A long time back, while exploring the depths of YouTube and learning about the Japanese rapper PUNPEE, I came across the song above. I was really curious about the song so I googled it and found out that it's the opening titles for a Japanese TV variety show called Wednesday's Downtown. 

So down the rabbit hole I went. It wasn't long until I realized that I've come across something of a gem! :)

Wednesday’s Downtown 

Is a Japanese TV show on TBS hosted by legendary comedy duo, Downtown (Masatoshi Hamada and Hitoshi Matsumoto).

Every week, they discuss theories sent in by viewers and guest entertainers. Then, with the power of TV and a diligent staff, They give it all they can to give their viewers the real answers.

The twist is that the all the theories are... amusingly layman. Sometimes very dumb. Not very scientific at all. Something nobody cares about but is interesting to explore. It's almost like r/nostupidquestions meets Mythbusters. 

To see what I mean, let’s look at an episode.

Testing Scenarios from Manga and Anime

On one episode, a viewer sent this:

"The chalkboard eraser prank from manga and anime has a 0% success rate." 

(note: This is a prank where you put a chalkboard eraser on top of a door, so when someone opens it, the eraser falls and hits them on the head. On top of that, they also get a chalk dust bath from the eraser.) 

When this prank is done irl, the eraser falls from the door, but it never hits the victim on the head. It always lands in front of them. So there's no way this is gonna work. 

Wednesday’s Downtown boldly takes the opposite stance. 

Their take on the theory:

"The chalkboard eraser prank from manga and anime has a 0% 100% success rate." 

So the research begins!

The first step to any discovery is asking an expert. So who do they find to help? Of course, it's Rikao Yanagita from The Fantasy Science Research Institute! 

I know that name is ridiculous but Don't you dare laugh!  

Rikao is a smart and reputable man (/srs). He's a scientist that's written many many books about how sci-fi in animes, mangas and movies could be possible in real life. 

Here's an article of him dissecting the science of Dio's The World time stop ability from Jojo's Bizarre Adventures. Here's his book on Attack on Titan too. 

Just like Downtown, he also entertains questions sent in by sci-fi fans.

Overall, it looks like they have never found a more perfect guy for the job!

Rikao does the calculations and says that they need about an 11 ft door for the prank to work on a 5'5" person. Of course the staff finds a door with that height!! 

They load the eraser at the top of the door, had the victim walk through it and... it lands perfectly on his noggin!! 

The prank kinda hurts though. The chalkboard eraser has a chance of flipping to the hard part and bonking you on the head with that bit. But wow... Rikao!

So thank you Wednesday's Downtown for doing the research on this prank. Now all I need is an 11ft door and have my highschool teacher walk right through it so I can finally watch him be a fool for once lol.

But wait, there's more!

As mentioned before, Wednesday’s Downtown is a variety show. It has a sprinkling of segments, pranks and challenges on top of the usual theorizing. Which is good news because you'll be able to expand your knowledge beyond theory.

Why not learn about playing baseball on bicycles, playing golf in the middle of the freaking city, going on a date with a famous idol with only half a suit without getting caught (twice!) and who will win? People with a combined weight of 170kg vs. an actual sumo wrestler? All challenges that need to be experienced for the sake of entertainment knowledge…

While writing this post, I just watched comedians be lured into an empty track and field oval with absolutely no information why. Then they were told to go to bed, and suddenly, 4 hours later, they were woken up from sleep and asked to run a baton relay. Beautiful.

This feels familiar…

If you're feeling a somewhat familiar tinge in some of Downtown's antics, that's because their humor has migrated to the west before! 

Downtown is part of Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! A little show with a little segment called Silent Library. The segment was made into a full on show by MTV in 2009, with the same name! If you're familiar with the No Laughing Batsu challenges (basically, you laugh you lose hardcore mode) they're responsible for that too! 

So they're not just into silly things, they are pros that at doing silly things. (This is a silly sentence).

If you don't fancy the humor, maybe the cultural content will interest you. 

You'll see that Japan has their own flavor of humor and style of television. One glaring one is Japan’s version of creating mood on the show. They love to tell you how to feel about what you're watching. Whether it's through mini-screen reactions, onscreen text, live panel commentary, or constant sound cues. This might seem chaotic but all these elements actually work together harmoniously.

Japan's television nuances also extend to the content of the show. Downtown is a manzai duo, a type of duo comedy that's been around in Japan since forever. The duo is composed of the Bokke (the funny one) and the the Tsukkomi (the straight man). They play off of each other to make jokes. 

Manzai is embedded into Japanese culture, its apprenticeship and competitions keep the tradition thriving.

Even within the silliness, there's always something wholesome beneath it. I watched an episode with a theory that went “some of today's youth don't recognize what brass knuckles are”. I think Japan used to have troubled teens, and the fact that some weapons are unrecognizable to some Japanese youths today, it makes me feel like times have changed for the better. Good for them. (By the way, the final result of that test is “you can cook fish on an expander” which is not even about brass knuckles anymore lmao).

There's something that can be picked up about Japan in these shows even if it's mostly jokes and dumb things. If you feel like sharing your own observations, go on ahead in the comments. I would love to hear them!

Where is it then?

This is probably your next question. It's a little complicated.

I want the fans to keep their site (i love watching stuff on there). So here's what i'm allowed to share. I'm gatekeeping the site a little bit. I am really sorry and I have hope in your personal scavenger hunt of Wednesday Downtown content.

And if you just want a good summary, 100% of the content in this blog post is also from this video made by George of Japan on youtube. He summarizes four episodes of Wednesday's Downtown, complete with Japanese context. It's almost like we've watched an episode.

His channel also goes over other japanese variety shows and he shares a lot of background information about Japan’s comedy icons. It's very cool!

Closing

And so this is where I'll leave you. 

I hope you enjoyed this post about random trivia and Japanese TV.

I think I caught a craving for fun shows from asia. So if you have a rec that you love, please let me know! Otherwise, feel free to share your 100% true knowledge or super dumb theories that you wish you had answers to!

To close, here's a clip of them trying to prove the theory:

“Japanese comedians can make American audiences laugh.”

Until the next blog post! Thank you for reading!  :DDD