Reality TV shows are a way to quick fame but sometimes, things can go south like they did, in the case of this Japanese comedian. The tale of Tomoaki Hamatsu aka Nasubi isn’t for weak minds to endure. In search of fame, Nasubi signed up for the Susunu! Denpa Shonen, which roughly translates as ‘Do Not Proceed! Crazy Youth’, which ran from 1998 to 2002. The premise of the show was that it placed participants in extremely tough situations and recorded their road to survival. The gameshow began by kidnapping Nasubi and caging him naked in an apartment that just had a bathroom and an empty kitchen.
According to LadBible, the comedian was given the challenge to raise ¥1 million (approximately Rs 5 lakh) with the limited things provided to him including a few magazines with sweepstakes. With no food or clothes, Nasubi’s tortuous survival journey was live-streamed for a period of 15 months. Reportedly, during the initial stage of the challenge began the comedian was given tiny pieces of bread which eventually stopped after the first few weeks.
Nasubi was inside the apartment house for 335 days before he finally reached the target amount. He was rewarded with a trip to Korea by producers to celebrate the milestone. Post the vacation, he was once again put inside a similar apartment to raise money. Dubbed the ‘most evil’ live stream, seemingly 16 million people from all over the world tuned in to watch Nasubi’s struggle to make money. The task given to him was to raise money for his travel back to Tokyo, and the makers levelled up the challenge by adding the twist of flying back in first-class tickets. It took him another four months to complete the challenge.
On his arrival in Japan, the comedian was once again placed in another apartment. Having done this multiple times, Nasubi took off his clothes to raise money again, unbeknownst that his room was actually a box kept on the stage of the show. The walls of the box fell down once the comedian was naked and his appearance was streamed in front of thousands of live audiences. That marked the end of the game show. In an interaction with style Koriyama, Nasubi opened up about his deteriorated physical and mental health, “Everything was harsh, and every day was like hell back then. I’d rather die than feel like this."
A TikTok user shared his story online, after which internet users have been condemning the ‘torturing’ format of the Japanese show and many comparing it to Squid Game.
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