Home > Japan > 2008 – The Year of the O-Warai
Jan
04

2008 – The Year of the O-Warai

This entry was posted by on Sunday, 4 January, 2009 at

Audrey

We’re in the middle of a huge O-Warai (大笑い i.e. “Big Laugh”, meaning comedy usually in stand-up/skit form) boom which has continued basically since sometime in 2007 when the likes of Kojima Oshio (Oppapi) and Harisenbon. It seems that what Japanese people like to do the most is to laugh; because there seems to be no end to this boom. At the end of last summer at least I thought that the quality of comedy in Japan was stalling; there were no great new acts coming on to the scene, and the people who had broken onto the comedy scene earlier that year seemed to go nowhere… I felt that the boom was over; but then something happened and we saw some extremely great acts shoot up onto the scene: Audrey (see picture above), Naname 45 (Tsugi wa Kanda desu!), Wagaya (Iwaseneeyo!), Hibiki (Senpaaaaai!), Mono-ii (Chigauka?), King of Comedy (Daifanmitaina!), Joyman (Here we go, here we go!) etc. etc.

Basically there is one TV show that feeds the comedy scene with good acts, and that is Bakusho Red Carpet which currently shows here on Wednesday evenings. The concept is simple, bring on fresh comedy acts to do short stand-up/skit comedy. Basically each act has about 1-3 minutes to perform their act, so it needs to be explosively funny. Then they are ranked by a jury of celebrities on a scale from “Small Laugh”, “Medium Laugh”, “Big Laugh” and “Perfect Score Big Laugh”. Each night, one jury member chooses the top performer who gets a small award. Somehow, this TV show gets all the good new acts, and as the popularity of the show has skyrocketed, comedy veterans now also often feature on the show intermingled with the recurring fresh young acts.

Red Carpet is about 1000 times better than the closest rival show in the same genre, Enta no Kamisama which has a simple concept, comedy acts perform in front of a studio audience. Somehow they manage to only find the most boring and ridiculous acts, although on some shows, sprinkled in between the losers are some of the great acts that got their break on Red Carpet.

There is one more hugely brilliant comedy show, and that is “The Iromonea” which is a competion-style comedy show, where comedians fight their way through five levels, each featuring a different style of comedy they must perform, and if they get the audience to laugh (3 out of 5 randomly selected audience members must laugh on level 1-4, and all 5 must laugh on the last level) they move on to the next level, can can ultimately win 1 million Yen if they clear the fifth stage. This show used to be a sort of boy’s club for the already comedic elite, with seasoned veterans only participating, but with the success of new comedy acts recently, they have introduced a sort of qualification round part of the show, where new comedy acts go through similar trials and have to get a jury of celebrities to laugh on three consecutive tries to be able to qualify for the “real” part of the show and compete for the money. This show is also pure brilliance! It’s awesome to see people squirm during the last few seconds of their performance when they are desperately trying to get that sorry son of a bitch in the audience to laugh who seems to think nothing they pull out of their comedic repertoire is funny!

Anyway, to sum up, I used to think Japanese comedy was pretty lame. I guess it had something to do with not understanding fast-talking Manzai-acts (I still don’t catch all the puns), but there was also too many un-interesting comedy acts which had ridiculous shtick like Ed Harumi (I can’t stand her), Daita Hikaru, Moody Katsuyama, DJ Tiger Lee etc. whose acts basically consists of bad rhymes, boring jokes and some kind of funny sound or saying that they repeat until it just gets nauseating.

However, since last year, I’ve become a huge fan and it seems like this boom will continue for yet some time. I guess nothing gets you through an economic recession like a good laugh!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. frost rygsak skoletaske b酶rnev忙relset
  2. gold 585 halskette
  3. 賲賱丕亘爻 丕胤賮丕賱 賲賳 丕丿賷丿丕爻 兀丨丿孬 賲賵囟丞 賲賵囟丞 丕賱兀夭賷丕亍
  4. 賱毓亘丞 毓乇亘賷丞 亘賷亘賷 賱賱 爻賱賷丞 丕賱胤賮賱
  5. 讘讙讚 讬诐 转讞专讛 razili
  6. lollys laundry strik k酶b og salg find den bedste pris
  7. rep眉l艖g茅p polc egy
  8. african print mini skirt. by rahyma african fashion ankara
  9. kappa bl氓 svart barn
  10. 魏慰谓蟿维 慰喂魏慰谓慰渭喂魏维 蠁慰蟻苇渭伪蟿伪 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 魏慰蠀渭蟺维蟻伪
  11. kett艖s med谩l p谩roknak 316l ac茅l sz铆vek ez眉st 茅s fekete sz铆nben cirk贸ni谩k
  12. king queen kark枚t艖 谩rak akci贸k v谩s谩rl谩s olcs贸n
  13. puma munkav茅delmi cip艖 monaco s3 hro feh茅r
  14. f茅rfi sapka online 眉zleti aj谩nlatok gearbest magyarorsz谩g
  15. codexmode flounce midi skirt rt
  16. 2008
  17. adidas adv club jersey t shirt oxford blue yellow
  18. 2008
  19. bell moto 9 mips helmet solid
  20. mens dickies jacket
  21. air max plus qs
  22. womens lace up leggings yoga
  23. tractech evo r ce leather trouser 2053 black uk 28 eu 48 regular leg
  24. mens clothing eco friendly gypsy lolo gypsy lolo
  25. new anti blue matte redmi note7 pocophone f1 r9s special offer ready stock
  26. louis vuitton laptop bag men jaguar clubs of north america
  27. zaini seven maxi trolley 2015
  28. detske sand谩lky superfit
  29. bluzki damskie d艂ugi r臋kaw 2 pack 38 m b00
  30. adidas ace 15.1 size 10.5
  31. super rasprodaja regatta
  32. review air max 270
  33. jak vybrat ly啪e pro za膷谩te膷n铆ka
  34. hotel the sangai continental
  35. plecak damska torebka plecaczek sk贸rzana sk贸ra 021
  36. spodnie damskie kellys maddie kr贸tkie z wk艂adk膮
  37. pantalones de chandal futbol
  38. adidas pace plus
  39. moda camisa negra hombre
  40. jaguar s type 3.0 cijena 4500 crna gora podgorica
  41. botas adidas amarillas
  42. vmava cala jacket p艂aszcz we艂niany p艂aszcz klasyczny light grey melange
  43. chelsea blue jersey
  44. gucci logo bumbag best luxury designer clothing store
  45. puma g vilas tennis shoes
  46. 拧aty na zimu 2018
  47. gant mode blus med prickar m枚nster bl氓 utomhus
  48. halloween costumes for girls only
  49. fred segal colorblock driving cap
  50. brand shoes discounts for sale converse new color light blue
1 11 12 13 14 15 17