Comedy Analysis: Japanese Game Shows

Gaki no Tsukai DVD Cover

The Japanese are a people like no other. Their game shows are world-famous and unmatched. And with good reason, their unique mix of utterly terrified guests, loud, crazy, larger-than-life hosts, colourful challenges and brilliant interaction between the audience and the guests is brilliant.

Gaki no Tsukai

THE game show in Japan is Gaki no Tsukai (translates: "This is no task for kids”), which has been going for 25 years and over 1000 episodes. It has four rounds, where contestants try to survive weird challenges in order to win the grand prize. The contestants are often b-list celebs and are generally forced into humiliating acts or outfits. The show has different elements including:

•        Wall of Blocks, where contestants sit on a wall of blocks and have to pick a number from 1-20. Every number carries a punishment which will damage or completely destroy the wall. The last person to be sitting on their wall wins. These punishments have included vengeful exes. American football teams, sumo wrestlers, a small tank, a drum band and rollerskaters.
•       Team Fight Dodge ball, where the contestants play dodge ball by throwing a ball trough a hole behind the other team. This triggers all sorts of stuff to come flying and rolling over the field. Thing hurled at the contestants have included dogs on tricycles, clowns, dodge balls flying at over 100mph, bowling balls, vacuums, office chairs, gymnasts and lots more. People who are hit generally go down and crawl off the stage, although on occasion a contestant is removed by stretcher prior to the game continuing.
•         Batsu games, punishments where the contestants have to perform ridiculous or humiliating tasks in order to prevent further punishment.
•         Silent Library, where contestants have to undergo a series of tasks and tortures in a public library. As it is in a library they have to remain completely still, because if they laugh they risk being hit by baseball bats, having nose-hairs pulled out or having a clamp attached to their septum which is then pulled by a rope, or being slapped repeatedly by a slapping machine.
•       Chinko achine, where contestants have so say a tongue-twister without pausing or making a mistake. Any Mpause or mistake results in the Chinko machine whacking the unfortunate contestant in the testicles.
•        Marshmallow Rubber Band, where a contestant has to eat a marshmallow dangling from a string, without using his hands. He is further restricted by a rubber band across his face. His teammates can try to straighten the strings the marshmallow is attached to, but no other help is allowed.

DERO! Length of Plank

 DERO! and EXIT

Another hilarious Japanese game show is Dero (translates to “You Try, You Die”), a fast-paced game show where contestants are put under huge pressure to solve puzzels. The humour in this show is largely derived from the interaction of the contestants with each other, as they are often away from staff and audience. The look of genuine terror can sometimes be seen as well, which makes for good TV. Some of the ridiculous challenges in this show include:

– Length Of Plank, where contestants have 3 small planks to stand on above a seemingly bottomless pit. If they answer a puzzle wrong, or think for too long, the plank will start retracting into the wall, causing them to be eventually pushed off.

-        Water Room, where contestants are locked in a room quickly filling with water and have to solve puzzels to save themselves from drowning.

Dasshutsu Game DERO! was inspired by escape-the-room flash-based games. Although some challenges involve some CGI, such as the bottomless pit, the contestants often find themselves fearing for their lives. Their apparent fear of dying is highly entertaining, as is watching them encourage and push the other contestants by shouting at them. Syfy's game show EXIT is based on DERO! and mimicks the show quite well.

These and other Japanese game shows make for hilarious TV and although EXIT doesn't do a bad job, the original is still way better. If you're like me and you don't speak Japanese, there are tonnes of excerpts and full shows available on the Internet with English subttiles. Google is your friend here, you will find them easily enough.