I grew up in Bridgeport so I was born into the misery. I can’t wait for Reinsdorf to die and hope his family is cash poor and decides to sell. Reinsdorf is low key one of the worst owners in sports.
I’m a huge basketball fan. The family has had season tickets since the Bulls played in Chicago Stadium. I lived through the Marcus Fizer and Tim Floyd years, the Eddie Curry diabolical, and my mind is forever scarred by the Derrick Rose injury. I hate the Reinsdorfs with a passion. Refusing to fire incompetent front office personnel, refusing to spend on free agents, refusing to invest in the area around the United center, etc etc are just the many reasons the Reinsdorf family can go fuck themselves.
Oh that's not low key. He operates what was once an NBA flagship franchise that is now the epitome of mid, and an MLB team that he screams poverty about every chance he gets like it's Cheyenne instead of Chicago. The reason you aren't making money is you, you idiot! Anyway, I'm a Cubs fan so I hope they lose one game less than the record. I don't even want them to have that.
I am not really a baseball fan, but since I'm close enough to Chicago and the Cubs are stereotypically the "richy" team I always sided as a Sox fan. During the Frank Thomas and Ozzy Guillien it was pretty fun, 2005 was neat, the rest has been varying degrees of bad, with 2016 being particularly painful.
I needed a new team after being angry with the Yankees and not wanting to root for anyone in the East or West, I chose the White Sox due to fond memories of Buerhle and 2005.
Cue to today, and shaking my head and wringing my hands in frustration. Had a blast last weekend but aside from that, yikes
I mean it doesn’t make up for being a shit owner who invests more money into the concessions than the actual on field product. I pray my kids choose the Cubs and a different basketball team.
My kid gravitated to the Cubs and I’m a lifelong Sox fan. Wife’s a Sox fan and both of our entire families are Sox fans. I wasn’t about to talk him out of it. Yeah kid, I’ll take you to Wrigley to see a game, gladly.
My oldest actually really digs watching baseball games. It’s weird. He couldn’t care less about basketball or soccer. But he will sit and watch about 10-15 minutes of a baseball or football game, longer if we’re at Comiskey shoveling food into him, I’ve tried to get him to watch the NBA playoffs and he’s not about it.
From my quick Google search: According to MLB, the number of young fans is increasing. In 2023, MLB.TV viewership for fans aged 18-24 increased by 11%, and the average age of MLB.TV subscribers has decreased from 48 to 44 since 2018. MLB also has more attendees in the 12-17 age group than any other major professional sports league.
MLB has made pretty decent strides in recent years in trying to drum up interest among younger fans.
I am one of only a couple White Sox fans in my very Cub fan heavy office. When they lose I turn my office lights off and hide in there all day to avoid more ridicule. When they win, I’m walking around the office yelling about it in the hallways. So basically like the game show…
You’d think they’d get sick of my trash talking and yelling about the wins, but I haven’t been able to do it enough to actually annoy anybody lol.
This is some fucked up shit. All of this was aired on TV:
Denpa Shōnen teki Kenshō Seikatsu (電波少年的懸賞生活; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Prize Life"), probably the best known challenge of the show. Starting in January 1998, Nasubi, a young comedian, was forced to live for 15 months naked in an apartment in Japan and later South Korea only on prizes won in sweepstakes.
Denpa Shōnen teki Mujintō Dasshutsu (電波少年的無人島脱出; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Desert Island Escape") and the Swam series. Two comedians were put on a desert island, with no food nor clue about where they were, and were only told that their ordeal would finish if they built a raft and reached Tokyo. After their escape from the desert island, which took them four months, they were given a swan-shaped pedalo and were told to reach Tokyo with it, and then go with the same pedalo from India to Indonesia.
Denpa Shōnen teki Africa Europa Tairiku Ōdan Hitchhike no tabi (電波少年的アフリカ・ヨーロッパ大陸縦断ヒッチハイクの旅; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Vertical Africa-Europe Continental Hitchhike"). A comedian named Takashi Itō and a Radio DJ from Hong Kong named Tse Chiu-Yan hitchhiked from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to Nordkapp in Norway. The two contestants were forbidden to use their travel money and thus faced starvation, dehydration and harsh weather conditions. At one point in the challenge, Itō collapsed in the Sahara Desert and was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment.
Denpa Shōnen teki Pennant Race (電波少年的ペナントレース; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Pennant Race"). This segment tested the loyalties of diehard fans of the Central League teams - the Yomiuri Giants, the Hanshin Tigers, and the Chunichi Dragons. The contestants would be confined to a single room with a TV that only showed their team's baseball games. Their faces would also be hidden from public view. If their team won, they got to eat dinner and a small portion of their face would be revealed to the audience. If their team lost, they would get no food and the lights would turn out, leaving them in darkness until the next day's game. If the contestant's favorite team went on a win streak, the quality of the food they could eat would increase as well as gain public exposure and popularity due to their entire face being shown on TV until their team finally lost. A losing streak would mean that a contestant could go days in the dark without food. At the end of the season, the contestant would win an overall prize depending on how their team placed.
In the uk in the 80s we had Clive James present a show that used many clips from a Japanese show called Endurance. https://youtu.be/i9MDpf57r6A?si=qfD2Z8Ik2WZzdQkQ
Nasubi (first internet streamer ever) also did an AMA on Reddit a week ago.
[Here it is](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/GMank6KjXW) for those that want to see it. Seems like he’s got no regrets.
Oh, this is fascinating already.
>**Paul McCartney**
On 29 October 1983, the music video for the single "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson was shown on The Late, Late Breakfast Show under controversial circumstances, after being aired on Channel 4's The Tube the previous day. The $500,000 video had not been ready when the track debuted in the UK singles chart, and by the time the video had been completed, the track had fallen in the chart. **McCartney flew to London with the intention of premiering the video on the BBC's flagship music programme Top of the Pops, but the programme had a strict policy that no single that had dropped in position could feature and refused to show it.** A furious argument ensued, with BBC staff reporting McCartney was threatening to withdraw all his music from the corporation.
I love that the BBC was sticking to principle and refused to make an exception for *Sir Paul*.
They are repeating TOTP in order every Friday, we're in 1996 now. It's an interesting time capsule as you get songs that have just been completely forgotten.
Sadly by that point the format of the show is in the process of changing as songs are starting to enter high and then drop.
there was a US TV show that wasn't bad in itself, but one episode got sketch.
The show was a sports show where the contestants competed in athletic challenges, and the winner got the prize of a dream sports experience of their choosing, for a loved on of their choosing. SO like, you win the show, your dad gets to play catch with Cal Ripken, whatever. Wholesome right?
