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Japanese version of 'Saturday Night Live' to debut in June

108 Comments

A Japanese version of America's long-running “Saturday Night Live” sketch comedy show will air June 4 on Fuji Television from 11:10 p.m., the station said. Popular comedians Koji Imada, 45, and Sanma Akashiya, 55, will host the monthly edition of the show.

"Saturday Night Live" debuted on NBC in 1975 and has continued ever since, with popular actors, performing artists and even politicians making almost-obligatory appearances on the venerated show over the years. The 90-minute show follows a sketch comedy format, typically featuring a monologue by a guest host to kick off the show, and a live musical performance to end it.

Many famous American comedians have the show to thank for launching their respective careers, and recurring sketches have frequently been spun off into feature-length films. The show is broadcast in 130 countries worldwide and has influenced a number of Japanese sketch comedy shows despite there being no official Japanese version until now.

"Saturday Night Live JPN" will run about 45 minutes in length. Comedian Takashi Okamura, 40, will be the program's first guest, with performer Ken Hirai, 39, providing the first musical performance. Producers say that, like the show's American inspiration, fans can expect big-name guests, including politicians, to make appearances. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to make a surprise appearance.

© Compiled from news reports

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Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to make a surprise appearance.

Not any more.

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just imagine them screaming "Raibu furomu Tokyo! Do-yobi yoru daaaaaa!!"

Only once a month? Is this some sort of pet project? Information is sparse but any indications if they will have established comedians as the "not yet ready for primetime players" or will they have relative unknowns to start with??

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SNL is being shown in 130 countries, 1 of which is NOT Japan! as long as I've been here I still havent developed a taste for J humor or TV. Movies, I enjoy but TV here, no thanks.

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oh no. probably teaching more kids more bullying tactics. just what this country needs. it is a good thing i go to sleep early.

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And where's Big Brother Japan? That would be interesting.

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Japanese "To Catch A Predator" would be awesome!

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What a surprise,stealing TV shows from other countries.

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As if there isn't enough rubbish on Japanese TV already, now they want to add to pile!

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I'm pretty sure it's being licensed, not stolen. But I don't think this will work; the Japanese style of comedy (sight gags, one-liners, slapstick, and insults), even it's sketch comedy, rarely includes the political or social component that makes SNL so funny (most of the time). It's simply not subversive enough.

So what they'll be doing is licensing the SNL format; don't expect the content to vary much from the many comedy shows that have come--and mostly gone, now--from Japanese TV.

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Spontaneity, originality, off-beat humor, irreverent. All hallmarks of Japanese TV comedy shows. Right?

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Oh god help us all. This is just going to turn into another talento fueled crap show.

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Will there be a segment on people shoving food in their pie hole, looking suprised and then saying "Oshii"! Eight times?

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I imagine it will be used to try and re-boot the failing careers of a bunch of has beens... it may even morph into Bistro Smap if we are really unlucky..

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And where's Big Brother Japan? That would be interesting.

No. It would be painfully, painfully boring.

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Look, Mr. Bill, it's Mr. Hand, with chopsticks...

Oh noooooo!

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isn't that a study night? Or is the name meant to be an in joke for the country where everyone else HAS THE NIGHT OFF

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Well ... I do think that Japanese TV needs more cow bell !

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Most of you should be ashamed. At least wait until the show has aired AND you have watched it before you start complaining about it.

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@no1samurai That's being a bit melodramatic don't you reckon? Someone woke up on the wrong side of the futon this morning me thinks.

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What a surprise,stealing TV shows from other countries.

Yeah, because other countries never do that, do they? Take the U.S. for example - they never steal shows from other countries. Except for The Office. And Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. And The Weakest Link. And American Idol. And Flight of the Conchords.........

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They need to have good writers. Even the American SNL floundered about 75 percent of the time due to bad writing. The golden age of Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray is long gone. Of course, SNL owes a lot to Second City TV, which is true satire.

