Episode #1243 2015.02.22 - Hosei's Birthday Letters

Sure to be a favorite of 2015 for soudou :D

May be wrong in translating but apparently Hosei requests that he wants to be moved by his birthday and wants the other guys to read out letters to Hosei in celebration, much like they did with Hamada. Instead of being moved by the stories they have written, they are apparently led into laughter recounting stories of Hosei and many of the things he has done. Maybe a classic Hosei stitchup but who knows…

[url:337zdfqv]http://www.ntv.co.jp/program/detail/21838298.html[/url:337zdfqv]

[quote:337zdfqv]今週のガキは、方正が自分の誕生日に感動したいからと、メンバーから自分への感謝状を勝手に自作して持ってきた。それをメンバーに読ませるがバカすぎる内容に失笑の連続!

今週のガキの使いは、月亭方正が自分の誕生日に、浜田の誕生日のときにやった浜田への感謝状を一人一人読み上げ、感動的な雰囲気になった企画をやりたいと言い出した。しかし内容は方正が適当に書いたもので、メンバーにはそれを自分で考えたように読んでほしいという。それぞれが困惑するなか読んでみるが、どれも完全でっち上げの適当エピソードの連続で思わず吹き出してしまう場面も。このバカバカしさで感動は生まれるのか!?[/quote:337zdfqv]

The letters are written by Hosei himself, and he wants the others to read it out as if they wrote it.

Sounds interesting

[quote="solari":2g8xsg4u]The letters are written by Hosei himself, and he wants the others to read it out as if they wrote it.

Sounds interesting[/quote:2g8xsg4u]
Wow very weird concept. Interesting indeed though.

[quote="Vatican":2cdykiie]Sure to be a favorite of 2015 for soudou :D [/quote:2cdykiie]

My thought when I read the topic title: What!? What’s this?? :o
And then I laughed at the first line :rofl:
Thanks for that. :bow:

Sounds like his usual routine of building himself up to be thoroughly knocked down by the other guys, ala Goodbye Yamazaki etc. The final line of the summary seems to say it’s gonna be similarly absurd. I’m looking forward to see what the rest of the cast do to take jabs at him. :devil:

To be honest I did wonder when watching those old birthday party episodes for Matsumoto and Hamada, if they ever did something similar for Housei. From his Twitter they have given him a cake in the past but it’s not been recorded for TV. It was funny and cute when he would [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LTXGfEW0Rk:2cdykiie]sing Happy Birthday in English for Downtown[/url:2cdykiie].

This episode definetely deserves being subbed! :D

I’ll time+typeset/proof-read/encode & upload it on dailymotion, for anyone interested in translating this episode when it’s out. Just send me a pm…

This is either not gonna end well in hilarious way or gonna be something different ala Hamada’s letters, leaning heavily on the former.

I think it’s gonna be a parody of the Hamada birthday episode. I’m thinking the joke will be that Housei tries to curate the same thing, because the other guys mockingly ‘don’t like’ him enough to say such nice things themselves, but then Housei takes it too far, building himself up for the others to knock him down, and the episode ends up being degrading for him instead of complimentary. :rofl:

My guess could be Housei will make the episode bitter and then in the end he will ‘‘surprise’’ everyone with a musical. Kinda like Sayonara Yamasaki. :D

[quote="soudou":bset4h35][It was funny and cute when he would [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LTXGfEW0Rk:bset4h35]sing Happy Birthday in English for Downtown[/url:bset4h35].[/quote:bset4h35]
too bad no one can sing it for him :( …unless he sings it himself…hmm

[quote="TokyoAshes":rjuvi2s7]too bad no one can sing it for him :( …unless he sings it himself…hmm[/quote:rjuvi2s7]

Well it’d sure be funny to see them try. :rofl:
Endo I imagine would especially struggle. :lol:

I’m sure he is gonna sing it himself.

Fake Letters of Thanks to Hosei - Part 1
ヤラセ感動企画 方正作 ウソ感謝状 (前編)

Thank you very much. :D

Thanks ErnieYoung!
So it was a Hamada’s Birthday episode parody after all.
It was pretty dang creepy actually haha, especially when he’d come up close to thank them. :^)
It was fun watching Matsumoto trying to keep a straight face, looks like he’s really gonna break down next ep.

The two "mysterious person" in next episode are probably License.

It was an especially funny episode near the end.

For Endo’s letter, apparently Chiaki was in love with Housei before Endo, and it was Housei that arranged Endo a meeting with Chiaki. Also, it’s Housei that told him to do the Hohohoi gag. :D
For Hamada, he was selling contraband ivory which he was getting from Africa, and it’s the reason why he hesitated before moving from Osaka to Tokyo (because he wouldn’t be able to do it anymore in Tokyo) :D :D :D

He also made the 3 members say things about how Housei’s Rakugo is wonderful and that they would come see him. :D

Looking at their reaction while reading the letter was really funny, especially for Hamada when he paused before saying "contraband ivory" (象牙の密輸, zouge no mitsuyu). :rofl: Looking forward to next week!