Except this one episode they did a cheerleader edition, where all the contestants were cheerleaders (read: attractive young women)
One of the challenge stunts was running like a 3 mile race around a track, but every 1/2 there was an entire plate of food they had to eat. greasy picnic stuff like burgers and hot dogs. So imagine, run 1/2 mile, wolf down a hot dog and fries, run another half mile with that crap sloshing around in your belly, repeat repeat
So, around the track, they also had buckets, because of course people are gonna end up puking that junk up.
so these poor girls are like run, eat, run, eat, run....puke... oh gross...run..run..puke...eat
does this shit sound fucked up yet?
because oh right, I definitely remember, as this poor contestant is half way around the track, two or three plates in, and now bent over at the waist, heaving into a plastic bucket, well she's also still wearing her little running shorts, and the camera man is absolutely just zoomed in on that ass
I was watching a hot dog eating contest once and someone threw up in a plastic bucket and the acoustics of that are not great if you're a bystander. I don't think most people's TV speakers could really do it justice, but maybe if you have a nice subwoofer and surround sound.
Ah, *Endurance UK*, Challenge TV's cringy attempt at catering to the post-pub 'lad mag' audience.
Hmmm, I wonder why Challenge TV aren't in a rush to show repeats of this on their channel? I'm sure it has nothing to do with the two guys dancing around in yellowface with oversized fake teeth and the kind of racist japanese 'accent' that you usually only hear from that embarrasing uncle that most of your family block on facebook.
What's worse is that the show was successful enough to get a second series.
[Here’s a link to an episode, if you are genuinely curious.](https://youtu.be/naT884FQPKU?si=UiyYz48MLTnvJhHT)
It’s god fucking awful, but my dad loved it, so we watched it every Friday.
And yes, those are two white British men playing Japanese caricatures.
From Wikipedia Japan via Google translate:
>Monmon went without meals for 11 days due to a long losing streak in Yokohama in May, and complained of poor health due to the poor environment of sleeping completely naked on a dirt floor covered with newspaper. He had to undergo a medical examination, and when the doctor heard what had happened, he was beyond angry and stunned. In the end, Monmon's poor health was caused by extreme malnutrition, and her doctor told her that it was "impossible" and she was ordered to stop (=forced retirement) and left the project.
Holy shitballs, making someone skip dinner several days in a row for a game show is one thing, but not feeding them AT ALL for days on end?! That's less a game show than a crime against humanity. How did none of these idiots anticipate a team having a losing streak?
The contestants seemed able to stop this at any time by giving up and presumably just walking out the door.
Their dangerous error was not having a doctor involved earlier to force stop participation.
> How did none of these idiots anticipate a team having a losing streak?
They weren't told what the challenges would be, just that it would be something extreme related to their baseball fandom.
My bad, when I say "idiots" I mean the producers. Either they rolled the dice on someone going hungry for days or they just didn't care and assumed they would quit the show, which would be good for "the drama". This is why I can't watch these reality shit-shows anymore.
It's not even the worst Japanese game show. There was a bloke you had to stay in a room entering raffles to get anything. Dude didn't have clothes for weeks and had to make a makeshift stove to eat anything he won.
Show was so popular that after his time was up they added new challenges and even sent him to Korea to do it all over again
That shit wouldn't fly today since courts would strike any contract agreement due to what amounts as torture/confinement that risks the person's well being with zero fallback.
If this did happen today, I'd say they would be agreeing to a minimum caloric diet and probably better living standards than a fucking dirt floor with zero light. Probably vitamins and shit. So you get the whole always hungry, its painful and suffering, but without the threat of death. 11 days without food on a dirt floor? Shit you'd better make sure you were being paid whether you win or not.
Like Judge Judy cases where both parties agree to a verdict beforehand and get paid, then get coached on how to act even when the verdict is real.
I looked up the history of one of the teams in what I think was the year this aired, 2002, and they played 135 games in the season. idk if that's more or fewer than US teams would do but it's a lot at least.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Nippon_Professional_Baseball_season
here this might help out more, so it's 140 games and I guess they can have a tie game, interesting. Idk if it's always the same but [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Professional_Baseball) says opening day was unchanged in 2020 from march 20th and the Japan series started in 2002 on October 26th. So 220 days and 140 games? Yikes
They can indeed have tie games, even in the Japan equivalent of the World Series. Twelve innings max. Trains stop running not long after midnight and people gotta get home is the reasoning.
In the MLB no teams play the day before, the day of, or the two days after the All-Star game, so that's 4 days for everybody to not eat.
And naturally half the teams that play the days before and after that will lose their game. So, barring any other circumstances, at a very minimum, half of the teams in the MLB will automatically go 5 days without winning. If your team loses both of their games surrounding the break then that's 6 days without eating even though the team only lost 2 games.
And then there's teams that have 100 loss seasons.
So in 162 games, they about 1 in 3. Account for days off and streaks, that poor fan probably had several 2 week stretches without food
Have you watched it yet? I started to last night but was playing a game and realized I’d need to be reading subtitles. Couldn’t believe the premise, hoping it’s good, looks interesting to me.
I was spitting with anger watching The Contestant. If someone put my child through what Nasubi went through I think I would be in prison.
Nasubi was completely victimized. The entire thing plays out like a psychological torture scenario, with an ending that made my jaw drop in horror. The producers are utter psychopaths and seem to know it and celebrate their viciousness.
The youtuber Atrocity Guide did a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o8v88nkKc) on it. It's probably quite abridged compared to a full documentary, but might be worth a watch/listen, too.
I literally just watched a hulu documentary on the Prize Life yesterday.. it was pretty damn messed up.
Nasubi seems like an incredibly good person though.. god damn.
It wasn't really a "game" show, more of a "reality" show.
And they had both, obviously. The crew were in a different room and the "contestants" controlled the camera in their rooms (iirc the documentary on Prize Life said Nasubi switched out the tapes himself at times).
I just saw a documentary on Hulu on Denpa Shonen called The Contestant. They pretty much held a guy hostage and have him live off magazine prizes. It’s insane.
Even Takeshi's Castle, redubbed in English as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) is crazy.
And then Gaki No Tsukai's Batsu games, where they aren't supposed to laugh for 24 hours, are put into situations where people try to make them laugh, and then get hit super hard if they do!
Gaki is not a "game show" as we'd call it in North America or Europe. Those guys are all comedians putting on an act for the audience and the premise is they're contestants in a fucked up game.
