But I don’t care about that!

This is one of those things that just comes out of left-field, but is so much fun. My wife and I watch a lot of Japanese TV together (thanks to her sister who records it for us so diligently over the years), and comedian one-hit wonders come and go on Japanese TV all the time.1 This fellow, Kojima (the guy coming up later in speedo), really is among the funniest and strangest:

His main schtick, besides the speedo, is the phrase sonna no kankenai-! (そんなの関係ないー!), which means “That doesn’t matter to me”. For my fellow Japanese students, そんなの is related to それ and means “that kind of thing”. The word kankei 関係 means relationship, but in spoken Japanese if you say kankeinai 関係ない you’re angrily telling someone that it doesn’t matter (lit. no relation). Toward the middle of his sketch, he randomly mentions he’s the same age as another, more respectable celebrity, but that doesn’t matter. Then, he mentions another celebrity always wears “no bra”, another non-sequitor comment, but again “he doesn’t care about that”. ;)

Quite silly. Ojima-san has started to go more mainstream, which is still better than most one-hit wonders who sell a ton of merchandise in Japan for a month and are then gone. It’s amazing how fast people come and go there. I found Japanese TV really fast-paced and extremely competitive compared to TV in the US, and so unless you can stay fresh and funny all the time, you will quickly fade away. Of course, this is true of show-business in general, but Japan seems more so.

Two comedians I love who are not going away anytime soon are the pair of comedians from グルナイ (gurunai): Okamura and Yabé. You can see them here along with Kojima. Okamura is the short, funny one wearing the cap, and the tall one is Yabé. I’ve actually seen this sketch with my wife one time and it was pretty funny. Later on this episode, I think Ojima’s mom from Okinawa comes on stage and dances with her son, though you can tell she’s pretty embarrassed. I salute her for being so brave! :)

A silly post today, that’s all. Enjoy!

P.S. There was an even funnier one I found on Youtube that has sadly been taken down. Enjoy this one while it lasts!

1 The “guitar samurai” was pretty funny too. I miss that fellow. The “HG” character was funny too, but my wife never liked it. WOOOO!


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9 Comments on “But I don’t care about that!”

  1. anonymous says:

    Hey, “gurunai” is the name of the show, the two are Omamura and Yabe, they are called Ninety-Nine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-nine_(owarai)). “Gurunai” comes from “gourmet” and “nine.”

    And its Kojima, not Ojima. He is not going away any time soon on Japanese TV.

  2. anonymous says:

    Sorry, its Okamura and Yabe.

  3. Doug says:

    Wow that’s embarrasing of me. I really should have proof-read this better. :-) Thanks much!

  4. Doug says:

    As for グルナイ I was told it was short for グルグル 99 as in the onomatopepia for pacing a (class)room. Like a teacher or something. Can’t confirm that though.

  5. Avery says:

    Dear Doug,

    I think you might like this.

  6. naoko says:

    Kotoshi mo yoroshiku!
    I wonder you could appreciate their gags when you started watching on the Japanese TV? Did you need some time to become to understand?

  7. Doug says:

    Hi Naoko,

    For some reason your comment was treated as spam. Weird.

    Anyway, no, my listening still isn’t very good, so I miss the jokes sometimes and have to listen again. :(

  8. naoko says:

    Oh,maybe my English might be vague. I meant to ask how lond it took you to appreciate the Japanese comedy. The sense of humor is a little bit different from yours, isn’t it?

  9. Doug says:

    Wow, again the comment was treated as spam. Weird!

    Anyway, I still struggle with Japanese comedy, but I do enjoy it. Yes, the style of comedy is different, and I still miss jokes sometimes but my wife and I have watched Japanese TV for 10 years together, so I got used to it. Sometimes I think Japanese comedy is too violent (people never hit each other on the head in America), but also I think the shows are very clever sometimes. I really like 岡村くん and shows like ごっち. American comedy doesn’t have anything like this, so it’s different, but refreshing. :)


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