Where I speculate on the cause of the "misunderstanding" in American audiences...

Perhaps, "misunderstanding" is not an accurate term.  It may be more appropriate to say that the American audience of the Japanese game shows has a "different understanding."  Most viewers are not aware of the Japanese comedy, and thus, they cannot appreciate the shows in the same light as the Japanese audience.  Yet, this is not a one-way phenomenon.  Japanese audience, for the most part, does not understand American comedy either.


I remember when the movie "The Mask" (1994) came out during February 1995 in Japan.  The movie starred Jim Carrey, one of the most successful comedic actors of the time.





However, many Japanese viewers did not understand the humor in the movie.  Language can be translated, but the subtle nuances and the American culture associated with them cannot be.  And even today, foreign comedy films experience little success in Japan compared to other films that strongly focus on the story line.


What is interesting is that, in America, the Japanese game shows are popular unlike American comedy in Japan.


So what is happening in the United States of America to account for the success of Japanese comedy?


To understand this, one should first watch these two trailers.


1. Gojira (1954)



2. Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)



The first movie Gojira is the Japanese original where as the second movie Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a heavily-edited version of the original.  The success of Godzilla in America can be attributed to the technique film producers used to attract the American viewers.
A. Godzilla included a western character/narrator that was not in the original.  The westernization of the original movie allows the audience to relate to the movie and become more attached to it.  
B. Godzilla is heavily dubbed.  The dubbing (including many terrible dialogues) makes the movie cheesy.  In "Gojira as Japan's First Postwar Media Event," Barak Kushner quote Annalee Newitz as she states, "[Cultural cheese is] the production of, and appreciation for, what is artificial, exaggerated, or wildly, explosively obscene."  The cheesiness was another way in which the foreign film was made more acceptable to the American viewers.


These two techniques can be seen even in the trailer shown above.


And just as Godzilla was "popular in different ways in Japan than America" (Kushner),  the Japanese game shows are also differently perceived in Japan and America.  The same practice that was found in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! can be found in the Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.



A. The hosts of the show receive a western name.  Sonomanma Higashi is called Kenny Blankenship, and Beat Takeshi is called Vic Romano.
B. The show is heavily dubbed.  This certainly succeeds in portraying the show as something extremely cheesy.


The same techniques are employed in Godzilla, King of the Monsters and the Japanese game shows as shown in American media.  And the end result is also similar.  Godzilla, King of the Monsters! stripped away the historical/political relevance the original Gojira carried.  The Japanese game shows in America stripped away the historical and artistic context of Japanese comedy.  While they both gained popularity, they became something less.  Something not as sophisticated or cultured.


What I want to be understood is that the Japanese game shows in America is no longer a Japanese game show.  It is an American game show, just like Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is an American film.  There is an obvious difference between the original and the export.  And we all must recognize the differences before we simplify the Japanese as silly people with silly games.