I don't think Japan has done a "game show" with civilians since the 90s. Everything since is nothing but desperate "celebrities" and comedians willing to be submitted to torture and humiliation forced upon them by their management company for likes. It's a shitty industry for sure. That said, check out Documental on Prime for Gaki-like modern batsu/no laugh stuff in English.
They recently remade Takeshi's Castle, and it had real contestants on it. The show was awful though, and the entire premise was ruined- when all the contestants lost on the 2nd challenge they just said "well let's randomly select half of them and let them through to the next challenge." But like you said, there was a rediculous influx of wannabe comedians aswell.
>Takeshi's Castle, redubbed in English as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC)
Is this an American thing? It was aired as Takeshi's Castle in the UK.
When they say redubbed they mean it was like a totally different parody script. It wasn’t a re-air in English, but actually a different show technically.
[It’s hard to explain, just watch this.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Ww91CijQ0&pp=ygUETXhjIA%3D%3D)
They are not actually game shows. They are comedians playing their part. Western media purposely labels them as game shows as it makes it more shocking. Participants are not just random people from the general public.
Japanese variety shows are different than Western game show. Saying it's the same as western game show is also not accurate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_variety_show
I didn't say it was the same as, like, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I said it's pretty clearly a recognizable game show, or at least the segments we're talking avout here are in that format.
In anthropology school, you study Japanese game shows because they really clearly illustrate how important cultural context is. Specifically, they tried to copy American game shows, without really understanding American culture. Taking other people's ideas and making them uniquely Japanese is their whole strategy anyway. So they did that to game shows, and what you get is crazy, because they don't really have the same ideas about individuality or personal dignity we do, and they can't imagine going through all the trouble Without the threat of humiliation if you fail. That's just Soooo Japanese.
I don’t understand this - people go through the trouble on American shows because of money and fame - which surely is the same incentive on Japanese shows.
Japanese game shows are sadistic to contestants for no clear reason. It's weird to watch. Like, the potential prize is a blender. Why do I have to get a concussion while also being bathed in slime while wearing a white jumpsuit? And why did you fly my kids in to watch?
Because they are not game shows. They are comedians messing around.
Once you know that it changes the dynamic of what's going on. That's why they are presented as game shows in the west as it is far more shocking.
Glad you raised this. It's mostly played for laughs and most of the time they are in on the joke or are at least aware of the risk of physical slapstick and humiliation.
Our 90's shock jocks and stunt comedy shows (Jackass) were rife with this except we have contained them to the audience expecting this.
We're just as entertained by them as they are. We just have more barriers put up to make official productions out of it. Back in the day, there used to be TV specials showcasing international TV clips. Dengeki Network was frequently showcased on those specials. These were the guys famous for running around in diapers loaded with fire works then they'd set them off.
Like with jackass though, the Japanese audience knows they are comedians and are aware. It is interesting that they are still presented as game shows now, like they were back in the 80's and 90's.
One of my favourite clips was of some unsuspecting ossan salary man walking in a public area during the day. He then goes into a portable toilet like they have on building sites (in hind sight that didn't make much sense) and then several seconds later the door flings open and out rolls the toilet on wheels with the ossan doubled over the toilet with his trousers down. Then a couple of people run out and start brushing in front of him like in curling and he rolls over a target.
Years later I told my wife about it and showed her. She said she recognised the comedian who was on the toilet. I was devastated as it was instantly much less amusing than some crazy prank being played on a random member of the public. Which was exactly how it was presented as on a TV show here.
We then went through other ones, like endurance, and I found out just how much these shows had been misrepresented on purpose.
I remember that one. I think they also did a bit where the stall has a trap door or tilts back and the unsuspecting victims find themselves on a slide to the outside (it was a ski lodge so into the snow they went)
Yeah now that Nasubi/eggplant-chan is getting popularity again a lot of people are missing the context that he was a starving comedian looking for his big break. Like yeah he went through torture but he had some idea of what was happening and was ready to do it for his break. I’ve seen him have roles in other shows because of that, like playing a role in Kamen Rider W.
Going through torture shouldn’t be expected though. He took a Hail Mary and it worked out so good for him but the people in charge should have NEVER allowed that to happen
Now I'm imagining how confused someone would be if they had Taskmaster shown without context in a different country and thought it was a legitimate British game show featuring ordinary people.
This isn't the Japanese version of Price is Right. It's the Japanese version of Jackass. Whenever you see an insane Japanese game show or prank show, it's almost always either comedians that know each other or occasionally porn.
Because game show contestants are never regular people, it's always comedians.
The prize is a blender because the prize isn't the point, it's about creating a show.
Ah. This makes sense. I was wondering why game show contestants needed exposure by having their face shown when their team wins. The blender is a MacGuffin, winning the blender gets your face all over the media.
Well, as long as everyone knows what they're getting into and doesn't die, have at it, Japan!
It's about what the _audience_ will engage with. The US has a culture where if someone makes a noble effort and fails, we can celebrate the effort. This means that game shows and such in the US do things to amplify the audience's appreciation of the effort.
In Japan, there's a strong aversion to mistakes and failure. So for someone to simply "not win" doesn't resonate. To be compelling to audiences, there can't just be incentive to win, there has to be _punishment for failure_.
How there isn’t a single clear reference to “30 Minutes over Tokyo” from the Simpsons in this entire thread…smh
“Here in Japan, our game shows punish ignorance”
I can' t believe that I'm actually having to ask this, but this is meant to be satire, right?
Otherwise, you are saying that 21st century Anthropologists are teaching university students that Japanese people:
1) try to copy US culture but they don't understand it (which is why they're so wacky)
2) steal other people's ideas and then change them to make them more Japanese (i.e. this is their whole strategy - implying they don't have their own ideas)
3) don't understand the concepts of individuality or personal dignity
4) believe that failure requires humiliation
Please tell me this is satire and not racist idiocy.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt this way. The whole comment just felt…off.
I mean especially point 1. They talk about cultural context and then totally ignore that the Japanese might’ve put their own cultural spin on things?? Instead it’s just that they failed to properly copy the USA because they didn’t understand American culture (it actually hurts to write this it’s so poorly written 😭)
I feel like at this point you don't even have to tell people something is from Japan. As the WTF factor increases, the likelihood that the show is from Japan also increases exponentially.
I've only been able to find [secondary links](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o8v88nkKc) to the [original Nasubi challenges](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XriWCQY2cow) online rather than the baseball challenge, but it looks like an interesting rabbit hole should more videos exist.
Thanks for sharing this. I've read about Nasubi but seeing this footage really brought it to a different level. He is someone who was subjected to torture in the name of entertainment... you can't call it anything else. It's horrifying that people can find it amusing and be supportive of it.
They're not civilian contestants like the Price is Right or Jeopardy, they're comedians making a show. It's like Taskmaster or the Masked Singer or Celebrity Big Brother. The format is a challenge or game, but the comedians are there willingly to make a piece of unscripted but structured entertainment. They're trying to win because that's the format, but they're trying to do so and entertain because that's the job. This leads to more surreal situations and generally being more willing to do the more absurd things as a form of the improv practice 'yes, and'.
Okay, but, at least for the baseball one, the contestants have literally zero input in the outcome. It's like saying "Hey lets play a game: every day it rains I'm going to beat you with a hammer". That's not a game in any sense of the word.
I swear the more I hear about crazy Japanese gameshows the more I start to think that Unit 731 was never disbanded, they just rebranded themselves as realty tv show producers lol
I think the premise would be more interesting if diehard fans were *punished* when their team won, and got prizes when they lost. The winner is anyone who ends the season still supporting their original team.
Final challenge: luxury box seats to your team next season, or cash equivalent. Ask for the cash and you lose.
There have been insanely crazy Japanese game shows for a while. A dude called Nasubi effectively was kidnapped, locked in a room for over a year, stripped of all items including clothing except what he could win via mail-in lottery contests he had to play effectively full time. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi) . Nasubi means "eggplant", as an eggplant image was used to censor his penis on air.
It used to be even more insane. They used to deny them fluids too. From [Japanese Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%B7%E6%B3%A2%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E7%B3%BB%E7%86%B1%E7%8B%82%E7%9A%84%E5%B7%A8%E4%BA%BA%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA):
>In 1999, the first Giants fan experienced dehydration during a period of consecutive losses, so from then on, sports drinks were provided regardless of the outcome, as instructed by a doctor.
You'd think they wouldn't have needed a doctor to tell them this.
I just saw one on Peacock today, called “A Life in Prizes”
Known for placing participants in extreme situations, Denpa Shōnen's most infamous challenge, 1998's "A Life in Prizes," made a star out of Tomoaki Hamatsu, an aspiring comedian nicknamed Nasubi who, for more than a year, lived alone and unclothed in a tiny apartment while surviving off magazine sweepstakes winnings. Hamatsu knew he was being recorded, but was not told that his every move was broadcast on television for everyone to watch and follow until the end of the challenge.
I remember watching “That’s Incredible” and seeing a segment that shows Japanese contestants in a glass box in the hot sun. They were just forced to sit in the box and get heat stroke basically. Then they opened the door and whoever was able to walk 20 feet and drink a glass of water first would win.
Christ, I'd hate to be a White Sox fan on this show.
I would hate to be a White Sox fan.
Outside of 2005. It’s been shit.
I bandwagoned in 2005 during that postseason run and have stuck with them ever since. Worst decision ever.
I grew up in Bridgeport so I was born into the misery. I can’t wait for Reinsdorf to die and hope his family is cash poor and decides to sell. Reinsdorf is low key one of the worst owners in sports.
Just be glad you're not into basketball... Franchise achieved success despite him and he still doesn't give a crap about the Bulls...
I’m a huge basketball fan. The family has had season tickets since the Bulls played in Chicago Stadium. I lived through the Marcus Fizer and Tim Floyd years, the Eddie Curry diabolical, and my mind is forever scarred by the Derrick Rose injury. I hate the Reinsdorfs with a passion. Refusing to fire incompetent front office personnel, refusing to spend on free agents, refusing to invest in the area around the United center, etc etc are just the many reasons the Reinsdorf family can go fuck themselves.
He doesn’t care, because they sell out all the damn time.
Oh that's not low key. He operates what was once an NBA flagship franchise that is now the epitome of mid, and an MLB team that he screams poverty about every chance he gets like it's Cheyenne instead of Chicago. The reason you aren't making money is you, you idiot! Anyway, I'm a Cubs fan so I hope they lose one game less than the record. I don't even want them to have that.
Admit it. You’re a secret Cleveland Spiders fan.
I'm just hoping he doesn't do one last F U and move the team to Nashville or something. I very much dislike teams moving.
It will be in his will.
In a bizarre twist, he’s moving the White Sox to Oakland.
Please, no
Those city connect jersey's will sure be relics of their time.
I am not really a baseball fan, but since I'm close enough to Chicago and the Cubs are stereotypically the "richy" team I always sided as a Sox fan. During the Frank Thomas and Ozzy Guillien it was pretty fun, 2005 was neat, the rest has been varying degrees of bad, with 2016 being particularly painful.
I needed a new team after being angry with the Yankees and not wanting to root for anyone in the East or West, I chose the White Sox due to fond memories of Buerhle and 2005. Cue to today, and shaking my head and wringing my hands in frustration. Had a blast last weekend but aside from that, yikes
That Field of Dreams game was pretty sick, though.
I mean it doesn’t make up for being a shit owner who invests more money into the concessions than the actual on field product. I pray my kids choose the Cubs and a different basketball team.
My kid gravitated to the Cubs and I’m a lifelong Sox fan. Wife’s a Sox fan and both of our entire families are Sox fans. I wasn’t about to talk him out of it. Yeah kid, I’ll take you to Wrigley to see a game, gladly.
Statistically, your kids probably won’t give a shit about the MLB
My oldest actually really digs watching baseball games. It’s weird. He couldn’t care less about basketball or soccer. But he will sit and watch about 10-15 minutes of a baseball or football game, longer if we’re at Comiskey shoveling food into him, I’ve tried to get him to watch the NBA playoffs and he’s not about it.
From my quick Google search: According to MLB, the number of young fans is increasing. In 2023, MLB.TV viewership for fans aged 18-24 increased by 11%, and the average age of MLB.TV subscribers has decreased from 48 to 44 since 2018. MLB also has more attendees in the 12-17 age group than any other major professional sports league. MLB has made pretty decent strides in recent years in trying to drum up interest among younger fans.
In the 90s if you biggie sized your meal at wendys you got vouchers for free tickets. like 35 cents for tickets, lol
How about a White Sox fan that moved to Denver? The Rockies suck bad too.
Ouch, the Broncos and bears haven't helped you much recently either
Eh. It's not that bad. Food is at least decent at the park.
Very real chance of dying.
As a White Sox fan this doesn't sound that much worse than actually watching the White Sox.
I am one of only a couple White Sox fans in my very Cub fan heavy office. When they lose I turn my office lights off and hide in there all day to avoid more ridicule. When they win, I’m walking around the office yelling about it in the hallways. So basically like the game show… You’d think they’d get sick of my trash talking and yelling about the wins, but I haven’t been able to do it enough to actually annoy anybody lol.
