Yesterday evening Niels, Matijs, Robert and I went to attend a live broadcast of
Kamikaze TV; an experimental show made by BNN.
The show revolved around Japanese entertainment; focussing on the more extreme parts, like the painful slapstick you often see flying around on YouTube.
They had some guests talking about the different aspects of the Japanese entertainment industry, of which Gamekings-guru Steven Saunders, comedian Arie Koomen and Japan-expert Hans van der Lugt had the best comments, with an honourable mention for Paul Römer regarding the game shows.
Renate Verbaan was way out of her league; although she did the game show
Lost in Tokyo a few years ago, she's quite clueless about what Japanese people moves (or not). Her ideas and images of the Japanese are based on her experiences during that show, and indeed; Japanese people won't talk to foreigners who are shoving a camera in their face while said foreigner is basically stepping on their toes.
I think BNN could have done better with someone else (not me, by the way; apparently I'm too old for the BNN audience); I guess that about 80% of the audience knew more about Japanese culture than she did.
A guy named Valerio tried to imitate some games from Japanese game show, which were funny, albeit a little forced.
The maggots they used were funnier as they were on the floor, wriggling their way to wherever. That, and the mad cleaning scramble which ensued once the camera's were off.
All in all a fun experience, but I feel that BNN could have done better.
Still, it could have been a lot worse, so here's hoping that there will be more Japan-related television in the future.
Cheers, K.