At first, and I still do in a way, I thought the "Smoke break" tagger was hilarious. After seeing it a second time, I began thinking, that is wasn’t as amusing as I was seeing it to be. I mean, they grabbed Tanaka, and forced him into a smoke break. Does he smoke? I don’t recall ever seeing him do so. I know he even said that the smoke break one was "a good one". I suppose this one, I was thinking, if I was in Tanaka’s shoes right there, I wouldn’t have been too happy with it, since, personally, no offense to smokers here, I don’t like it, and am personally against it (for myself). Also, since we know Nicotine is addictive, it really makes me wonder if this one COULD have gone a liiiiiiittle bit too far? I mean, there could be an explanation for it, like:
It wasn’t a real cigarette
They are all smokers (Which I really don’t believe, especially after hearing one or two quit before, and Matsumoto saying in the latest one, that ‘That is why it is a bad idea to smoke’ or something like that)
or something else. I dunno, like I said, it is still sort of funny to me, but as someone who really would never ever like to be forced into something like that, I just hope that wasn’t a real one or something, and it doesn’t effect Tanaka negatively, like starting an addition he never had or something?
If you watch the Kiki series, there is a sentence at the bottom of the screen saying that they are throwing away empty packages. They do that because people complain that food shouldn’t be wasted.
On another episode of Gaki that involved the usual chinko-machine-type of slapstick physical comedy, they ran, "Don’t worry, those comedians get paid a lot of money" on the screen to mock those politically minded people.
In other batsu games, everyone except Matsumoto ran in stampede when there was a cigarette break. Matsumoto used to smoke, and now says that giving it up was one of the best things he has done.
In my country, as well as many other parts in Europe, smoking is becoming really restrictive due to new legislations. In Japan, you can see a Yasujiro Ozu film about middle class Japan in the 50’s that smoking was a usual habit. In documentaries from the 90’s you could see special rooms in japanese companies destinated to smokers. This can also be seen in many Gnt discussions at the meeting room. Lately, there are some penalties to unhealthy (fat or w/ overweight) employees. I dunno if there is also something dealing with smoking.
What I don’t like is for instance some J-Pop bands smoking inbetween songs or while they are talking with the audience. I consider it disrespectful with the crowd.
Anyhoo, after one drag Tanaka throws the cigarette. Perhaps a thai-kick may cause him more harm.
[quote="atreyu_tiger":2lk1ljt8]In Japan, you can see a Yasujiro Ozu film about middle class Japan in the 50’s that smoking was a usual habit.[/quote:2lk1ljt8]
But, but Chishu Ryu enjoyed a long life (age 88). You get a thankie from me for simply being an Ozu fan.
Jesus, some of you guys are still going on about the thread I made asking about the nudity of children in the show? Why don’t some of you people read what I actually wrote. I’m one of the least PC people on the entire planet, I was simply asking if there is a distinct difference between how America and Japan view the subject. I was simply asking for the sake of learning and gaining more knowledge. I wasn’t harping or complaining about the subject and saying it was wrong like some of you have made it out to be.
Sorry for getting of topic but this is the one of the numerous times I’ve seen the thread referenced in a way that paints American’s as uptight. Not all of us are uptight bible wielding assholes like some of you seem to believe.
[quote="LAWLandMine":339m65sx]this is the one of the numerous times I’ve seen the thread referenced in a way that paints American’s as uptight.[/quote:339m65sx]
Is there any indication that the OP is an American or this thread is specifically about the US?
[quote="nietzchesass":3m693v3h]
What’s gotten too far in our society is political correctness.[/quote:3m693v3h]
I was making reference to the comment you made above in regards to the post I made on the issue of kids in the tag batsu. The OP was never mentioned in my post above.
[quote="flightwing":1959tnfo]as i recall, in one of the batsu games, tanaka stated he is a smoker and unable to quit smoking.
i forgot which batsu game he said that, but im positively sure he stated that.[/quote:1959tnfo]
Downtown Gaki no Tsukai Onsen 2 Batsu around the 47 min mark Tanaka was talking about swiching to a not so strong brand. Don’t know if he still smokes but he once did.
More then likely it was a random punishment thats not so bad. Kind of like that one in the 24 hour Tag where the guys in black made them watch the all black show for whatever amount of time.(Yeah I know they got headbutted the times after that but not the first time.)
Seconding Wolves’ post, Tanaka did smoke at least way back during the Onsen Batsu game time. According to his Japanese Wikipedia article, he is still a smoker (Mild Seven Lights to be specific).
As for whether they went too far, I would say absolutely NOT. Most of the Japanese do not have the same ideals about smoking as Americans (arguably the west) and the health concerns about smoking aren’t as prominent and wide spread as they are here. Smoking is considered fairly natural in Japan, and if you haven’t seen various scenes of groups of TV staff, producers, and the stars all smoking together…watch em. Do I like the fact they’re smoking…not at all…I can only hope they have long healthy careers. But its no doubt that the practice has to be wearing on their lungs (if you watch Lincoln, watch the Batman G6 games after Hamada makes one of his trademark announcements…it’s like he’s hacking up his trachea for a moment there). Now if they had forced Matsumoto to smoke a cigarette in this game…then I could foresee a lot of problems. But that seems unlikely that they would do such a thing in my opinion…they might do crazy things…but I’ve yet to see them throw out someone’s lifestyle choice out the window and force them to do something 100% against their will.