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This goes to show you that the Japanese people of today are equipped with no imagination at all. They are a country of copy cats jut like China and Korea. They are stealing ideas from other countries to make or create TV shows that they feel may be interesting to their viewers. Now it`s TV shows, but what will be next. Only time will tell.

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Most of you should be ashamed. At least wait until the show has aired AND you have watched it before you start complaining about it.

No. I think that anyone who has seen any Japanese "comedy", already knows what this is going to be like. Absolutely, brain-meltingly childish and unfunny. I reckon it'll only last 1 season, at most, anyway.

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What are they going to do with Samurai Delicatessen - change it to Cowboy Kaitenzushi?

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On the bright side, it can't be any less funny than the American version.

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OH, I see it now. The comedians in this country have recognized how much material they have right here. Clowns load the cannon with political fodder and we're good to go.

I'm not big on Japanese TV but this idea does raise a few questions. A comedian can take freedom of speech as far as he wants to. How far will they go with their jokes? Will they bring out what we talk about in our living rooms?

Comedy - Freedom of Speech. Will they cut loose? A comedian can bring about change. Every week a politician could be on this new JSNL.

I predict that they won't change though. They'll be scared to cross the line. Instead they'll keep abusing each other and dressing like girls.

I love American Comedians cause they'll just call it as they see it. As we see it too. The Joker has always been the top card in the deck.

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Reminds me of the old John Belushi sketch "Samurai Night Fever". The unintelligible Japanese is classic. Satire as a comedic form seems absent in Japan. I may be mistaken, but there has never been a Japanese equivalent of Monty Python, not that it would even be understandable to a non-Japanese audience. Comedy, as we all know, is culture-specific. Hence, the American-British divide in terms of humor: "Huh? I don't get it."

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How far will they go with their jokes?

They won't go "far" at all.

Will they bring out what we talk about in our living rooms?

If you talk about unfunny things in your living room, them maybe.

Will they cut loose?

No.

I predict that they won't change though. They'll be scared to cross the line.

I agree with you. The line in Japan is 1000km thick. No-one will cross it, especially the "comedians".

Instead they'll keep abusing each other and dressing like girls.

Well, that is what Japanese "humour" is after all. Just because they call it SNL, it's still just a Japanese comedy show.

I really doubt we're going to see a Japanese Louis CK, or Bill Hicks.

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Sketch comedy is nothing new here. Poor mislabeling by JT. Sanma is a veteran sketch comedy artist. You never know... it might be hilarious.

SNL has sucked off and on for years and is simply all NBC has on the weekends. Network TV is simply terrible anyway, and I'm not sure why anyone still watches.

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Will last 2 months like anything else in Japan, be pre filled with talent from one talent agency only.

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SNL's expiration date passed about a decade ago. Taking TV show ideas from the US? The whole idea of "reality TV" was born in Japan back in the late 70s with Denpa Shonen ("Electrical Youths"?). Sending two guys from the tip of South America to Alaska or from Hong Kong to London (and getting caugut up in a civil war along the way - talk about reality) by hitchhiking.

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@Shinjukuboy

Denpa Shonen wasn't in the 70's. It started in the late 90's.

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MrDog is right there.

Wasn't the egg-plant(nasubi-kun) buy the 1st reality TV-show.

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buy = guy

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"Cheese baga, Cheese baga, cheeps, pepshi"

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Japanese TC badly needs to start doing something different, but will these be clever humour or just more headache-inducing slapstick?

Personally I'd like to see a Japanese version of the Daily Show if they could pull it off.

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I remember when a Japanese TV show called "Geba-Geba" shamelessly imitated Rowan & Martin's "Laugh-in" back in the early 70s. The Hyokin-zoku TV show also had a "sock it to me" scene where a person was drenched with water while praying in front of a bearded man made to look like Jesus. (Some of these may be viewable on YouTube.) Most of the quiz programs in the old days were ripoffs of US programs too. "Renso geemu" was taken straight from "Password."

