Japanese Brilliance

Japanese society has long been superior to America's in all the most important facets of life: automobiles, consumer electronics, preparation of fish. One area where they have far exceeded us for decades is game shows. Your typical American mocks Japanese game shows as a frenetic extravaganza of nonsensical enthusiasm, but beneath that lie some of the most creative ideas to hit television. American game shows have essentially been identical variations of the same crap, with shows like "Let's Make a Deal" reincarnating as "Deal or No Deal". When Americans can't think of new game shows, they just exactly remake the old ones, like "$25,000 Pyramid" or "To Tell The Truth". (Some shows have just never gone away, like "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy". When I was 8 years old, I used to always wonder at what point Vanna White would be replaced by someone young and hot. Now it appears she's going to do this job until she dies. The older she gets, the creepier it is that she's still doing it.)

Other times, we just straight up jack other country's shows, like "The Weakest Link". I would be in favor of this, if we stole from Japan. Here's a sampling of some great stuff.

Sasuke - Japan's ultimate obstacle course show. It's really just incredible. Here, you can see it on the G4 channel under the name "Ninja Warrior". Check out this clip of the great warrior/fisherman, Makoto Nagano.



Courtesy of Rich, check out this hysterical and incredibly suspenseful "Human Tetris" show, where people who stand on a moving conveyor belt attempt to fit their body in awkward human-shaped holes. You gotta see this, it's unbelievably stupid yet cool.





But if we're talking about unbelievably stupid yet cool - nothing could top this Japanese clip, courtesy of Mike. Be patient with this one - it starts a little slow, but if you don't laugh at this, I give up on you.