● |
Today, I’d like to talk about comedy.
On Sunday morning, I was on the スクール革命 show on 日本テレビ. This is
the third time I have been on this show and this last time I’m
afraid my material was not very funny, sorry.
I talked about オードリー, the Japanese comedy duo. I like Japanese
comedy very much. I grew up watching The Drifters on their legendary
live show, 8時だョ!全員集合. There are also many young comedy performers
that I very much like to watch.
Among the younger comedians, I like ナイツ, ハイキング―ウォーキング, Amemiya,
Non-Style, 磁石, インスタントジョンソン, ザ ギース, バカリズム, ななめ45゜, 今泉 (いってみてぇ〜,
ってゆうおじさんの芸名), ドギドギキャンプ, ヒビキ, フットボールアワー and, of course, オードリー.
The most common form of comedy in Japan is called “slapstick”
in English. This is comedy that involves exaggerated physical
movement, such as a pie in the face, or a slap on the head.
The word comes from a prop that was often used in “vaudeville”
type shows in the days before TV. Japanese comedy has a similar
prop called a “ハリセンボン”. This is that “soft stick” (or slapstick)
or folded paper in the shape of a fan used to hit someone over
the head. In the early days of Vaudeville comedy, this prop
was so popular, that the whole genre of comedy was named after
it! There is so much more, I’d like to say about Japanese comedy,
but I’m out of space for this time. I’ll talk about it again
soon.
|