5 types of Japanese comedy

5 types of Japanese comedy

There are some types of comedy in Japan. I found that Japanese has unique comedy styles from other countries, and I thought it would be fun for you to break them down. I haven’t covered all of the comedy types in Japan, but those are pretty popular.

Starting from Manzai, the most popular kind of comedy, to Suberigei, a bit minor comedy, there are many types of comedy. You can see the country’s culture behind its comedy. And I decided that I would share with you those comedy in Japan. I hope you’ll get an even bit of ideas what comedy is like. 

1. Manzai

Manzai is the closest to the stand-up comedy you see in USA except Manzai always has 2 people during the session of Manzai. Each person has its own role. One is Boke, and another is Tsukkomi. I’ll explain both of them now.

Boke means stupid, foolish, or something like that. In Manzai, Boke is the one making a joke.

Tsukkomi is the one who corrects Boke’s joke in a funny way, so that that Boke will be even funnier emphasized by the Tukkomi. They usually hit with their hands into Boke’s head when Boke makes joke in order to emphasize the Tsukkomi.

Each Manzai has its own style. Therefore, even it’s the same Manzai, you can enjoy the difference of Manzai.

I’ll share 2 groups of my favourite Manzaishies (Poople doing Manzai). Those 2 groups have the very standard form of Manzai.

Give it a try if you could understand :)

オードリー (odori)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2BFQ8k7mII

オードリー is funny. Kasuga (pink vest) is acting Boke as the guy who is a little bit narcissist, and Wakabayashi (black suits) is doing Tsukkomi. 

NONSTYLE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOwRR0cUJyo

NONSTYLE has a very quick style. The combination of Tsukkomi and Boke is very smooth, and they won’t bore you. In fact, they won the contest M-1, which is the competition to decide the No.1 Manzai group held annually.

2. Reaction

Reaction is also one of the big scenes in Japanese comedy. It’s the technique to cause the laugh by showing the reaction to certain things. ( things like riding roller coaster, eating each country’s “unique” food( insects, very stinky food))

There is one guy who is considered No.1 at reaction in Japan. His name is Degawa Tetsuro. I’ll share some of his works with you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpqSkJCcY10

The difficult thing here is that you have to make the reaction watchable. You have to make sure there is no blood coming out and reaction is funny and enjoyable. And his technique of making it funny is way funnier than any of men in Japan in my opinion.

3. Conto

Conto is a comedy style where you set up the place such as police station, school or home. Most of the time, Conto is done with 2 or 3 people. ( you can include more people. But more complicated it is to perform, more people are in the same Conto.) 

What makes Conto different from Manzai is each person acts their roles depending on the situation they set. Let’s say they do Conto in the police station as the set, in that case, one acts as a police officer, and another acts as a thief. The mix of the situation you see everyday, and their sense of humour is very fun to watch.

My favourite Conto below :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0uH20sB3SA

This is the Conto by a group called Rucci. They start with the situation where one of them is trying out a cloth. It’s very repetitive, but funnily addictive for me. They have their very unique sense of humour, and they are Avery god at showing this weird laugh.

4. Suberi

Suberi. It means slipping. And in Japan if you slip at joking, you fail to make a good joke. Some of you have already had this kind of moment where you made a bad joke, and everyone didn’t find it funny. But sometimes the joke is so bad that it actually make people laugh at how bad that joke it. This is what Suberi is. 

Few people do this because it’s just very risky. Apparently the joke is not funny, so the timing to do this is more important than the joke itself. Since it is hard to find the right moment, you barely see this.

There is a guy who’s famous for his Suberi. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1v2DnSvC2Q

This guy called Okada keisuke (岡田圭右）is very famous for his Suberi. He’s very good at doing Suberi even though it is very hard to make it work.

Here you have it!

Those are some famous types of Japanese comedy.

I hope you find it funny, and hopefully you are now interested in Japanese comedy.

There are more of comedy styles in Japan if you’d like to know more of them I’m more than happy to share them with you.

Thank you for reading!