April 09, 2004
I think I'm turning Japanese

Last night the roommates and some friends from work and I went glow bowling. Now if glow bowling is not an insane enough activity to engage in, with the weird shoes, the glow in the dark balls, and the loud music try adding in clips from Most Extreme Elimination challenge, courtsey of Spike TV on big screens over the alleys.

I think for minutes at a time we just stopped and stared at the screen out of sheer hilarity. The show takes clips from the Japanese show Takeshi's Castle which is described as the following:

Takeshi's Castle is a game show that was originally made in Japan. The star of the show is Takeshi, who plays a prince who sets a series of tough challenges for the brave contestants who try to storm the castle whilst being lead by General Lee (or General Tani). There are rarely any winners on the show (around 5 have been counted).

Basically with the music pounding and no sound for the TV all we could see was that it was some bizarre Japanese show where a man dressed up in some weird outfits and pranced around with a strange wig that looked like an alien head piece who then orders contestants to hurt themselves. We continually saw them jumping onto weird contraptions trying to get to another weird contraption and then falling into some moat. The tape would then rewind and we would get the joy of seeing them do it back-wards.

It was the most bizarre thing ever, and my explanation of it is inadequate compared to the reality of this strange, insane show, but I felt the need to try and share it with you all. Only the Japanese could come up with something so silly, brutal, and crazy all at the same time. Beneath their proper demure exterior and/or stereotype, those people are just plain wild.

Posted by nuala at April 09, 2004 09:04 PM
Comments

As an avid watcher of MXC, I recommend it to one and all who enjoy watching Japanese people injuring themselves while engaging in preposterous and humiliating contests. The original show is weird enough, and the nonsensical commentary tacked on by the Americans makes it that much better.

Hilarity and absurdity at it's finest. Just as the Japanese intended.

Posted by: kati on April 10, 2004 01:21 AM

I had heard about MXC for quite a while and just caught it the other night as I'm not an avid watcher of Spike TV and was pleasantly surprised. It's like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 meets American Galdiators.

Posted by: Clint on April 10, 2004 04:15 AM
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