Funny Japanese TV
No, not that type of funny Japanese TV. Really genuinely, intentionally surreal, witty, satirical comedy programmes. My particular favourite is Salaryman Neo, NHK, Tues 23:00. Really gets into the absurdity of the average Japanese office, or in fact offices everywhere. Call it “The Office The Sketch Show”, with quite a lot of Monty Python thrown in. Highly recommended.
Not a particularly representative one, and no subtitles, but here is one example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u_Se6AU1Ik&mode=related&search=
Will try and search out some better ones for you later. My own favourite sketch is “indecisive guy writes email”.
Maybe more accessible is “The Japanese Tradition” by the duo Ramenz. Whole selection here for you to enjoy and me to watch again soon, all with English subtitles:
Origami: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhSjtXKsSJQ
Chopsticks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjuD52s0GBs
Sushi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b75cl4-qRE
Apologies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4bMM73-qHo
Along with the bizarre made up stuff, you can also learn some real Japanese traditions. The difficult part is working out which bit is which!
There are more without subtitles, can easily search for Ramenz and Japanese Tradition, or will try and post some more when I’ve got round to seeing all these again.
And because it is physically impossible to talk about Japanese TV without mentioning something unintentionally funny and/ or horrifying, here’s a clip of the swimming pool from hell: