I don’t know if this is the so-called “manzai” comedy I’ve heard about, but when consuming Japanese media I often see a type of joke where someone says or does something stupid or outrageous and another person responds by saying “don’t just say/do that stupid or outrageous thing!”
I know manzai involves a straight man and a fool, but is the humor really this… simple? It feels really low effort and pointless. If all it takes to make a joke is for me to say something random and crazy like “I ate a bowl of spiders for breakfast” and for someone else to respond “don’t just eat a bowl of spiders!” or “don’t just casually admit to eating a bowl of spiders!”
Is this really all it is? I’ve never watched any Japanese comedy routines before so I expect that the jokes get a bit more sophisticated than this. Is this kind of joke actually funny? Is it seen as low effort in Japan? Am I missing something here?
by Dakto19942