Comedy in Japan

If you have ever read Dave Barry's "Dave Barry Does Japan", you may be under the impression that Japan doesn't do comedy well. Maybe you think their idea of comedy is, as Dave Barry describes in his book, rakugo. 

I absolutely do not understand all of what makes some Japanese comedians funny, but I do find some of them incredibly funny.


Many non-Japanese people who watch TV shows from Japan will often shake their heads and wonder how in the world such a conservative country could be so darned weird.

The answer, my friends, lies in Britain.

Britain is a relatively conservative, proper country that is also famous for such utterly bizarre comedy groups as Monty Python. Japan takes that up a notch.

What Japanese comedians do is poke fun at the supremely conservative society of Japan (the phrase "Stiff upper lip" doesn't go far enough here) by being absurd for all to see. It's cathartic for many in this society to watch these people acting ridiculous and just laugh at how crazy it is.

There are a variety of comedy brands here in Japan. I'll go over a few briefly.



First, the one Dave Barry mentioned in his book, called rakugo.

As you can see in the video, rakugo involves a man sitting on a traditional Japanese cushion, wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and regaling audiences with corny jokes and long-winded stories that have been told for hundreds and hundreds of years. Some have updated twists, but this is tradition more than comedy. Every now and then the comedians will land an actually funny joke or say a corny joke that will illicit a few chortles, but my experience with rakugo has not been fantastic. I believe this is comedy best left to old Japanese people.


Next up is manzai, which is two people talking in front of a microphone. You always have one person who's an idiot and the other who's sharper than a tack, correcting the idiot. The two of them playing off one another can make for some great jokes.
Osaka, a large city in western Japan, is famous for producing legendary manzai comedians. Manzai is also riddled with jabs at Japanese culture the way the routines of stand-up comedians in America are, so consider understanding all of a manzai routine as the ultimate Japanese Language Ability challenge.

Arguably the best duo of manzai is called Knights (see video). The man on the left is the idiot and the man on the right corrects him. This duo is known for their insane speed of delivering their lines and the way they can both weave a pretty decent (though mistake-riddled) story in the space of a few minutes.

(Highlight from their sketch above:
 Idiot: I was in a bike accident and put into "rock-habilitation" for a year
Smart guy: "Rehabilitation", you mean. Why would you use that moment to declare your hope of becoming a rock star?)



Next up are a couple other comedic duos who don't do manzai, but, instead, think up funny comedy routines the way Will Ferrell makes up comedic personalities like Ron Burgandy.



The first duo I like are called Cow Cow (and yes, they know what the word "cow" means).

In Japan, for reasons yet to be explained to me, many people listen to the radio in the early morning (usually old people), and the PBS of Japan (called NHK) broadcasts "radio exercises" for people at home to listen to and do. The music to accompany the radio exercises is always a piano, giving it all the feel of a nursing home.

Here is an honest-to-God radio exercise program that was also broadcast on NHK's TV station:

If you can watch this for a few minutes without laughing, you are more mature than I am.


Now, Cow Cow also couldn't contain their laughter when watching this, and so decided to make a spoof on this cultural treat of Japan, called "Obvious Radio Exercises."

Highlights from this gem of a routine include their first set of exercise instructions: "If you put your right foot out, then put your left foot out, you can walk."

Another is: "If you call someone over and they stand way too close to you, it annoys you."

Yet another is: "When playing rock,paper,scissors, if you throw out your move after your opponent, you will win."

This duo was incredibly popular last year, with many a middle school student quoting the duo's routine or making up their own versions.



One that's popular this year is called Doburoku (their name is apparently a combination of their names)

They are famous for a song they sing called "Just maybe", in which they sing from the point-of-view of a guy faced with a situation involving a beautiful woman, and how the man believes anything the woman does is because she secretly likes the guy.

In a nice way of rounding out this whole post, here they are performing on a famous rakugo TV show.

Highlights from their song include such lyrics as:
 "When I sat on the train, a woman sat down next to me and ended up sitting on part of my coat."
 "Just maybe, just maybe, she just didn't want me to leave."

"When I was standing at a bus stop, the woman standing next to me couldn't stop coughing."
 "Just maybe, just maybe, she was overwhelmed by my pheromones."

"At the last stop on the train, I saw a woman still sleeping on the train."
"Just maybe, just maybe, she was hoping for a good-morning kiss from me."

"This woman was walking toward me, but completely engrossed in her phone, and she ran into me."
"Just maybe, just maybe, she was searching for 'Hot guy' on her phone, and her search found me."


I quite like Doburoku, who are continually updating the lyrics to this song.