi

Matsumoto Hitoshi

Downtown formed in 1982 by Hamada Masatoshi and Matsumoto Hitoshi.  The duo changed owarai, at least for the geinin that followed, and are one of the most highly admired comedians in Japan by the fans and other geinin (older and younger).  Hamada is the tsukkomi and Matsumoto is the boke.  Hamada is now known for his sadistic portrayal while Matsumoto claims he is a masochist; they are responsible for spreading the use of the now common S&M reference in Japan (S-type people being those who are active and aggressive while M-type people are the receiving end; not only in a sexual way).  Their influence is also shown through the geinin that came after them.  Almost all manzai duo that followed Downtown mimicked Downtown's style especially the poker face boke characteristic of Matsumoto.  Yet, Shinsuke states that Downtown arrived at that style after learning all the older, traditional style of manzai, and therefore, the copies cannot be better without learning the basics.

As I mentioned earlier, they were virtually unknown until Shinsuke's comment at the press conference.  They were in the first graduating class at NSC which also included Tommy's, a duo that included an already famous Japanese champion in boxing.  Furthermore, they were not well looked upon due to their new style and radical manzai topics.  Among many older geinin, they were not received well due to the lack of the master (again, they were the first class at NSC).  With these reasons, they had a very slow start.  Yet, many other geinin including those in his class already felt that Downtown was something different and extraordinary.  Shinsuke stated that many successful geinin including Shinsuke, Sanma, and All-Kyojin went to give a lecture at NSC.  They always said that one duo was funniest among those in the class, and they all pointed at Downtown.

Because of their slow start, they led an extremely poor life until their success.  For many years, they went to work but had no money (and did not make enough money) to make the return trip, so they walked a long distance home.  Their dinner during those nights was a bottle of milk that they shared on the way back.  However, Hamada and especially Matsumoto always lived in poverty.  Hamada later states that it was probably the poverty and lack of toys that fostered Matsumoto's creativity today; Matsumoto had to come up with fun things on his own.

Since Shinsuke's comment, Downtown saw success that was unheard of at the time.  Hamada said that, one day, he went for a television drama shooting along with popular movie actors of the time, and when they got off the bus, more fans gathered around Hamada than those actors.  Today, they still continue to be one of the most popular geinin on television.  Together they host a number of television shows.  Hamada alone hosts television shows that are less comedy while Matsumoto starts and runs shows that reflect his creativity and his style of comedy.  Matsumoto has also begun to enter the film industry.  What is fascinating about Downtown is that while they are already successful and big name in the entertainment industry, they continue to take part in more or less physical comedy.  This can be seen in television programs like Lincoln and Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende.

Along with Oretachi Hyokin-zoku, Downtown's Gottsu Ee Kanji has been an influential konto show that introduced games or game like skits that carried over to the Japanese game shows.

Where I present you the BIG 3...

The BIG 3 is not a comedy group.  It is the label given to the three most popular and successful comedians that came out of the 1980's 2nd Generation Owarai Boom.  It includes Tamori, Beat Takeshi, and Akashiya Sanma (formerly, Hagimoto Kinichi instead of Sanma).


Hagimoto Kinichi

Hagimoto Kinichi was born on May 7, 1941.  He is called by his fans as Kin-chan and rose to stardom during the 70s and the 80s.  He was a pioneer in owarai and created many of the predecessors of modern television variety shows.  His comedy uses more bodily movement to gain the audiences laughter unlike many of the earlier comedy acts based on dialogues and is konto-centered.  At one point, he was called the 100% man by the media because the sum of the viewing rates of his shows for one week was 100%.  His shows were so influential that some of the commonly used owarai vocabulary such as ukeru and tennen-boke spread to the general population through his shows.  He disappeared from the scene for a short time.  There are many speculations about his motive for taking time off.  Some says that he was tired from the sudden fame  and attention he received; some says that he could not agree with the ad-lib based konto programs such as Hyokin-zoku.  While he took time off, the media took him off the BIG 3 and replaced him with Akashiya Sanma.


Akashiya Sanma

Akashiya Sanma was born on July 1, 1955 as Sugimoto Takafumi.  He was given the name Sanma (pacific saury, a type of fish) because his parents ran a seafood processing company.  Sanma belongs to Yoshimoto and is one of the highest paid personnels in the company.  He is known to be happy 24/7 and known to not sleep.  His lack of sleep has been investigated in a show where people were asked to send him photos of him sleeping in return for monetary reward; only one picture from 13 years ago came to the show.  Even his daughter claims that she has never seen him sleep.  Beat Takeshi has stated that he falls asleep and wakes up very quickly, and once he is awake, Sanma is always happy.  His happy character can be seen even outside of television shows as he, unlike other geinin, interacts openly with fans that he randomly encounters.  His logic behind this is: "If a dog bites your hand, you forcefully push toward the dog, and the dog will let go.  I go talk to the fans before they come to talk to me; so that in the end, they go away."  He is well perceived by viewers and is one of the busiest television show host in the Japanese entertainment industry.  Among the geinin, he is known to be very critical, but many admire his skills in making a joke out of anything.  His ability to talk nonstop, even at the expense of the guests on his shows and possibly due to his love for himself, gives him the title "Owarai Monster".



