‘Saturday Night Live JPN’ Set For Debut

COMMENTS (7)

• Actually, from my understanding of it, the Japanese don’t really tolerate much political criticism or do much political comedy or referencing in general. Politics isn’t as popular a subject as it is here, and their comedic styling is heavily different — mostly a straight man and a goofy character from the stand ups and shows I’ve seen. I’ll be very curious to see what the focus of Saturday Night Live JPN is though and the effects if any it has on their political-mindedness of the culture.

  Comment by allDFlavors — Friday June 3, 2011 @ 3:20pm PDT  Reply to this post

• If only there was a way to watch that here… a seizure inducing version of SNL.

  Comment by bd — Friday June 3, 2011 @ 3:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • at least seizure’s count as a reaction. That’s preferable to the yawns and crickets. Do people still watch SNL?

    Comment by CJ — Saturday June 4, 2011 @ 12:27am PDT  Reply to this post

• Wow, I’m a huge SNL fan and had no idea there were international versions a la “The Office.” A part of me thinks it cheapens the American original, but at the end of the day, why not? Maybe we’ll get some funny movies coming out of these countries that we’d enjoy here. Maybe the next Roberto Benigni?! (kidding)

  Comment by Truth-o-Meter — Friday June 3, 2011 @ 4:18pm PDT  Reply to this post

• You can’t really do biting, topical comedy in Japan because libel and defamation laws are different. They are criminal, not civil, which means you don’t even have to pay a lawyer to go after someone. You just complain at your local police station. The definition of “public figure” is extremely narrow. Truth is not necessarily a defense, since deliberately ridiculing someone with the truth is actionable. To the extent that truth is an element of the crime, the burden of proof is on the defendant. You can actually go to jail for doing an insulting movie review, so you never see reviews that are bad. You learn to read between the lines. The 2channel anonymous internet service is incorporated in Singapore and hosted in San Francisco. That’s the only way it can survive.

  I used to think this was horrible, but after living here a while I realize that having a less contentious society does have its benefits, so it’s not a black and white thing.

  And the indigenous comedy is really funny. Forced to avoid the nasty stuff, comedians have come up with some really crazy alternative.

  Comment by Mike — Friday June 3, 2011 @ 8:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I watched the Premire show and it was really good. I live in Japan and have for a couple years. I look forward to seeing how it develops and creates it’s spot in Japanese TV Culture. We here that they plan to have political people and stars alike on the show.. Keep up the good work Gambate!!!!
  It was really good

  Comment by Kent Stipp — Saturday June 4, 2011 @ 7:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• What’s that smell? Oh, it’s failure, again.

  Comment by Bob — Monday June 6, 2011 @ 7:50am PDT  Reply to this post