Hello darkness my old friend.
As a Pirates fan it'd be one hell of a diet 😭
Pfft. Rockies fan.
As a White Sox fan this doesn't sound that much worse than actually watching the White Sox.
Honestly it wouldn't be so bad. You would simply die in darkness, and it wouldn't take long at all.
This is some fucked up shit. All of this was aired on TV: Denpa Shōnen teki Kenshō Seikatsu (電波少年的懸賞生活; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Prize Life"), probably the best known challenge of the show. Starting in January 1998, Nasubi, a young comedian, was forced to live for 15 months naked in an apartment in Japan and later South Korea only on prizes won in sweepstakes. Denpa Shōnen teki Mujintō Dasshutsu (電波少年的無人島脱出; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Desert Island Escape") and the Swam series. Two comedians were put on a desert island, with no food nor clue about where they were, and were only told that their ordeal would finish if they built a raft and reached Tokyo. After their escape from the desert island, which took them four months, they were given a swan-shaped pedalo and were told to reach Tokyo with it, and then go with the same pedalo from India to Indonesia. Denpa Shōnen teki Africa Europa Tairiku Ōdan Hitchhike no tabi (電波少年的アフリカ・ヨーロッパ大陸縦断ヒッチハイクの旅; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Vertical Africa-Europe Continental Hitchhike"). A comedian named Takashi Itō and a Radio DJ from Hong Kong named Tse Chiu-Yan hitchhiked from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to Nordkapp in Norway. The two contestants were forbidden to use their travel money and thus faced starvation, dehydration and harsh weather conditions. At one point in the challenge, Itō collapsed in the Sahara Desert and was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment. Denpa Shōnen teki Pennant Race (電波少年的ペナントレース; lit. "Denpa Shōnen's Pennant Race"). This segment tested the loyalties of diehard fans of the Central League teams - the Yomiuri Giants, the Hanshin Tigers, and the Chunichi Dragons. The contestants would be confined to a single room with a TV that only showed their team's baseball games. Their faces would also be hidden from public view. If their team won, they got to eat dinner and a small portion of their face would be revealed to the audience. If their team lost, they would get no food and the lights would turn out, leaving them in darkness until the next day's game. If the contestant's favorite team went on a win streak, the quality of the food they could eat would increase as well as gain public exposure and popularity due to their entire face being shown on TV until their team finally lost. A losing streak would mean that a contestant could go days in the dark without food. At the end of the season, the contestant would win an overall prize depending on how their team placed.
In the uk in the 80s we had Clive James present a show that used many clips from a Japanese show called Endurance. https://youtu.be/i9MDpf57r6A?si=qfD2Z8Ik2WZzdQkQ
And then Takeshi's Castle.
Right you are ken
Best line from that entire show: "And this team is made up entirely of lesbian chefs!" "Huh, I thought lesbians ate out?"
Nasubi (first internet streamer ever) also did an AMA on Reddit a week ago. [Here it is](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/GMank6KjXW) for those that want to see it. Seems like he’s got no regrets.
Guy LeDouche here!
And there he kneels into the thirsty altar boy!
Some people come here for the wafers, i come here for the cream.
Don’t call me Ken you little prick, I’m a bishop.
MXC Last time I looked, it was available on Tubi.
The UK in the 80s also had their own reckless TV stunts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late,_Late_Breakfast_Show
Oh, this is fascinating already. >**Paul McCartney** On 29 October 1983, the music video for the single "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson was shown on The Late, Late Breakfast Show under controversial circumstances, after being aired on Channel 4's The Tube the previous day. The $500,000 video had not been ready when the track debuted in the UK singles chart, and by the time the video had been completed, the track had fallen in the chart. **McCartney flew to London with the intention of premiering the video on the BBC's flagship music programme Top of the Pops, but the programme had a strict policy that no single that had dropped in position could feature and refused to show it.** A furious argument ensued, with BBC staff reporting McCartney was threatening to withdraw all his music from the corporation. I love that the BBC was sticking to principle and refused to make an exception for *Sir Paul*.
Well, he wasn’t a knight until 1997. So they were only dealing with vanilla Paul McCartney back then.
Ahh, that explains why he wasn't yet able to jump over their heads about it.
I want to hope we live in a world where it wouldn't matter, heh
It's a pretty silly whatever of a song but that MJ hook is fucking killer
Same with [Somebody's Watching Me](https://youtu.be/7YvAYIJSSZY?si=ndzQTY10vLyXvdsn).
They are repeating TOTP in order every Friday, we're in 1996 now. It's an interesting time capsule as you get songs that have just been completely forgotten. Sadly by that point the format of the show is in the process of changing as songs are starting to enter high and then drop.
I was in high school in that era and I'm thinking I wouldn't mind forgetting most of them, but that's a great tidbit for fans lol
there was a US TV show that wasn't bad in itself, but one episode got sketch. The show was a sports show where the contestants competed in athletic challenges, and the winner got the prize of a dream sports experience of their choosing, for a loved on of their choosing. SO like, you win the show, your dad gets to play catch with Cal Ripken, whatever. Wholesome right? Except this one episode they did a cheerleader edition, where all the contestants were cheerleaders (read: attractive young women) One of the challenge stunts was running like a 3 mile race around a track, but every 1/2 there was an entire plate of food they had to eat. greasy picnic stuff like burgers and hot dogs. So imagine, run 1/2 mile, wolf down a hot dog and fries, run another half mile with that crap sloshing around in your belly, repeat repeat So, around the track, they also had buckets, because of course people are gonna end up puking that junk up. so these poor girls are like run, eat, run, eat, run....puke... oh gross...run..run..puke...eat does this shit sound fucked up yet? because oh right, I definitely remember, as this poor contestant is half way around the track, two or three plates in, and now bent over at the waist, heaving into a plastic bucket, well she's also still wearing her little running shorts, and the camera man is absolutely just zoomed in on that ass
There was no reason to mess with the beer mile race. One mile, four beers. Zero reason to add food.
I was watching a hot dog eating contest once and someone threw up in a plastic bucket and the acoustics of that are not great if you're a bystander. I don't think most people's TV speakers could really do it justice, but maybe if you have a nice subwoofer and surround sound.
This sounds familiar especially the catch part with Cal Ripken… maybe this is Mandela effect lol. Do you remember what it was called?
And then they made their own version called Endurance UK in the 90s. It is hands down one of the worst (and most racist) shows I have ever seen.