Beat Takeshi

Beat Takeshi was born on January 18, 1947.  Internationally, he is known by his real name Kitano Takeshi and recognized as a film director/actor.  His career in comedy took off as he formed a manzai duo called two beat along with Beat Kiyoshi.  two beat was known for their manzai that picked up on scandalous/taboo topics and was not well received by critics at first.  However, they soon encountered the Manzai Boom and saw huge success in the 1980s.  The boom soon ended, and by that time, Beat Takeshi was known for his solo work as a television show host.  He then starred in Oretachi Hyokin-zoku and furthered his fame as a comedian; the show is one of the main contributor to the onset of the 2nd Generation Owarai Boom.  He was one of the brains behind the show, and his creativity carried over to his film-making career later.  While he remains equally as scandalous in his comments and continues to disguise himself in humorous costumes, he is a internationally recognized film director and a regular invitee of the Cannes International Film Festival.



Tamori

Tamori (real name: Morita Kazuyoshi) was born on August 22, 1945.  He is known by his sunglasses and has the longest running television show hosted by the same person (current record holder on the Guinness Book of World Records).  This show called It's All Right to Laugh (Waratte Iitomo) is aired live every weekday noon and has continued for over 20 years.  He has only missed few days of the show and continues to be the face of the hour in Japan.  Every resident of Japan most likely has seen the show at least once.  He also has another long-running midnight television show called Tamori Club which started in 1982 and continues today.  Tamori is known as a multi-talented comedian, demonstrating skills in cooking and music and showing his wide knowledge of history, art, geography, and trains.

Where I briefly mention the other popular form of owarai: Konto...

Konto is simply a skit comedy also seen on shows such as Saturday Night Live.

The word is derived from the French word "conte" which means short story or short play.

This form of comedy is self-explanatory if you have seen any skit comedy on television, and therefore, I will use this post to outline the successful konto in the modern history of owarai.

One of the first and still popular konto is Yoshimoto Shin-Kigeki.  I have mentioned Shin-Kigeki in an earlier post, but I will briefly mention that it contains many elements that are considered beta (or cliche).  The audiences know what will happen next during the performance; however, Shin-Kigeki theaters are filled with laughter show after show.  It is indeed a perfected comedy.

In the 1970s, an extremely popular show emerged on television.  The show was called It's 8 O'clock!  Everyone Gather Round! (8ji Dayo! Zenin Shugo!)  The main act of this show was a group called The Drifters  formed by Ikariya Chosuke, Takagi Bu, Arai Chu, Nakamoto Koji, and Kato Cha.  After Arai Chu left the group, Shimura Ken (one of the most famouse Japanese comedian alive) joined the group.  The set up of this show was unique; it was a television live broadcast of a theater performance.  The group traveled to different theaters across Japan each week, and many children and family went to see it performed live.  The average viewing rate was 27.3%, and the highest was 50.5% (which means over half of Japan's household was watching this show).

clip from 8ji Dayo! Zenin Shugo!



In the 1980s, Ore-tachi Hyokin-zoku came on television.  This program starred now famous Beat Takeshi (Perhaps more widely known as a film director Kitano Takeshi), Akashiya Sanma, and Shimada Shinsuke as well as many other comedians who are still popular today.  The konto characters from this show are occasionally brought back on the television screen by these same comedians in other variety shows.  The show is labeled as legendary by other geinin and serve as the prototype for modern konto form seen on television.

clip from Ore-tachi Hyokin-zoku



Around the same time, a duo called Tonneruzu (Tunnels) began to gain popularity on a show called Tonneruzu no Minasan no Okage desu.  This show also produced characters that remain popular and legendary among the geinin community.

clip from Minasan no Okage desu





And in the 1990s, Downtown introduced the show Gottsu Ee Kanji.  This show was different from the prior as it used continuous story line that carried over many weeks of the show.  The prior konto were based on short stories that ended within each weekly broadcasting.  Most geinin that were part of this show have become extremely successful, with many hosting their own.  Following in the footsteps of Gottsu Ee Kanji, other konto-centered television programs have emerged and continues today.

clip from Gottsu Ee Kanji



Konto is an important part of Japanese comedy and recently, like manzai, has started to become recognized as an art form.  Konto competition called King of Konto started and has become one of the largest events for geinin along with R-1 Grand Prix and M-1 Grand Prix.