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Absolutely, brain-meltingly childish and unfunny

Wow, the negativity! Do you know anything about kabuse, sukashi, etc? If not, I doubt you know much about Japanese owarai. I hate the guys on shows like "red carpet" but I hope they'll get guys like jyaru jyaru and the like.

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alladin at 09:14 AM JST - 27th May This goes to show you that the Japanese people of today are equipped with no imagination at all. They are a country of copy cats jut like China and Korea.

You remind me of a guy I met years ago. He was bitching about the Southern All Stars "copy of Ray Charles' Ellie My Love".

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dont bother changing! why is it that there are constant efforts to imitate things from the US??? stay original, and stay true to what works for your audience.

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haha, u flag wavers out there who say that the US is all about freedom of speech, i call b s!

"call it as they see it"--yeah, right, when someone says something even remotely negative towards the troops, or about 9/11, or about christianity, the lynch mobs come out. there are practically gag orders on famous people when it comes to speaking out about what really happened on 9/11 and the "war on terror"

yes, u are right, the japanese dont bash politicians or create skits exploiting the misfortunes of famous people, but dont hide behind the assumption that everything is so right in the US. freedom of speech in the states is a farce.

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In Japanese? It will be just a bunch of people hitting each other over the heads like boring Beat Takeshi

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Nothing defines a national group more than its sense of humor. That's why the Canadians are so great. They gave the world Bill Murray and Mike Myers. So take off, eh?

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Wow, the negativity! Do you know anything about kabuse, sukashi, etc? If not, I doubt you know much about Japanese owarai. I hate the guys on shows like "red carpet" but I hope they'll get guys like jyaru jyaru and the like.

I used to watch Japanese comedy here until about 6 years ago. All the funny shows were on late night, like 1 or 2 am. When they got popular, they went to earlier slots and because annoyingly unfunny.

I find Japanese comedy to be unfunny, the same way I find Charlie Chaplin unfunny. It's either slapstick, or over the top. Yes, some people are funny. But on the whole. Japanese comedy is childish and uninteresting.

I mean, I'm pretty sure Japan is the only country you can get famous by counting in a silly voice and pulling faces.

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↑ because=became

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I expect it will not be anything close to the creativity of SNL. Just goof-ball scripted Japanese celebrities who are over-used already.

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Well, if Japan has a Will Ferrel or Lonely Island, it may be worht watching, otherwise it's just another japanese comedy show.

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“Saturday Night Live JPN”

Oh please. It's not a clone of SNL. Not even close.

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The only really funny comedian here is that girl that paints on really thick eyebrows. I get a kick out of her. The rest of the stuff is non-comedy, with panels paid to laugh, and with eye candy for us guys to drool at. The worst of the lot is Beat Takeshi. Shimura Ken though has some funny moments when he has the dog and monkey with him.

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"I find Japanese comedy to be unfunny, the same way I find Charlie Chaplin unfunny. It's either slapstick, or over the top. Yes, some people are funny. But on the whole. Japanese comedy is childish and uninteresting.

I mean, I'm pretty sure Japan is the only country you can get famous by counting in a silly voice and pulling faces."

MrDog -- Bravo. Spot on. Letting the SNL franchise/brand sink to this level is really disappointing.

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Akashiya Sanma on ANOTHER show. Great...

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the whole premise of the show is that the host changes every time and here we are with the same two "comedians" (read: jokes) we can see on every other freakin show on TV?!?

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Will Sumiko Nishioka be on this show?

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51 comments and no-one had bothered to mention the DORIFU. Thanks for reminding me of how culturally impoverished the Heisei generation is.

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I used to love Shimura Ken's weekly show, which was entertaining even when I couldn't understand a word of Japanese. I still enjoy the old Drifters rerunds, but then, I was raised on the Carol Burnett show and later SCTV.