Thanks Linking111, haha that certainly fits the "absurd" part from the episode’s summary. Well now Housei’s living in Osaka again for his rakugo, he must be doing pretty good trade. :rofl:

You’re welcome! Actually I took a bit of my time and translated the three letters. Hope you enjoy! :)

[i:26mt439u]Tanaka’s letter:[/i:26mt439u]

To Housei-san. I am sure you are surprised by my letter, but please listen without saying anything. Right after our combi started playing for Gaki no Tsukai, you looked at me and told me this: "hey you, you’re really skinny! Do you even eat properly?". Which I replied to: "yes! I’m fine!", though in truth, I was in debt at that time to the point it was hard even living properly. Of course, I could not eat properly, and the Bento box we got during recordings was my best lunch I could get in the whole week. However, I did not want you to notice it, and made it look as though I did not have any problems with money. But you saw through it all. "Come with me since you haven’t got anyone to talk to!", you invited me to eat like you usually do, in a sweet way that would not make me feel bad about it. After having a meal that I could not even dream of having at that time, you pulled out your cigarettes, wanting to smoke a bit after eating. And so you said: "Huh? It’s not there… I don’t have any lighter". I said: "please use this!", while I gave you a 100 yen lighter, you said: "I’m a heavy smoker so I can’t live without fire! So sell me that lighter!". You put the 100 yen lighter in your pocket, and instead gave me 10,000 yen. I said: "oh, no, I cannot take this…", which you replied to me with: "You know, I’m a star and all so I don’t care about how I use my money!", forcing me to accept the 10,000 yen. It was a really welcomed gift, as I really did not have any money back then. From then on, every time we went to eat together, you would say you don’t have any lighter, and would every time give me money. I was really, really happy about those gifts. But the truth is, I used 100 yen to buy back my lighter, and saved the 9,900 other. I thought of all that money as the price of your kindness, and so I am still saving that money you gave me back then. You, who have found a beautiful job called Rakugo. I think your kindness is flowing through your Rakugo, and I absolutely love it. Cocorico Tanaka Naoki.

[i:26mt439u]Endo’s letter:[/i:26mt439u]

To Housei-san. It’s been 19 years since we’ve met. I think this is the first time I express my gratitude to you like this. I am indebted to you for a lot of things, but I would like to tell you the thing I’m the most grateful for. This is a secret between us, and something I’m forbidden to speak of… but the truth is, Housei-san was deeply involved in my relationship with Chiaki, my old wife. At first, Chiaki was in love with not me, but you. While you seemed absolutely not interested in her, Chiaki, who was wanting to get close to you, would show up during your dinners every week and approach you. I was also there every week, and before I knew it, I fell in love with Chiaki. One day, while expecting to be yelled at, I told you how I felt about Chiaki. "gotcha" was the single word you said, and you arranged a dinner between me and Chiaki a few days later. Thanks to your efforts, I could marry Chiaki and, while for a limited time, enjoy true happiness. I deeply thank you for considering my love back then. And one more thing, when I talked to you about my worries as a comedian, you told me "you’re really funny with your body, so wouldn’t it be better for you to do a gag half naked?". "Wouldn’t something like "Hohhohoi" be good?" you continued, giving me advices. And then was created the gag you are all aware of, "Hohohoi". The truth is that "Hohohoi"'s real father is Housei-san. But you wouldn’t say anything about Hohohoi nor Chiaki, and made me into a man. And that I am grateful for. You, who have found a great job called Rakugo. I really love your light and fun Rakugo.

[i:26mt439u]Hamada’s letter:[/i:26mt439u]

To Yama-chan. While we absolutely have no relationship outside of work, the truth is I’m very grateful about one thing. We go back to before we moved to Tokyo as Downtown while we were experiencing popularity in Osaka, when Suga-chan and the others approached us, roughly 27 years ago. We were told "don’t you want to have your own program in Tokyo?". Needless to say, we were really happy as it would become our first lead to becoming superstars. However, there was one thing that was bothering me. That is… contraband ivory. This is something Matsumoto does not even know of, but at that time, I was smuggling ivory from Africa and was selling it at a high price. I was doing big money with black labour. "If I go to Tokyo, I won’t be about to smuggle ivory anymore! What to do!" I thought. I spent days and days hesitating over and over. While I was feeling depressed over that, one day, I went like always to Kobe’s harbor during the night to check the ivory. However, the person who waited for me there was not some information breaker, but Yama-chan. You looked at me with a different look from usual, that of a beast, and told me this: "Ivory or Downtown! Which one is more important for you?!". I was able to make my mind up thanks to those words, and stopped doing business with ivory. We then moved to Tokyo as Downtown, and started this show, "Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende". If you hadn’t told me those words that came from your heart back then, I would maybe still doing ivory smuggling even now. It’s all thanks to you that Gaki no Tsukai and Downtown exists now. You who found a superb job called Rakugo. One day, as the Hamada family, we will go to see our beloved Yama-chan’s Rakugo. Thanks.

It’s a literal translation, meaning it’s almost translated word-to-word. As such, there might be "fishy" sentences (things like the lunch they get during recordings outside of HQ actually has a word for it, ロケ弁). If the next episode is funny too, I might translate again. :bow:

Editing for bad spelling, haven’t re-read myself too much before posting. :lol:

Thanks for your hard work :bow: