so funny. i love japanese humor. crazy people. i wanna go there.

tv like this is what has allowed me to kick the tv habit i aquired growing up in canada. it is much more benign than the stuff back home though. such a happy country.

actually, i take that back. hard gay man is pretty funny. my wife and i always get a kick out of him.

but the show about cats and fish...that's when the tv goes off.

Okay .... you win. Although cats and fish has a metal soundtrack, and har gay man has ... Ricky Martin?

I saw this guy on signs in the store and on the JR and was wondering what it was. Now I know. THanks for that haha.

HAHAHA...awesome...educational as well...perfect combination

Hard Gay actually went to Kyoto University. (Or was it Keio?)

I saw a great show last summer about a chimp and a dog on a hike. They had packpacks full of food and had to make it to the onsen. It was hilarious, if only it wasn't about 20 minutes. Japanese TV is funny in small clips, but it gets annoying really fast because it's ALL like that. I think I've only ever seen one drama. The rest is just an epileptic seizure waiting to happen. The commercials are better than the shows.

not sure what school he went to but hard gay man talks pretty smart. like most comedians, he ain't a dummy.

agree with hasselhoff about tv here though. def best in small doses.

my whole family watches a 15 minute segment of a popular series every morning after breakfast, ( 7:30 am ), but apart from that and the news the tv stays off more often than not.

I typically enjoy the commercials MUCH more than the shows.

anybody seen the japanese tv show "before after"?

its basically like a japanese extreme home makeover show, but every episode is pretty interesting... a different architect each time with a different approach, designs are pretty innovative, alot deal with very tight spaces and constraints, innovative use of small spaces, often involve some pretty extensive changes to the architecture (not just interiors)... and the commentary breaks are pretty funny

before after is not bad for what it shows but the presentation is pretty typical of j-tv,

endless repitition to fill the time,

and hopelessly maudlin scenes and soundtrack.

makeover recipients are without fail are brought to tears by the tranformation of thier homes.

this is the japanese equivilent of Mythbusters. the show wants to test a cartoon character's song about catching a cat who runs off with a fish.

another lame-ass panel show. every j-tv show has a panel of talents including sometime AV pornstars gone mainstream. er, AV is mainstream in Japan

the presentation is different, but i wouldn't say the characteristic of endless repetition is any different than american tv, which feels alot more "hyper" and walt-disneyish in its passage of time, seeking to maintain a high level of energy, whatever that may be for fear of being unable to sustain enough to keep up with its veiwer's perceived low attention spans... its the same with american commercials vs. japanese commercials...

there can be something corny at times in j-tv, (as with american tv) but theres definitely a different sense of humour... cultural differences...

japan invented reality tv, design makeover shows, alot of these genres popular today in american tv... but somehow the american versions to me seem more hyper, equally "drama-tique", equally trashy, sometimes sad... I'd say however that j-tv has a wider range, a little more inventiveness... culturally different... and tv genres like design makeover shows, cooking shows, and historical / geographic documentaries are often the top rated shows, equal to or exceeding tv dramas or reality shows.