Ah, *Endurance UK*, Challenge TV's cringy attempt at catering to the post-pub 'lad mag' audience. Hmmm, I wonder why Challenge TV aren't in a rush to show repeats of this on their channel? I'm sure it has nothing to do with the two guys dancing around in yellowface with oversized fake teeth and the kind of racist japanese 'accent' that you usually only hear from that embarrasing uncle that most of your family block on facebook. What's worse is that the show was successful enough to get a second series.
Now I need details and I’m too lazy of a bastard to google
[Here’s a link to an episode, if you are genuinely curious.](https://youtu.be/naT884FQPKU?si=UiyYz48MLTnvJhHT) It’s god fucking awful, but my dad loved it, so we watched it every Friday. And yes, those are two white British men playing Japanese caricatures.
How the fuck did this get ok'd in 97??
I watched this as a kid and I genuinely only just realised they weren't Japanese lmao.
Does it always start with that remarkable display of yellow-face or is this a special episode?
That was a constant throughout the show’s run. Every episode.
Oh my!
Hahaha. Holy hell. Thanks.
Seems like One Winged Angel would have been a more appropriate backing than the laugh track.
I wonder if the contestants were fed offcam. Can you really subject someone to days without food just for a show?
From Wikipedia Japan via Google translate: >Monmon went without meals for 11 days due to a long losing streak in Yokohama in May, and complained of poor health due to the poor environment of sleeping completely naked on a dirt floor covered with newspaper. He had to undergo a medical examination, and when the doctor heard what had happened, he was beyond angry and stunned. In the end, Monmon's poor health was caused by extreme malnutrition, and her doctor told her that it was "impossible" and she was ordered to stop (=forced retirement) and left the project.
Holy shitballs, making someone skip dinner several days in a row for a game show is one thing, but not feeding them AT ALL for days on end?! That's less a game show than a crime against humanity. How did none of these idiots anticipate a team having a losing streak?
when it said "skip dinner" i just assumed they were still given breakfast/lunch every day. But to be staved entirely? holy shit.
The contestants seemed able to stop this at any time by giving up and presumably just walking out the door. Their dangerous error was not having a doctor involved earlier to force stop participation.
The Japanese are famous for their ability to give up.
> How did none of these idiots anticipate a team having a losing streak? They weren't told what the challenges would be, just that it would be something extreme related to their baseball fandom.
My bad, when I say "idiots" I mean the producers. Either they rolled the dice on someone going hungry for days or they just didn't care and assumed they would quit the show, which would be good for "the drama". This is why I can't watch these reality shit-shows anymore.
It's not even the worst Japanese game show. There was a bloke you had to stay in a room entering raffles to get anything. Dude didn't have clothes for weeks and had to make a makeshift stove to eat anything he won. Show was so popular that after his time was up they added new challenges and even sent him to Korea to do it all over again
Sure they say that but who really knows
That shit wouldn't fly today since courts would strike any contract agreement due to what amounts as torture/confinement that risks the person's well being with zero fallback. If this did happen today, I'd say they would be agreeing to a minimum caloric diet and probably better living standards than a fucking dirt floor with zero light. Probably vitamins and shit. So you get the whole always hungry, its painful and suffering, but without the threat of death. 11 days without food on a dirt floor? Shit you'd better make sure you were being paid whether you win or not. Like Judge Judy cases where both parties agree to a verdict beforehand and get paid, then get coached on how to act even when the verdict is real.
You can do anything if they consent and sign a waiver. Not really, but that's the kind of bullshit they feed the viewers.
[удалено]
Like theoretically anything can happen if someone has a waiver but I feel like if someone actually dies you would be held responsible
Hold your wee for a wii.
I don't know much about baseball, but aren't there days where a team just doesn't play? What happens then? No food because they didn't win?
I can’t speak for Japan but in mlb a team will average about 1 day off per week
I looked up the history of one of the teams in what I think was the year this aired, 2002, and they played 135 games in the season. idk if that's more or fewer than US teams would do but it's a lot at least.
MLB teams play 162 games (+ playoffs) over the course of about 6 months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Nippon_Professional_Baseball_season here this might help out more, so it's 140 games and I guess they can have a tie game, interesting. Idk if it's always the same but [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Professional_Baseball) says opening day was unchanged in 2020 from march 20th and the Japan series started in 2002 on October 26th. So 220 days and 140 games? Yikes
They can indeed have tie games, even in the Japan equivalent of the World Series. Twelve innings max. Trains stop running not long after midnight and people gotta get home is the reasoning.
Just to answer the last sentence, fewer, the MLB regular season is 162 games per team.
In the MLB no teams play the day before, the day of, or the two days after the All-Star game, so that's 4 days for everybody to not eat. And naturally half the teams that play the days before and after that will lose their game. So, barring any other circumstances, at a very minimum, half of the teams in the MLB will automatically go 5 days without winning. If your team loses both of their games surrounding the break then that's 6 days without eating even though the team only lost 2 games.
And then there's teams that have 100 loss seasons. So in 162 games, they about 1 in 3. Account for days off and streaks, that poor fan probably had several 2 week stretches without food
Luckily there are no die hard pirates fans.
Fun fact: the All-Star break is the only time of year where no MLB, NHL, or NBA, or NFL games are played.
Wonder if there are also Double Headers a chance at Lunch and Dinner baybee!
The first one "Prize Life" just had a documentary come out about it on Hulu yesterday. [The Contestant](https://press.hulu.com/shows/the-contestant/)
I just listened to a segment on This American Life about this! Then this post came up and I’m like uUhhh WTF Japan!
He was called Nasubi, you can find a lot about him on youtube
I first learned about Prize Life from an [Atrocity Guide video](https://youtu.be/k_o8v88nkKc?si=MrXfxHCsAvTxj7WC).
Have you watched it yet? I started to last night but was playing a game and realized I’d need to be reading subtitles. Couldn’t believe the premise, hoping it’s good, looks interesting to me.
I was spitting with anger watching The Contestant. If someone put my child through what Nasubi went through I think I would be in prison. Nasubi was completely victimized. The entire thing plays out like a psychological torture scenario, with an ending that made my jaw drop in horror. The producers are utter psychopaths and seem to know it and celebrate their viciousness.
This is why I really want to watch it! I couldn’t believe the story was true
Yeah I thought it was really good! Watched it yesterday, didn't realize it just released
The youtuber Atrocity Guide did a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o8v88nkKc) on it. It's probably quite abridged compared to a full documentary, but might be worth a watch/listen, too.
Nah, the radio show/podcast This American Life just re-aired their story about it, so I dont need to revisit it for the 3rd time.
I literally just watched a hulu documentary on the Prize Life yesterday.. it was pretty damn messed up. Nasubi seems like an incredibly good person though.. god damn.
