Opinion 'Humor' In Japan By CHRISTINE CUNANAN-NOMURA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
日本の「ユーモア」 日本のユーモア 日本のテレビで放映されている お笑い番組には、筆者の常識から見て 笑えないような内容のものがある。 ほかの先進国ならさまざまな抗議を 受けそうな番組内容だが…。

Over the years, I have seen many Japanese entertainment shows on television that are obviously supposed to make people laugh and have a good time. However, some of these shows are not funny at all.

Many programs feature celebrities or ordinary people making mistakes, such as mispronouncing a word or giving the wrong answer to a question.

In one show, a foreigner walked around Tokyo with a sign that had a complicated English word written on it. He would approach schoolgirls, businessmen and elderly people and ask them to pronounce the word. Of course, very few people could pronounce this word properly, and the wrong pronunciations were supposed to make people laugh.

Another show focused on children being asked to do all kinds of tasks with little success, while adults and studio viewers giggled.

What is so funny?

In many other countries, it is considered appalling to highlight other people's honest mistakes, because this goes against the ideas of human dignity and respect. I agree. Such themes are not fun ny and sometimes are even downright boring. How can anyone watch the same mistake over and over again, albeit done by different people?

Other so-called entertainment programs seem to me like absolute wastes of time. At the top of my list is the television show "Denpa Shonen," which used to document the efforts of the show's stars to achieve ridiculous goals that had no real merit or purpose. Many of the goals entailed trying to contact — or, more appropriately, bother — famous or important people on the basis of flimsy excuses.

In fact I was shocked when at the height of an international crisis, the Denpa Shonen trio was trying to get an appointment with then-United Nations Representative Yasushi Akashi at his crisis headquarters to make him eat a delicacy that sounded like his name. I thought this was very insensitive, considering the serious crisis and that Mr. Akashi had so many heavy responsibilities and more urgent appointments.

It seems wasteful to devote so much time and so many resources to goals with no merit whatsoever.

Television can be a very important educational tool. Many children, and even adults, are greatly influenced by what they see on television.

As far as I'm concerned, such entertainment shows are sending the wrong messages: that it's acceptable to laugh at people's mistakes, to verbally and mentally insult or abuse others, to nitpick over physical differences and to do all kinds of crazy things just for fun without consideration for other circumstances. In reality, these are unacceptable attitudes for responsible people in a civilized First World society.

Similar shows are also aired occasionally in other developed countries. However, the citizens in those countries often show their displeasure over such shows by writing letters to the television station concerned or to the advertisers connected with the show, sometimes even boycotting the sponsors' products. These methods can be quite effective in changing the show's content or direction.

Such vigilant action should also be encouraged in Japan!

Shukan ST: July 2, 1999

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