I hope this works out. I don't really care about celebrity guest stars or musical guests. I'd also be much more interested in seeing a "Daily Show / This hour has 22 minutes" type show that entertained while making people see the news and politics in a different light.

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Nothing defines a national group more than its sense of humor. That's why the Canadians are so great. They gave the world Bill Murray and Mike Myers. So take off, eh?

Noripinhead- while it's true us hosers are comedy gold, we can't take credit for Bill Murray. He's a yank. Myers is good but not on a par with SCTV or Kids in the Hall.

While I may be too critical of Japanese cultural differences, comedy is not one of them. 90% of it is beating the living hell out of someone or otherwise bullying. Like sexual fetishes in Japan, I'd rather not scratch the surface and find out why..

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Canadians are nice people, but if it weren't for America they'd all pretty much be entertaining at their local bowling alleys and hockey rinks during half-time -- does hockey even have a half-time? I have no clue -- don't care -- if it weren't for the good old US TV industry and Hollywood.

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Now wiggle a little, lift up one arm and cover your armpit with the other hand...now jump on the ground and spread your legs wide and lift them up and say something stupid in either your girlish voice or deep voice that everyone stupid enough watching laughs at....oh hahaha now thats funny stuff. give me a break!!!!! Hey could even open SNL each and every month. sheesh comedy in this country???

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actionman, but wud the US have had all that comedy without all the canucks, yr welcome LOL & there are 2 breaks in hockey betwen the 3periods!

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As for Japan pulling off a REAL SNL, that I wud like to watch, but I just cant see the J-funnymen having the guts to go for it, lord knows there is mountains of material but they will likely use only a tiny winy bit of it sadly

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@GW I think America would still be fine without Canadian comics, but we'll take 'em off your hands. I mean, seriously, what are they going to do there? Run for office? Why waste their talent...But Canada does offer good shooting locations. X-Files shot there for ages. I will admit that I often think American comedians are actually Canadian. I thought Steve Martin was Canadian for the longest time.

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I wonder if Sanma will push back the boundaries of comedy still further, by hitting a girl with a squeaky hammer, repeating what she says and falling over? Comedy gold.

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Those 2 guys who interview Japanese university professors on NHK1 late at night are kind of funny in an intellectual way. Those 2 guys could probably pull off something like SNL. But Sanma??

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Myers is good but not on a par with SCTV or Kids in the Hall.

Yes to this! Kids in the Hall is the most underrated comedy show ever.

SNL Japan wouldn't even be worthy of a head-crushing.

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''LIVE FROM TOKYO!! IT"S SATURDAY NIIIIIIGHHHTT!'' Just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Loved old SNL , stopped watching when Will Ferrell left.

I would watch a ''Mr. Show with Bob and Dave'' marathon before watching SNL again or this mess.

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Canadians are nice people, but if it weren't for America they'd all pretty much be entertaining at their local bowling alleys and hockey rinks during half-time -- does hockey even have a half-time? I have no clue -- don't care -- if it weren't for the good old US TV industry and Hollywood.

Uh-oh! Somebody has a little inferiority complex!

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Perhaps this is a well-developed plan; the producers want a show in Japan with strong, biting political satire, but realize that such a show would be criticized and threatened by the government leaders. So, proactively, the producers license the SNL format as a defense, saying, in effect, sharp political satire is an indispensable part of the SNL format, so they have a 'license' to criticize.

More likely, though, this will be a dismal short-lived failure; an attempt to take what ever brand equity SNL has in Japan, and apply it to a dull, safe show absent of political and social commentary.

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American SNL has hugely unbalanced 'political satire'. What will that mean for the Japanese version.

On that note, I hope this Saturday the US SNL does something on the Obama-Queen toast that indicated he may've already been toasted. He later didn't even know what year it was when he signed the guest book. Wow. At least he was in the same century, if not the same decade.

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I just hope they don't use the old toilet slipper to the back of the head gags that were so popular 20 years ago...

