I’m talking about the “Why Japanese people” guy in case you didn’t know. I don’t have anything against him, I think he’s doing a pretty good job nowadays introducing American style investing to Japan(build up an emergency fund and put everything in VTSAX/VTI) but I still can’t figure out how he got so popular from a silly catchphrase. I guess Japanese people just find short simple catchphrases that fit into their stereotype of Americans hilarious? There’s also Ike Nwala(?) with his “taxi!” thing which is pretty similar.
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I think it’s cause he almost inverts the standard american humour formula. He does standup in Japanese and it’s designed for a Japanese audience. Even the catchphrase is designed to be understandable to people speaking Japanese. I love him lol.
Not my cup of tea but you got to give the guy credit – he’s probably making a good living out of it.
He’s an interesting guy. Worked in the same building complex as him in the early 2000s…Fully fluent and IIRC was working for TI (strangely enough one of the folks I hired a few years back also worked for TI, I keep being surprised they’re still in business and have actual factories in Japan.rather than just sales offices).
Anyway ran into him a few times, he was an amateur stand up comedian. So when I came back a decade or so later he’d graduated from amateur to professional status. I mean I honestly doubt he’s making more as a talento than he was as a tech guy so if he’s happy good for him.
He’s way better than that fucking Mr Yabatan guy, he’s wretched and I can’t stand him.
Remember Japanese comedy thrives on silly catchphrases. Not for me but he’s a very smart guy who worked extremely hard to get where he is.
Because he followed the Japanese comedy formula of creating a popular catchphrase routine.
“Why Japanese people.”
「あったかいんだからぁ」
「そんなの関係ねぇ」
And the list can go on for all eternity.
I think I remember Atsugiri saying that he made the choice to “leave” comedy after his rise to fame because generally comedians get their “one hit wonder” become a タレント on some variety shows and then rest in obscurity. To try to maintain popularity as a comedian in Japan is extremely difficult.
His comedy skits were really witty and fun. The catchphrase is more of a punchline for the jokes, and not a standalone quote.
I always thought it strange that someone who was clearly intelligent and had achieved success in a different field (finance, in his case, apparently) would choose Pulling a Surprised YouTube Face and Wearing Out A Single Catchphrase for a living, but that’s the life of an 一発屋.
Many years ago I met a Japanese woman on a train. She spoke very good English and we got talking about this and that. She said that while Japanese comedy seems one-dimensional and childish, there are also forms of entertainment that are much more subtle and intelligent. I know someone who’s an amateur performer of rakugo, and that’s definitely more understated and subtle – then again, compared to the ridiculous overacting and “wipe” (the face of the talento in the corner of the screen which instructs the viewers how to react correctly to whatever’s going on), it doesn’t take much to be more understated and subtle than that.
Then again, given how stupid the average person is (to borrow a concept from George Carlin), why would anyone do “subtle and intelligent” when you can achieve your 15 minutes of fame with a single phrase which you repeat mindlessly? He obviously found something that worked and ran with it.
He holds the first level of the Kanji Proficiency Test. His knowledge of the Japanese language is far greater than the average Japanese.
Japan loves their comedians that are famous for one line.