Althouse: We are the world. Really!

March 3, 2008

We are the world. Really!

Especially Japan.

(I got this link from a Snapped Shot post that features a completely unrelated but very funny film clip about a large tree.)

13 comments:

Triangle Man said...: This really hit the spot! Thank you!; 3/3/08, 3:26 PM
Moose said...: OK, that was... disturbing.; 3/3/08, 3:30 PM
Unknown said...: the tree clip was more disturbing--it didn't look like anyone was moving in the car after the tree fell on it.; 3/3/08, 3:31 PM
dbp said...: rossi said...
the tree clip was more disturbing--it didn't look like anyone was moving in the car after the tree fell on it.

3:31 PM

No. If you look more carefully, you can see the guy get out after the tree falls. What is incredible is that it was obvious the tree would hit the truck. The truck was pulling on the tree and much closer to the base of the tree than the tree's height.

Should be a Darwin award--except I think you have to be awarded those posthumously.; 3/3/08, 3:43 PM
Palladian said...: Are Japanese people the only people left in the world who are allowed to do blackface?

God, "We Are The World" is a horrible, terrible, awful song.; 3/3/08, 3:52 PM
ricpic said...: Gee, Japs are just as scuzzy as the rest of the world.; 3/3/08, 3:57 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: No-one does weird like the Japanese.

Hey, Althouse, someone hacked your site and put up a stranger's picture.

And sometimes pajamas are just pajamas.; 3/3/08, 4:14 PM
Synova said...: I like the Japanese because they're so completely confident about their superiority that they can perfect camp in a way no else possibly could.; 3/3/08, 4:15 PM
knox said...: "USA for Africa" and the whole "We Are the World" thing makes me so uncomfortable I practically get the heebiejeebies. All those rock stars falling all over themselves trying to out-sing/upstage one another. No one escapes that video and still looks cool.; 3/3/08, 4:31 PM
rhhardin said...: Fans of Faure will like this this Japanese group

Nothing is the same in Japanese.

The best part is the audience, which adopts Western concert-going seriousness.

I would recommend following Radio Japan every day (now online!) except their programs have suffered severe budget cuts, and they no longer have enough interview slots to reach out to the truly weird experts to fill them that they did in days gone by.; 3/3/08, 4:42 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Karaoke at Althouse!; 3/3/08, 5:09 PM
Jeremy said...: I don't know, knox. Whoever it was that was visibily annoyed by Cindy Lauper (Huey Lewis maybe?) looks ok in my book.; 3/3/08, 5:35 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I used to live in Japan and they're a lot more weird now than they were then. Kids today, ya gotta love 'em. In this video the Cindi Lauper impersonator is my favorite. It compelled me to watch five Cindi Lauper videos on youtube.

I blame Takeshi Kitano for indulging and encouraging innate Japanese weirdness. I'm rather hooked on Extreme Elimination Challenge (Takeshi's Castle, in Japan) I'm surprised how willing the contestants are to muddy themselves, and how so many of them lack strength enough to hold their own weight by their hands -- they'll grab a trapeze and fall directly into mud. Others are so spry they're able to dart across a series of rolling barrels while being fired at, but the chubby girls, still willing to give it a go, get wedged ridiculously between them. This, and other imaginative challenges. Throughout, two commentators dressed in faux samurai costumes with strange wigs steadily deliver surprisingly lewd American colloquialisms. It's hilarious.; 3/3/08, 6:59 PM