Japanese Humour: Coming out of the closet!

Here is a special something for the New Year. Japanese television is a phenomena that absolutely fascinates me. If you need to be reminded that you are in a different culture where things aren't quite what you expect then sit in front of a television for a couple of hours.

One of the first things that you will notice is how much food and eating dominates this culture. Really, there is just so much food consumption going on in Japanese programming that it is astounding. But the other thing you quickly learn about Japanese people is that they have an amazing and unique sense of humour.

What is strange about the humour is that all manners and codes of behaviour can break down where it is involved. Humour really presents as an important safety valve for the psyche in a society where formal manners are heavily codified and the individual can be a completely submerged identity. Just how far Japanese television producers are prepared to go may seem, well..., actually..., totally insane!

The video clip below is a scene from a Japanese TV show. In the year of the great scandal at the BBC of two half wits, Ross and Brand, thinking it is funny to phone up a grandfather and tell him his grand-daughter is an S&M Dominatrix working in London, could you imagine the uproar if the BBC did this to unsuspecting members of the public!

Just on health and safety grounds alone any television executive proposing this stunt in the UK would probably be visited by a psychiatrist double quick time. In terms of the essential subject matter, the personal private issue of defecation, our English taboos around this subject would probably present an insurmountable barrier.

And yet, if you have watched this clip then I would bet that you were laughing like a drain. You see our taboos will break down when the breach of them is happening to someone not from our own culture. Instead of a letter to the Times from "shocked and upset licence fee payer of Dorking" you would probably see "Those Japanese, they are mad aren't they, did you see...".

The clip below examples another piece of Japanese television humour which whilst it is less taboo challenging still appears to have a particular edge that makes it not exactly comfortable viewing.

And yet for all these observations, the fact of the matter is that the Japanese style of television is actually what is in the ascendant in the UK. Surely making celebrities eat bugs in a fabricated jungle situation, no matter how worthy a concept some of us may feel that to be, is a similar form of humiliation to being dragged out of the toilet and across the bay for all to see. Mind you, on further consideration it could be that Ant and Dec have missed a trick here... no actually, I think I will stop there.

What really interests me is the willingness for such a private, mannered society with ritualised rules of behaviour to invest heavily in public humiliation for the sake of laughs. When we add to that the willingness
to see contestants physically abused as well, and watch them accept it willingly, then you do have to admit, whatever you think of the format, the Japanese people have a very robust sense of humour.

And finally, just to show exactly how robust that humour is a clip which should leave you in no doubt whatsoever. Humiliation of innocent member of the public: 10 out of 10. Immediate risk of physical harm to innocent member of the public: 10 out of 10. Immediate risk of physical harm to innocent members of the public not involved in the "prank": 10 out of 10. Humour level, well see if you laugh at this!