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I just read that they are going to show real Saturday Night Reruns from America and translate them live. Now, that might just be funny. Especially Balushi being the Samurai dude.

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Actionman, I bet you are a Canadian!!! haha

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Something tells me this is going to be an absolute disaster (but the Japanese will love it).

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Nope. American man. Got Canadian friends, though. They get SOOOOO ticked off at getting mistaken for Americans. I can't understand the big deal.

Moderator: Back on topic please.

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I agree with EUcitizen and IvanCoughalot. Imada and Sanma don't have the cerebral chops to pull off anything resembling satire. Bakushō Mondai (爆笑問題)(Yūji Tanaka and Hikari Ōta) might have a shot. Sanma's just a vulgar a#sh#le. Japanese "comedy" seldom rises above 3rd grade fart jokes.

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"tmarie at 07:52 AM JST - 27th May Oh god help us all. This is just going to turn into another talento fueled crap show."

Nothing more needs to be said on this topic!

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Got Canadian friends, though. They get SOOOOO ticked off at getting mistaken for Americans. I can't understand the big deal.

No difference, all the same, they just offer poutine and a bit of better healthcare depending on your point of view, but seriously, if SNL comes to Japan, it just won't have that same luster. Tarento through and through and I can't imagine the Japanese injecting ANY political humor whatsoever and for those that say give it a chance. As long as I have lived in Japan, J-skits are (for me at least) extremely boring and nothing to laugh about. Can anyone ever imagine the JSNL making fun of Kan or the royal family? If they did, trust me, it might actually be worth watching.

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I can't think of a Japanese Will Ferrell, Bill Murray or Chris Farley.

I don't see this going well.

Taka

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I always thought the "Richard Hall Show" a few years back was similar to SNL...

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I imagine some of the skits might be very funny. I wonder if I'll get the joke?

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I expect a lot of these skits will involve two men talking to each other, one of whom will strike the other on the back of the head for being foolish. We will then be entertained by seeing how much the invited celebrities in the audience enjoy the hilarity. Someone might also be overweight.

My sides are already sore.

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Agree with others here that they won´t be able to pull it off. This will be another stupid slapstick show, with rubber hammers and giggling talentos. Hope I am wrong, against all odds.

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The show could go either way. Many here point out that it's not likely to feature any political satire at all, but I'm actually okay with that. I like political satire but I do think the American comedy scene is overly obsessed with it. A lot of top rating comedy shows in the US are political satire based. Even South Park has gone that way in recent years. I like it to a point, but I have always thought satire is a bit cheap and easy most of the time.

If the Japanese version fails, I son't think it will be for the lack of political satire. The problems I can foresee would mostly involve having the same old Japanese "tarento" on it all the time. Mind you, that's not too different from the original SNL. When SNL has good people on it, it's great. A lot of the time though it can get painfully drawn out.

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Wait till they invite 'Tanoshingo". ;)

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Just another vehicle for Imada and Sanma. Seriously doubt that we`ll be able to distinguish this show from any other material that they have made in the past. Same stuff just with a new name tacked on.

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I will miss this. I cannot imagine any success coming to this enterprise.

I miss SNL.

SNL was edgy when it first came out. Does anyone remember Fridays, which I think was an ABC knockoff? It was decent, but it still lacked the right mix. I thought SNL was dead when Belushi and Aykroyd left, but then there was the Murphy Piscopo revival, Charles Rocket, Franken and Davis. So many others.

It stayed edgy. Japan can't even begin to do edgy.

And SNL had great music. Weird stuff. New stuff. Older stuff. But all good. Bowie, Devo, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Peter Tosh, Joe Cocker, Phoebe Snow, even the Stones (I still remember when Mick licked Keith on live TV. It created "much confusion."). When Mick Jagger just showed up to do a duet with Peter Tosh, it REALLY WAS a surprise.

