00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
Yay!
So you're eating your chocolate.
I'm eating a good dive of chocolate that Kaka-chan gave me.
Yeah.
I think you got yours too?
I did.
Right? Have you had them?
Uh, no.
That's what I expected.
I gave it to someone actually.
Oh, okay.
Got it, got it.
So, thank you Kaka-chan for the good dive of chocolate.
It's very good.
Is that a good one?
Yeah, it's a good...
I know the name.
It's a good dive of chocolate.
You don't know what it is?
I know that's an expensive one.
It's an expensive chocolate.
How different from like usual Ghana chocolate?
Well, I can't tell the difference.
Okay.
I mean, you're talking to a guy who doesn't have a very sensitive taste buds.
Okay.
I enjoy the Ghana's as much as the Godiva's.
Alright.
So...
Okay, but it's Godiva so...
Right, it's good. It tastes really good.
Okay, because it's Godiva, huh?
Because it's Godiva chocolate.
Blindfold me and make me taste the Godiva and the...
Ghana?
Ghana. I probably won't be able to tell the difference.
Okay.
Okay.
Alright.
So, I've got a little line message from Ai-san.
As usual because you got your line account in public, right?
Yes.
Not the one we... our line.
Yes.
Our official line.
Our official line.
By the way, that exists.
Yeah.
And if you guys want to follow them, please do.
It's a little bit confusing but that...
It's very confusing, right?
Yeah.
But Yama-chan has his own private line.
Yeah, my own line account.
Right.
Which is in public.
In public.
And I use that to actually communicate with him like the everyday stuff, right?
Yes, the same one.
Right.
So, Ai-san sent...
Ai-san.
Sent a message for me.
Okay.
Have you watched the M1 Grand Prix?
Have you watched the M1 Grand Prix the other day?
Do you accept jokes like Japanese manga and new drama from Americans?
Ah, that's a good question.
Yeah, thank you Ai-san.
That's a good question.
That was a very good question.
Can we just rewind a little bit with the line thing?
I think that was way too realistic there.
I think our improv was a little bit too realistic.
Just to get it down guys, there is no line account.
The official line account of KENZENGASHIMA do exist but Yama-chan's don't.
Because we've been getting DMs saying that, "Where is Yama-chan's line?"
Like for real.
So, there you go.
I just want to get that there.
Right, right.
That's important.
Just like, people believe.
Right.
People do believe.
This might be the first time listening to the Fogas, right?
And then people would be like, "Oh, where can I get Yama-chan's information?"
That's not good.
So, there you go.
The only place that we can accept the DMs is from DMs or Instagram.
03:02
Okay, so to be honest, this is from that Instagram.
Okay, right.
Just for real.
For real, it's Instagram DM.
Right.
So, talk about this.
"Did you watch the M1 Grand Prix the other day?
Do you think Japanese comedies and new TV series are funny to Americans?"
Yes.
That's a really good question.
And this is a very deep kind of topic I want to talk about.
The comedy, right?
The difference in comedy between Japan and the US.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
There's an absolute difference there.
Okay.
There is no bokeh and tsukomi.
In the United States?
No, there is no bokeh and tsukomi.
Wow.
It's just...
I don't know.
There is no bokeh in the first place.
There may be a tsukomi, but there's no bokeh, right?
Oh, really?
Bokeh exists when tsukomi is there.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah.
It doesn't...
Yeah.
It doesn't make sense if there was no bokeh.
Does that make sense to you?
Right, right.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah.
Right.
But in the US, you don't need a bokeh.
You can say something funny, but it's not waiting for it to...
It doesn't need a reply from the tsukomi for it to make sense.
Okay.
So...
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's a...
I think that's the big difference, the obvious difference.
I know some TV shows.
It's kind of one host.
It's hosting a show and do some stand-up comedy kind of thing and talk without no one.
He talks and that's all.
He makes laugh and that's all.
That's the American style comedy.
But in Japan, like she mentioned, M-1 or shinkigeki, it's a kind of group comedy, at least two people.
One is bokeh, say some strange thing, and other one say like, no, that's the right things and that's funny.
That's maybe Japanese style.
Right, that you nailed it right there.
That's like the two main things between the countries.
So, right.
So stand-up comedy is the mainstream in the US.
But is no group comedy existing in the US?
Like, what about Simpsons?
Is that comedy?
Simpsons?
Yeah.
How does that work?
Simpsons is a kind of like...
It's a black joke kind of comedy.
