Being a Japanese myself, I understand the cameos and I still find the gags less funny than used to be.
The general consensus even over in Japan is that they are running out of ideas. Well, who wouldn’t after years of creating gags that will last for 24 hours?
I hope the writers will get back to writing gags that don’t rely heavily on cameo appearances.
It’s mentioned above, but my favorite too are the drawers and how they try to make each other laugh. That to me proves it doesn’t need to be overly physical to be funny.
I still enjoy Chono appearance and other regular guests, but some big name guests are a little too much.
It seems that the bigger budget they have the less funny the Batsu game is. They should go back to the roots and leave the whole comedy thing to gaki members again instead of cameos and crazy props. The best parts of the newer Batsu games were always drawers because the whole team had some space to interact together, but even that was kinda ruined in Airport batsu. Sure the drawings of Hamada and photoshoped pictures were nice try… but do you remember Police batsu and bananas in the Hamada’s drawer? I mean… who knew? come on… it was just a bunch of bananas. Or that piece of tape or just simple trash. They’ve always managed to turn it into the comedy gold. Not because of the cleverness of the prop or the popularity of cameo, but because of the MASTERFUL improvisation skills of gaki members. That’s why I love their stuff.
Maybe the Japanese audience demands the high-profile cameo guests now, maybe gaki members are just getting too tired to do all the comedy by themselves and they just want to be able to kick back a little and be also entertained by their friends from show business. Maybe the whole crew (or more likely the sponsors) are afraid nobody would find the low budget (or "raw") style of the first two Spa Batsu games entertaining enough when the whole Batsu thing grew so large now. Either way from the point of view of a non-japanese viewer such as myself it feels like that with the bigger explosions, more expensive gags and more famous cameos the Batsu games are slowly and steadily losing their unique charm.
Don’t get me wrong, I still loved the Airport batsu. It’s miles ahead of other forms of variety shows or stuff like that from all over the world. But I can’t help to think the latest "fancy" bigger=better nature of the few newer Batsu games is more of an obstacle instead of help to overall entertaining value.
To put it simply: Just lock the gaki members into one room, give them some space and amazing things will happen.
[quote="joker":35mrxo5u]i beg to differ, unless u want accident in the batsu games like serious injury… all the casts are getting older and older, their body is not the same as they are 10 years ago… if you grow up watching them, you will still enjoy their show not missing a slight excitement at all…
– 19.05.2012, 10:26 –
@Vaga the show is intended for Japanese audience and not foreigner, even most of us subbers dont understand those cameo[/quote:35mrxo5u]
I agree, I’m surely not suggesting something that puts their health in danger. I’m sure that they can come up with various funny and creative punishments which contestants would want to avoid but that are harmless. Also I’m not criticizing them, I know I’m not in position to complain since I’ve never contributed to the production (even though I would love to ), I pretty much enjoy their shows, just throwing my 2 cents.
Does anyone have an idea who writes the batsu games? it’s obviously a bunch of other comedians…but are they back room writers or are they the comedians that appear of the gaki programs?
I personally had a much greater time watchin’ both osen batsu games than the recent ones. I still had a great time though’ and laughed my ass off sometimes …
the problem is that since the moment where all five members started attending the batsugames, things became more redundant. I believe the producers lost the reason why they did batsu games in the first place.
The early batsugames, both in 90’s and early 00’s , were made because somebody lost a bet or a game, and had to be punished for loosing it. like the electric wall thing, or the relay race, or the giant plates falling over their heads … There was a reason to all batsugames, and it was funnier because we felt that they were being punished. today there is no reason for a batsu game, they just do the batsu without reason for getting punished…
Lets not forget that they are getting older and that they may not be able to do a "physical realted game", but they can at least do some kind of game or bet during an episode in the fall that would decide who will be punished… and also push the cast more towards "self-destruction" like when they make each other laugh in their room. The funniest parts of the recent batsu games were definitely when they were doing funny things in the waiting room with their desks … so it would be great if they put more tricks in the rooms, not just a few things in the drawers…
I’ve mentioned this in similar topics in the past, but I think redundant might not be the correct word to describe it.
The Batsu games from Hospital onwards, have become pretty much routine. They use the same segments, but with a different setting. I still lmao every year, don’t get me wrong, but I do miss the innovative aspects of older batsu’s and I don’t laugh as hard as much as with older ones.
While watching the more recent batsu’s for the first time, I catch myself going "Ah, Tanaka found a dvd, thai-kick time!", or "Ah, I bet during this sketch, Yamazaki gets slapped by Chouno." etc, etc…
What is getting boring though, is the execution of the regular no laughing punishment, which hasn’t changed since the Police batsu.
"Routine" is a definitely a more accurate description than "redundant"
[quote="sarutobi":cu60gxib]What is getting boring though, is the execution of the regular no laughing punishment, which hasn’t changed since the Police batsu.[/quote:cu60gxib]
That’s true but honestly, if I were one of them, I would rage-quit on the spot if they brought back the blow darts. 8D
I can’t think of a punishment as easy to execute and painful, yet relatively harmless as the butt-smacks. Slippers to the head?
Actually, you know what would be great? Combine two of the classics into one special–a 24-hour Pie Hell set in an onsen The pies would stay out of the hot spring (getting foodstuff in the spring water would be a major faux-pas) but it’d give them a chance to periodically wash up, only to return to clothes full of cream. FUND THIS
I really love the Yamazaki vs Chono stuff and the unscripted stuff is hilarious. Some of the stuff where they had people run obstacle courses I didn’t find funny at all. The stuff where they’re alone for a while though and talking to each other is great, especially when they’re trying to set each other up. I did also notice that they seem very similar now, my fav is probably the high school one.