Kinda hurts to see that the core attribute of the batsu games is in danger. I felt absolutely in love with the first onsen batsu, that thing to this day is an absolute fucking gem. I know they work their asses a lot, it is not a simply make pain then make people laugh its deeper than that, hamada schemes are memorable to this day. On the other hand we all know that the batsus are now a set formula with a few tweaks here and there, does it kill all the fun? Nope, but we have to acknowledge that they are turning old and no longer can make all kinds of crazy stuff that they did. I feel like when a show like this comes along the absolute golden years are the improvisation years, i dunno but i just love some old gaki no tsukai stuff.
Basically this. I started to feel the repetitive nature of the batsus around the American Police one, paired that with having to resort to surprise celebrities and basically our 5 fellow Gakis getting used to the ass smacking (lack of reaction in contrast to the early Batsus) made me practically drop the ball on them. It could’ve been reworked into something like having 5 celebrities being the ones to not laugh and just have Downtown, Cocorico and Yama-chan do the jokes, unfortunately the BPO had to kill the fun with the physical comedy pretty much. 
Yeah a key element to comedy is surprise (i.e. the two story theory of jokes) yet we got the same stuff year after year. The same chouno slaps for Hosei, the same Thai kicks for Tanaka, the same Oni chase stuff, the same late night spooky bit, etc.
The highlights of the batsu games were things like the Endo family Ashita ga Arusa song, Macchan’s exploding drawer, Hamada’s murder mystery Thai Kick, Endo’s fall into the pit, the not-quite-motionless corpse examination, Hamada’s wife in the hotel video, etc. None of that was routine. None of that was expected. Endo’s trial was genuinely the greatest thing Japanese TV has produced (aside from Monkey) and the last thing we were expecting to see.
The concept works, they just need to inject something unexpected into it.
Another year without Waratte wa ikenai…
Ernie stopped posting too, so no Gaki episodes too.
I don’t want it to be over.
Is it really over? No New Year Batsu, ever again? Not even a New Year Show of any sort?
Japanese TV was already bad, now they’ve finally killed even the few (and far in between) good things.
I literally just came back-- he stopped?!