How is Japan going to even find that?

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Just HOW?

Somebody please tell me, just for instance, how you do a Japanese version of the GET OFF THE SHED sketch? or even something that is sight-gaggy like BASS O MATIC? or do THE CONEHEADS without drug and sex references?

Pamelot raises an interesting point. Mr. Bill was tried and true, but it has been done. How do you top Mr. Bill? Can you imitate it?

The only way to do it is to take huge risks, and those risk taking people are finding what they want on the internet, why would they want to get involved with Japan's big entertainment machine? After all, once they create a character (Ed Garvin -- male prostitute, land shark, the Wydettes, the Coneheads, Nuclear family, the Blues Brothers, Emily Litella, Rozanne Rozanadana, Father Sarducci, Eddie Murphy's Gumby, SCTV Great White North), it will belong to somebody else. ZERO career development there. Japanese companies suck intellectual property from artists. SNL cultivates intellectual property and lets performers profit from it.

The Simpsons started as short films on (what is her name?) a pretty minor sketch show. How does that happen in Japan?

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SNL used to be funny back in the day, now?? Give me a break! Rather watch reruns of the Simpons on line!

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Zenny - that's the way it's going to be. Of all the asinine drivel they churn out, that little queen Tanoshingo really takes the soggy biscuit. Mincing about and pointing to his anus, and that's family viewing?

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Take a Japanese show (one without slap-stick humor to satisfy all of you "Japanese comedy is childish, and comedy where I come from is much more sophisticated" folks out there) like "Hitoshi Matsumoto's Suberanai Hanashi", and try to make it into an American show, and it will not work. So of course a satiric show like SNL will not work in Japan unless they "Japanize" it. This is Japan folks, different country, different culture, there will always be some things Westerners will never understand about Japan, and vice versa.

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Tahoochi:

"Japanese comedy is childish..."

Let me get this right - are you genuinely trying to tell us that it isn't? Because I saw a bloke counting up to three in a silly voice a few days ago, and it had the studio audience rolling in the aisles. Then a fat man ate something.

To call it infantile denigrates infants. At least infants learn things sometimes.

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I saw a bloke counting up to three in a silly voice a few days ago....Then a fat man ate something.

Ha ha ha! Oh, god, stop it, I can't breathe...you're killing me!!

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I can't think of a Japanese Will Ferrell, Bill Murray or Chris Farley.

I don't see this going well.

My sentiments exactly! 2 words: NOT FUNNY

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haha OMG all the comments on this thread are much more funny than a J version of SNL could ever be. I guess I don't quite "get" J comedy, because I have never found it to be comical... Maybe comedy is something unique to Japan and so I can't understand it...

"The show is broadcast in 130 countries worldwide and has influenced a number of Japanese sketch comedy shows despite there being no official Japanese version until now."

Why does there need to be an "official Japanese" version!? Stop immitating, Japan.

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Personally, I don't like much of the J-comedy on TV, just a poor copy of overseas stuff taht I also don't like.

But go and visit a good sit-down comedian or similar and you will be in stitches, granted good japanese and an understanding of the local culture is needed to get it.

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IvanCoughalot at 01:49 PM JST - 30th May

Tahoochi:Let me get this right - are you genuinely trying to tell us that it isn't? Because I saw a bloke counting up to three in a silly voice a few days ago, and it had the studio audience rolling in the aisles. Then a fat man ate something. To call it infantile denigrates infants. At least infants learn things sometimes.

Sorry, but I never said J-comedy wasn't childish... what I'm saying is this:

Depending how you look at it, MOST of western comedy is equally as childish... just look at some of the most popular comedians that others have already mentioned: Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, not to mention Benny Hill, Rodney Dangerfield, Robin Williams, Mike Meyers, Jim Carrey... the list goes on, and these comedians do their share of weird voices, stupid characters and silly actions. How is Chris Farley eating a polish sausage and having a heart attack or falling on and crushing a coffee table different from your version of childish, "then a fat man ate something"?