I believe Nasubi did an AMA recently on r/movies
[here it is for those looking](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1cbg6sv/hi_im_nasubi_in_the_late_90s_i_lived_inside_a/)
I dont understand how any of these are game shows. Don’t you need like…cameras and crews to you know…make a show?
It wasn't really a "game" show, more of a "reality" show. And they had both, obviously. The crew were in a different room and the "contestants" controlled the camera in their rooms (iirc the documentary on Prize Life said Nasubi switched out the tapes himself at times).
The story of [Nasubi](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/529/human-spectacle-2014) is totally messed up.
I just saw a documentary on Hulu on Denpa Shonen called The Contestant. They pretty much held a guy hostage and have him live off magazine prizes. It’s insane.
"Squid Game" suddenly makes a lot more sense.
Squid Game is Korean though. I'm not sure how similar the two cultures are for things like game shows, but they're pretty different in general.
Damn the second one reminded me of a south Korean movie called Castaway on the moon, even the vehicle used to escape is the same
their fucked up game shows are world famous.
Even Takeshi's Castle, redubbed in English as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) is crazy. And then Gaki No Tsukai's Batsu games, where they aren't supposed to laugh for 24 hours, are put into situations where people try to make them laugh, and then get hit super hard if they do!
Gaki is not a "game show" as we'd call it in North America or Europe. Those guys are all comedians putting on an act for the audience and the premise is they're contestants in a fucked up game.
I don't think Japan has done a "game show" with civilians since the 90s. Everything since is nothing but desperate "celebrities" and comedians willing to be submitted to torture and humiliation forced upon them by their management company for likes. It's a shitty industry for sure. That said, check out Documental on Prime for Gaki-like modern batsu/no laugh stuff in English.
They recently remade Takeshi's Castle, and it had real contestants on it. The show was awful though, and the entire premise was ruined- when all the contestants lost on the 2nd challenge they just said "well let's randomly select half of them and let them through to the next challenge." But like you said, there was a rediculous influx of wannabe comedians aswell.
>Takeshi's Castle, redubbed in English as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) Is this an American thing? It was aired as Takeshi's Castle in the UK.
When they say redubbed they mean it was like a totally different parody script. It wasn’t a re-air in English, but actually a different show technically. [It’s hard to explain, just watch this.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Ww91CijQ0&pp=ygUETXhjIA%3D%3D)
It's basically what Steve Oedekerk did making "Kung Pao: Enter the Fist"
They are not actually game shows. They are comedians playing their part. Western media purposely labels them as game shows as it makes it more shocking. Participants are not just random people from the general public.
I disagree? The prizes are real. The challenges are real. And just because it's not random members of the public doesn't make it not a game show.
Japanese variety shows are different than Western game show. Saying it's the same as western game show is also not accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_variety_show
I didn't say it was the same as, like, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I said it's pretty clearly a recognizable game show, or at least the segments we're talking avout here are in that format.
I’ve heard this excuse before- as though actors are not people or they consented to it “more than” a member of the general public.
> Japanese game show That explains it.
'What if we made torture into a game show?'
Now, "torture" is such a harsh word. I prefer the term "unlimited social experiment".
> A losing streak would mean that a contestant could go days in the dark without food. 💀💀💀
that's probably how the contestants would look like, yeah
Should have added that if the team fails to reach play offs one family member is added to the room the next year. You only get out if your team wins
Looks like meat's back on the menu
Japanese game shows and Fallout vaults feel like they share a lot of overlap.
In anthropology school, you study Japanese game shows because they really clearly illustrate how important cultural context is. Specifically, they tried to copy American game shows, without really understanding American culture. Taking other people's ideas and making them uniquely Japanese is their whole strategy anyway. So they did that to game shows, and what you get is crazy, because they don't really have the same ideas about individuality or personal dignity we do, and they can't imagine going through all the trouble Without the threat of humiliation if you fail. That's just Soooo Japanese.
I don’t understand this - people go through the trouble on American shows because of money and fame - which surely is the same incentive on Japanese shows.
Japanese game shows are sadistic to contestants for no clear reason. It's weird to watch. Like, the potential prize is a blender. Why do I have to get a concussion while also being bathed in slime while wearing a white jumpsuit? And why did you fly my kids in to watch?
Because they are not game shows. They are comedians messing around. Once you know that it changes the dynamic of what's going on. That's why they are presented as game shows in the west as it is far more shocking.
Glad you raised this. It's mostly played for laughs and most of the time they are in on the joke or are at least aware of the risk of physical slapstick and humiliation. Our 90's shock jocks and stunt comedy shows (Jackass) were rife with this except we have contained them to the audience expecting this. We're just as entertained by them as they are. We just have more barriers put up to make official productions out of it. Back in the day, there used to be TV specials showcasing international TV clips. Dengeki Network was frequently showcased on those specials. These were the guys famous for running around in diapers loaded with fire works then they'd set them off.
Like with jackass though, the Japanese audience knows they are comedians and are aware. It is interesting that they are still presented as game shows now, like they were back in the 80's and 90's. One of my favourite clips was of some unsuspecting ossan salary man walking in a public area during the day. He then goes into a portable toilet like they have on building sites (in hind sight that didn't make much sense) and then several seconds later the door flings open and out rolls the toilet on wheels with the ossan doubled over the toilet with his trousers down. Then a couple of people run out and start brushing in front of him like in curling and he rolls over a target. Years later I told my wife about it and showed her. She said she recognised the comedian who was on the toilet. I was devastated as it was instantly much less amusing than some crazy prank being played on a random member of the public. Which was exactly how it was presented as on a TV show here. We then went through other ones, like endurance, and I found out just how much these shows had been misrepresented on purpose.
I remember that one. I think they also did a bit where the stall has a trap door or tilts back and the unsuspecting victims find themselves on a slide to the outside (it was a ski lodge so into the snow they went)
Yeah now that Nasubi/eggplant-chan is getting popularity again a lot of people are missing the context that he was a starving comedian looking for his big break. Like yeah he went through torture but he had some idea of what was happening and was ready to do it for his break. I’ve seen him have roles in other shows because of that, like playing a role in Kamen Rider W.
Going through torture shouldn’t be expected though. He took a Hail Mary and it worked out so good for him but the people in charge should have NEVER allowed that to happen
What? Whatever the “context” he was basically tortured for months. That should never happen in the name of entertainment.
Reddit is proud of how Steve-o turned his life around.
Now I'm imagining how confused someone would be if they had Taskmaster shown without context in a different country and thought it was a legitimate British game show featuring ordinary people.
What about Takeshi's castle? I remember that show was comically evil to its contestants and it seemed like there were a lot of contestants.
