#Asian incest gameshow tv#

Japanese TV today isn’t pumping out anything as strange as outside nations make it seem. These shows weren’t primetime staples, and it wasn’t like sex-soaked TV was unique to Japan in the early 1990s, but they did have a heyday. These shows featured segments where men competed with the objective often being to reveal a woman in either skimpy clothes-or nothing at all ( NSFW example here). Particularly memorable were “punishment games,” wherein losing cast members had to do deeply embarrassing actions, and physical-pain games like “Penis Machine,” wherein contestants have to recite a tongue twister without error or face getting socked in the testicles.Īround the same time, Japan boasted a lot of sexually explicit games airing late at night, which went on to become “weird Japan” staples as well. Search for “Japanese game show” on YouTube and the first page will be dominated by the faces of Matsumoto Hitoshi and Masatoshi Hamada, better known as the comedy duo Downtown.* Their Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! was one of the country’s most popular programs of the ‘90s, and produced a large chunk of segments that became “weird Japan” signifiers in the Internet age.

Not all Japanese game shows in the late ‘80s and ‘90s were weird-plenty of them focused on people playing video games against one another-but that period did feature some legitimately unique programming. In reality, most game show participants are totally willing celebrities, and Takeshi’s hostage-situation premise was of course just a shtick. Takeshi’s Castle portrayed contestants as being “forced” into taking part in the game, which explains another misconception: that Japanese game shows seem hell-bent on torturing innocent people ( Survived presented American contestants as being “kidnapped”). It wasn't just the challenges Takeshi featured regular people as contestants, whereas most others only had established celebrities competing. In America, the show ran from 2003 to 2007 on Spike TV as MXC, where footage of the original program was dubbed over with (often ridiculous, deliberately inaccurate) English.ĭespite its role in shaping international perceptions of Japanese TV, Takeshi’s Castle differed greatly from the country’s other game programs at the time.

It aired in nearly 30 countries, becoming a hit in places like the United Kingdom. The show shaped so many folks' perceptions because, unlike other Japanese programs in the pre-Internet world, Takeshi’s Castle received global syndication. Even though shows featuring physical punishment and nudity were popular, there were also plenty of Japanese people outraged by them. Many games required contestants to wear ridiculous costumes and featured people on the sides throwing things at players. Launched in 1986, the hour-long program depicted more than 100 contestants enduring several physical challenges-most of them involving lots of water and mud-in order to storm the titular fortress. The foreign image of Japanese game shows, though, arose from the ‘80s staple Takeshi’s Castle. That format remains unchanged today, though personalities now also watch YouTube videos and talk about them. Most games were segments in “variety shows,” a popular type of TV program in Japan featuring celebrities engaging in discussions and contests. Game shows became more complex as the years went on, yet quiz programs remained the dominant type. The earliest incarnations, though, were as benign as could be: One of the first and most influential was called “Gesture,” and was simply charades. Game shows existed in the programming mix since television broadcasting in Japan started in 1950. If anything, more and more Japanese people say their TV choices nowadays have become boring.

But that hasn’t been the case in the last 15 years. The “Japanese game show culture” Japanizi and I Survived A Japanese Game Show trumpet-and that comedies and comment sections mock-once existed, sometimes in forms even more extreme than Western parodies. Why Swedes Are Chiller Parents Than Americans Joe Pinskerīut the stereotype of Japanese game shows as bizarre affairs where producers put contestants through strange punishment just doesn’t ring true in 2013.

Asian incest gameshow