Going back to the Japanese game shows, the game shows carry some of the same notions as the konto.  Many game shows in Japan were part of the konto-centered television shows that featured some of the same comedic characters.  This tradition carried over to most comedy-independent game shows, and thus, one may see people dressed in ridiculous costumes and such.  Furthermore, another tradition that carried over is the fact that the games were indeed part of the overall comedy; in other words, the games are tools for the comedians to make people laugh, and the games mean very little to the people who are participating.  The comedians may not go by the rules or may not even compete to win if that is what it takes to get the crowd laughing.  They are not being laughed at by the audience but are making the audience laugh; they are no clowns but are comedians.

Where I attempt to explain Manzai...

As I have stated in my earlier post, Yoshimoto has popularized manzai attributed to their successful appearances in television programs.  However, manzai as a oral art form existed since long before.  It is believed that manzai started in the Heian period as a celebratory performance during new years.  During that period, manzai was a duo performance which involved one playing a small drum as the other danced to the beat.

The current form of manzai began to form in the Meiji period.  As the older form began to mix with the two-person rakugo form and as well as kodan (translated, recitation), it gradually became the two-person, conversational manzai (shabekuri manzai) that is popular today.  Tamago-ya Entatsu and the duo Sunagawa Sutemaru and Nakamura Haruyo are known to be the founders of modern manzai, and the duo Yokoyama Entatsu and Achako are known to be the comedians that introduced today's standard form, the shabekuri manzai.

In the 1930s, Yoshimoto began to popularize shabekuri manzai by introducing Western clothings and songs to this form of comedy.  The ubiquity of this comedy as a result of the success of Yoshimoto's promotion has solidified it as the modern manzai form.  This modern manzai that developed, while carrying many common elements, is different from comedy found in other countries.  The most typical form is described by Joel F. Stocker in "Manzai: Team Comedy in Japan's Entertainment Industry":

"[The manzai duo] engaged in a friendly, complementary antagonism, formally divided between the two of them: the tsukkomi played the kashikoyaku, the role of the smart one, and the boke played what in Osaka dialect is called the aho no yaku, or more generally the role of the fool. . .  The conversation is structured for a battle of words and worldviews in which the tsukkomi attempts to "correct" the boke's errant interpretations, oftentimes using one hand to tap or strike him on the shoulder, back, or head. . . The implicit rules of the genre are that the tsukkomi nods and says filler words in response to the boke's relatively normal-sounding statements, but, more importantly, he also "digs into" (tsukkomu) the boke--to criticize, to correct, and to point out the illogic or stupidity of the boke's movements.

manzai of Yasushi Kiyoshi
 

Manzai may appear as though two people are simply engaging in a humorous conversation on stage.  However, it is a rehearsed performance.  The duo often performs the same story in different venues, while some parts are ad-lib.  The rehearsed nature of manzai is what makes manzai an art; for the comedian, it is an delicate form requiring the correct timing, tempo, volume, and other elements of speech.  In order to praise those who are skilled at this art form, large competitions are held every year.  The most televised and now considered the most success-inducing is the Autobacs's M-1 Grand Prix.  Other prestigious competitions include NHK Kamigata Manzai Contest and Kamigata Manzai Taisho.

M-1 Grand Prix began in 2001 and has grown to last year having 4629 duos that entered the competition.  It is a tournament with the first round beginning in early September, and the final held at the end of December.  The final is heavily advertised and televised as a huge event.  The event is restricted to manzai duo that formed within ten years prior to the tournament year and is opened to professionals as well as amateurs.  However, professionals have always won due to the amount of time they have spent in their life practicing and gaining experiences in theaters and other venues.  The winner of this event takes home 10,000,000 yen (approximately, 100,000 US dollars) and becomes the center of media attention immediately after the competition.  Many of the past winners were unknown until the competition and arose to stardom following the competition.  Some winners have stated that their salary the following year as well as the number of media appearances increased by thirty fold.  For the geinin, winning this competition is a symbol of guaranteed success (at least for a year).

Because of the popularity of M-1 Grand Prix, manzai has begun to increasingly gain recognition as an art form consisting of high standards and practice.  As a result, other media has become interested in manzai and the lives of geinin, and they have become the center of films, books, and comics.  The advertisement poster for the 2009 M-1 Grand Prix shown above features characters from the manga series Beshari Gurashi, a manga that portrays two protagonists trying to become a successful owarai star.