Stop humiliation, violence for cheap laughs, Japan TV watchdog tells comedy shows

A comedian puts on underwear smeared with medication that causes a burning sensation in his groin. An entertainer tries to escape from a deep hole in the ground as his cast mates mock his increasingly frantic efforts to get out. He repeatedly falls but does not sustain any injuries. They left him in the pit for six hours.

These skits, part of standard fare served up by Japanese variety shows, typically rely on action typically considered assault, harassment or bullying in real life for cheap laughs.

But a report released in mid-April from Japan's Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organisation (BPO), the nation's media watchdog, has singled them out for being negative, stopping short of flagging specific broadcasters or programmes.

The report called on broadcasters and producers of such entertainment and comedy shows to avoid footage that "ridicules the mental and physical pain of others", as it may have an "undesired effect on the development of empathy and the view of human beings of the adolescents who watch it".

"The victim may have been informed, to some extent, in advance, but the pain was real and the other actors were ridiculing him for the pain."

Produced by the BPO's Broadcasting and Youth Committee, it further stated that casual violence and humiliation meant for laughs on Japanese television programmes is resulting in bullying among young people.

For 22-year-old professional female wrestler Hana Kimura the effect was fatal. After becoming the target of online abuse for her appearances in the hugely popular Netflix reality drama Terrace House, she took her own life in May 2020.

Culturally, Japanese humour might be best described in a German word: Schadenfreude, that is, taking joy in others' pain or humiliation.

"This sort of comedy is quite common in Japan and uses someone as the target to invoke laughter," said Makoto Watanabe, a professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Sapporo.

"TV companies no longer have big budgets to make programmes so they rely on this sort of violence to make the audience laugh," he said. "It's simple and cheap and still appeals to viewers, although very few young people watch regular television now so these viewers are nearly all older and desensitised to those old forms of comedy."

Still abusive skits, despite fewer youngsters watching TV

In the 1980s, a show called Za Gaman shocked some Western audiences. Typically, it relied on such footage as rats placed on contestants' stomachs, people being dragged over stony ground on their bottoms and holding a block of ice between their feet.

In fact, 60 Minutes Australia called the show's stunts "worthy of the Spanish Inquisition".

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"Za Gaman", which means "endure" in Japanese, is no longer on air. Yet such abusive skits persist, with performers regularly receiving a kick or slap on the back of the head from another actor.

Gavin Blair, a long-time contributor to The Hollywood Reporter, said Japan's comedy scene remains dominated by "manzai" - stand-up that typically features a "straight guy" and a "funny guy". The straight guy invariably takes a whack to the back of his head, or worse, he added.

He said: "This form of entertainment goes back centuries in Japan but it is still propagated by the Yoshimoto Kogyo studios in Osaka to this day." It is extremely formulaic and little changed in decades, Blair notes, with Yoshimoto Kogyo even operating a "school" for up-and-coming comedians that further reinforces the belief that a quick slap gets laughs.

"Even today, this sort of 'comedy' makes up 90 per cent of television entertainment shows. There is still virtually no political comedy - out of fear of offending someone important - or sketches, sitcoms or satirical comedy," he added. "Hitting people is very safe, in a sense."

When "manzai" humour makes violence acceptable

Watanabe says the slaps in a "manzai" performance or on television comedy shows should not necessarily be seen as violence, but as a punchline to a gag or to keep the show moving.

The problem occurs, he admits, when young people do not see a "comic slap" for what it is, enabling it to be turned into bullying.

"We have seen less of such violence or belittling of people on television in recent years, but it is certainly still there," he said. "But it is clear that it can still cross over to young people who copy the stars' actions without appreciating the context."

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In fact, he pointed out, the BPO's recommendations largely miss the target, as young people are increasingly disinclined to watch regular television programmes.

"Youngsters use the internet or social media for entertainment, and there is virtually no surveillance by public authorities of the images that appear there," he said. "We have seen that bullying in the online space is common, and very difficult to stop."

The Hollywood Reporter's Blair also highlighted the bigger question of whether such humour is still what viewers want.

"It's clearly quite a culturally specific comedy, as such comedy had disappeared from screens elsewhere in the world by the 1960s," he said. "I wonder if this is really what audiences here want to see, and perhaps that is one of the reasons for the decline in viewership."

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.