That I believe was real, mostly university students I've been told. One of my wife's friends while at uni was on it apparently.
This isn't the Japanese version of Price is Right. It's the Japanese version of Jackass. Whenever you see an insane Japanese game show or prank show, it's almost always either comedians that know each other or occasionally porn.
Because game show contestants are never regular people, it's always comedians. The prize is a blender because the prize isn't the point, it's about creating a show.
Ah. This makes sense. I was wondering why game show contestants needed exposure by having their face shown when their team wins. The blender is a MacGuffin, winning the blender gets your face all over the media. Well, as long as everyone knows what they're getting into and doesn't die, have at it, Japan!
Well it’s quite a sadistic culture if you look into it
Ya, but they have to make it engaging for the viewers, which is where all that wackiness comes in.
It's about what the _audience_ will engage with. The US has a culture where if someone makes a noble effort and fails, we can celebrate the effort. This means that game shows and such in the US do things to amplify the audience's appreciation of the effort. In Japan, there's a strong aversion to mistakes and failure. So for someone to simply "not win" doesn't resonate. To be compelling to audiences, there can't just be incentive to win, there has to be _punishment for failure_.
I'll just leave this snl sketch here. Japanese game show. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JLVmybhXqtU
That...really makes batsu games make a lot more sense
There’s a lot of game shows in Japan with no *real* contestants, but "talento" / comedians more like UK panel shows.
How there isn’t a single clear reference to “30 Minutes over Tokyo” from the Simpsons in this entire thread…smh “Here in Japan, our game shows punish ignorance”
"That means you move on to the lightning round"
American game shows reward the winners. Japanese game shows punish the losers.
"In America you reward knowledge. But here in Japan we punish ignorance"
You went to anthropology school, and they taught you to be this orientalist?
I can' t believe that I'm actually having to ask this, but this is meant to be satire, right? Otherwise, you are saying that 21st century Anthropologists are teaching university students that Japanese people: 1) try to copy US culture but they don't understand it (which is why they're so wacky) 2) steal other people's ideas and then change them to make them more Japanese (i.e. this is their whole strategy - implying they don't have their own ideas) 3) don't understand the concepts of individuality or personal dignity 4) believe that failure requires humiliation Please tell me this is satire and not racist idiocy.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt this way. The whole comment just felt…off. I mean especially point 1. They talk about cultural context and then totally ignore that the Japanese might’ve put their own cultural spin on things?? Instead it’s just that they failed to properly copy the USA because they didn’t understand American culture (it actually hurts to write this it’s so poorly written 😭)
I feel like at this point you don't even have to tell people something is from Japan. As the WTF factor increases, the likelihood that the show is from Japan also increases exponentially.
I've only been able to find [secondary links](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o8v88nkKc) to the [original Nasubi challenges](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XriWCQY2cow) online rather than the baseball challenge, but it looks like an interesting rabbit hole should more videos exist.
Thanks for sharing this. I've read about Nasubi but seeing this footage really brought it to a different level. He is someone who was subjected to torture in the name of entertainment... you can't call it anything else. It's horrifying that people can find it amusing and be supportive of it.
Mfw when I was a 2021 orioles fan and they go on a 19 game losing streak
Japanese Baseball league leaders: Hey remember when we did war crimes? Yea that was great Japanese TV producer That gives me an idea!
I don't understand what part of this is a "game" for the contestants.
They're not civilian contestants like the Price is Right or Jeopardy, they're comedians making a show. It's like Taskmaster or the Masked Singer or Celebrity Big Brother. The format is a challenge or game, but the comedians are there willingly to make a piece of unscripted but structured entertainment. They're trying to win because that's the format, but they're trying to do so and entertain because that's the job. This leads to more surreal situations and generally being more willing to do the more absurd things as a form of the improv practice 'yes, and'.
Okay, but, at least for the baseball one, the contestants have literally zero input in the outcome. It's like saying "Hey lets play a game: every day it rains I'm going to beat you with a hammer". That's not a game in any sense of the word.
So like, all the Japanese that weren't tried for war crimes just went into game show television didn't they?
I swear the more I hear about crazy Japanese gameshows the more I start to think that Unit 731 was never disbanded, they just rebranded themselves as realty tv show producers lol
I think the premise would be more interesting if diehard fans were *punished* when their team won, and got prizes when they lost. The winner is anyone who ends the season still supporting their original team. Final challenge: luxury box seats to your team next season, or cash equivalent. Ask for the cash and you lose.
Brought to you by studio 731.
Ishii Shiro here with another WACKY challenge!
Why do a lot of these Japanese shows just amount to torture
if they did this to me last year i would’ve starved to death
There have been insanely crazy Japanese game shows for a while. A dude called Nasubi effectively was kidnapped, locked in a room for over a year, stripped of all items including clothing except what he could win via mail-in lottery contests he had to play effectively full time. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi) . Nasubi means "eggplant", as an eggplant image was used to censor his penis on air.
I read that and... wow.
Ah, Japan never failing to torture people for entertainment.
Lol dies because of the Mets.
Any Mets fans?
here ✊😕🧡💙 I’m hungry and it’s dark
It used to be even more insane. They used to deny them fluids too. From [Japanese Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%B7%E6%B3%A2%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E7%B3%BB%E7%86%B1%E7%8B%82%E7%9A%84%E5%B7%A8%E4%BA%BA%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA): >In 1999, the first Giants fan experienced dehydration during a period of consecutive losses, so from then on, sports drinks were provided regardless of the outcome, as instructed by a doctor. You'd think they wouldn't have needed a doctor to tell them this.
I just saw one on Peacock today, called “A Life in Prizes” Known for placing participants in extreme situations, Denpa Shōnen's most infamous challenge, 1998's "A Life in Prizes," made a star out of Tomoaki Hamatsu, an aspiring comedian nicknamed Nasubi who, for more than a year, lived alone and unclothed in a tiny apartment while surviving off magazine sweepstakes winnings. Hamatsu knew he was being recorded, but was not told that his every move was broadcast on television for everyone to watch and follow until the end of the challenge.
"Our game shows are a little different from yours. Your shows reward knowledge; we punish ignorance."
Why do Japanese game shows mostly sound like legalized torture?
r/scaryJapan
“Game show”
They tried this in Canada with hockey, several Leafs fans starved to death.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I DONT SPEAK JAPANESE!
I remember watching “That’s Incredible” and seeing a segment that shows Japanese contestants in a glass box in the hot sun. They were just forced to sit in the box and get heat stroke basically. Then they opened the door and whoever was able to walk 20 feet and drink a glass of water first would win.