You know what I'm saying?
06:00
Black joke comedy is another huge part of the comedy culture in US.
They make fun of people and that's funny.
That's the culture.
And Simpsons is not tsukkomi.
I haven't really seen Simpsons for me to feel comfortable talking about it.
But as far as I've headline read on YouTube and stuff like that, I don't think Simpsons has a tsukkomi.
Have you seen a Simpsons with a tsukkomi or something?
I have not.
No?
Right.
I don't think the Japanese people would feel funny towards the American comedies and vice versa.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
What about Friends?
It's a little bit comedy drama.
Friends.
Like Family Guy.
Family Guy maybe.
Or Full House.
Yeah.
Something like that.
I think Full House also has a different taste of comedy, of humor than Japan.
You've seen Full House, right?
No.
No?
How about Friends?
I've seen a clip of Friends.
Actually I don't.
You've never seen Friends?
No.
Have you seen any of the US comedy films?
How about Ted?
Yeah, I did.
You've seen Ted?
Yeah.
You thought that was funny?
Like...
Did you think that was like...
It was a little bit too dirty to me.
Yeah, it was very dirty.
You know, I'm a little bit of a Polish gentleman.
I don't know what you're talking about there.
Okay, let's go.
Yeah.
You keep going.
You know, it was a little bit dirty to me.
Okay.
Like too many throwing ups.
Ah, gotcha.
And too many...
Like...
But I understand that.
You can understand it.
Do you think the Japanese people can understand it?
Like, we can understand the situation way, but not the words.
They like...
Like jokes that they are trying to do.
Right.
You know, that's really difficult for Japanese people to understand.
Right, right, right.
But we can understand this whole situation is funny.
Ah, okay, okay.
Right.
Because films like TED and a lot of the Hollywood comedy movies, a lot of the jokes are done
in a...
How do you say?
In a...
It's a play on words.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
That's really difficult for Japanese people.
Right, right.
Like someone say, "Wow, that must be just me, but style."
You know.
Right.
That's really difficult for Japanese people to understand.
Because we don't know how just me, but is.
Right, right.
So, yeah, I'm sure that's one thing that Japanese people probably won't feel funny towards.
09:06
And...
Like if you're talking with friends, let's move away from the mainstream media comedy.
If you're just talking with friends, like a friendly conversation.
Like you and I, we talk in Japanese and we laugh, right?
We talk and we laugh.
Yeah.
And the things that we laugh at in Japan, I think it's...
You can understand that, right?
I think the most of the audience can understand.
But in the US, the things we laugh at is like...
I'm... I think they're like, you know...
Yeah, this is very hard to explain.
This is like...
Right.
Like I feel like the black jokes are also a big difference with Japanese friendly conversation humor.
Even if it was in a friend conversation, you say...
We would make fun of each other and feel it's funny.
Wow.
Like, it's like ironic, being ironic is also like a part of culture.
Yeah, that's maybe something we Japanese don't usually do, maybe.
Right.
But when I was in Kansai, people did that kind of...
Like say ironic things to each other and make laugh.
Maybe that's a little bit the same.
Probably. I think that's really similar.
Like a Chinese person is there and a dog is there.
And then you'd be like, "Oh, hey, are you not going to eat this?"
Like that's racial.
Yeah.
That's racial and to the Americans, maybe a bit funny.
If you say it in the right context.
Right.
Like I'm doing a very poor job at explaining the American humor right now.
But that's the best I got.
Yeah.
But I remember when I went to...
Not in the United States, but like France.
I went to France, it's a little bit same comedy culture as the United States.
I felt at the beginning, like French people were really, really like, like,
12:01
saying I was thinking like, why they say such things to me?
That's so mean.
But it was comedy.
Right.
They were just being funny.
Yeah.
Not trying to be mean or anything.
Yeah.
But this saying like racial things to me, like about my eyes, maybe about my food.
Like, you know, that's kind of racial things.
But so I was I felt that's really mean to me.
And I was angry about that.
I got mad.
But maybe it was a comedy thing.
Yeah, it was probably was.
Like I used to like whenever I smile, people would be like, where's your eyes, Kevin?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now I can understand that.
But it's a little bit offensive.
Yeah.
First time Japanese culture being told that.
Right.
Definitely get it.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
So there is a big difference.
Okay.
And well, do you think American people understand these Japanese manzai?
No, probably not.
No.
No.
Okay.
I want to do a better job at explaining.
That's kind of kuyashi.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for listening again, guys.