There's a lot more to J-comedy than what the average foreigner can understand (just like there is a lot more to western comedy than what the average Japanese can understand). It's a lot more than some guy counting with a funny voice or Chris Farley falling on a table.

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Tahoochi - The old "you're a foreigner, so you don't get it" defence. Whats not to "get" about Japanese comedy? I've been here long enough to know that 95% is (as Ivan points out); 1.Fat people 2. Fat people getting hit upside the head. 3. Fat people with bowl haircuts getting hit upside the head. 4. someone pointing to his anus. 5. Sanma falling to the floor in a seizure 6. Africans

The other 5% are those chaps telling stories on pillows.

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Don't forget:<> <>

Gay people in leather chaps. <> Straight guys in drag. <> Drunk men. <> Lots of fake laughter. <>
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hoser - you forgot

Shouting.
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horsefella: Again, it doesn't matter "how long you have been here", my dad who is Japanese has lived in Canada for 37 years and he still doesn't understand SNL or Bill Maher.

Have you ever watched "Hitoshi Matsumoto no suberanai hanashi"? or "Ame-talk"? or any other J-comedy where they actually have conversations? If you have, do you understand the comedy in those shows? If you answer "yes", than you're admitting that there is more to j-comedy than fat guys and hitting heads which is the point I'm trying to make. If you answer "no", then you are admitting that the "you're a foreigner so you don't get it" defense is actually legitimate, which is also another point I was trying to make.

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tahoochi, point well made. I don't think these guys would even recognize a pun in Japanese if they heard it. Hitoshi Matsumoto is a genius, but you'd need a near-native level of Japanese to appreciate him.

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I don't think these guys would even recognize a pun in Japanese if they heard it.

Hmmm - nice assumption pal. I see what I see on TV and don't like it, so I must be ignorant, eh? I bow to your wisdom, O star pupil.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

SNL was the New York version of Second City, started by Chevy Chase. But after Belushi and Murray and Akroid, Chevy didn't stand a chance. Oh, them good ol'e days. Now this version seems to be another venue for Takashi and his henchmen.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

While I don't much care for Sanma, glad that Okamura from Ninety-nine will be a first invite

Meet him often as we shop at the same Hobby-shop(close to his home), very nice guy and easy to approach.

Really liked his New Years specials/countdowns.

As for japanese comedy, anybody here remember "Warau Inu" they had some great skits taking the Micky(sic) out of Japanese culture.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I used to enjoy Kinchan's 'Yoi ko, Warui ko, Futsu no ko'. I think that was the name of the corner in the programme, not the programme itself. Was it 'Doko made yaru no?'

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Sunday Night Live"

*Headslap

"Saturday Night Live" (Seriously, that was the end of the opening skit.)

The title sequence and theme music were similar to the US SNL, including a voice similar to Don Pardo (it might have actually been him) doing the announcing, in English. Three skits, which were basically Yoshimoto-style with dozens more head slaps mixed with two songs and then a final sketch similar to Weekend Update - where the female announcer threw water into the face of the male announcer - three times. Buckets of water followed, and then water balloons into the studio audience; more Nickelodeon than SNL. No sign of Koizumi.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So basically it was All That.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That was as awful as we expected.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Have you ever watched "Hitoshi Matsumoto no suberanai hanashi"? or "Ame-talk"? or any other J-comedy where they actually have conversations? If you have, do you understand the comedy in those shows? If you answer "yes", than you're admitting that there is more to j-comedy than fat guys and hitting heads which is the point I'm trying to make. If you answer "no", then you are admitting that the "you're a foreigner so you don't get it" defense is actually legitimate, which is also another point I was trying to make.

I think many of us are ignorant then. I really understand that comedy doesn't always translate well, but as a whole, I have to honestly say, there is a reason why you don't see Japanese comedy worldwide, just saying...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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