Utaban Oddity

Ever the Merry Pranksters, the Video Editing team of the hilarious UTABAN show featuring Ishibashi Takaaki and Nakai Masahiro as co-hosts of the classic music show would take jsut about ANY clip and turn it into something funny, like that clip of Nakai kicking Iida Kaori's butt on air.

On another occasion, Kaori was once again a guest on Utaban along with her counterparts Ishiguro Aya and Yaguchi Mari as TAMPOPO. Seemed like just about every time the girls were on, SOME kind of prank would be pulled on them (and who can forget the disastrous time they were told to design their own performance?LOL) but on THIS particular time, the zaniness started even before they'd come out!

Instead of simply saying "Tampopo is out next guest", they had a clip of these three guys coming out to perform some kind of rakugo, and when they introduced themselves, the third man referred to himself as "Tampopo" before getting clobbered by the other two guys. Suddenly, the editing team took that clip and turned it into a mind-blowing LSD trip montage of that guy saying "Tampopo Desu!" and seeing stars! I was like WHAT THE...?! 

  Later, we re-watched it, and I mean to tell you, we were dying of laughter! When I asked him what in the WORLD they were trying to get with this barrage of video clip edits and if there was some kind of deeper meaning to it, wiping away tears of laughter, he replied, "It is what it is." LOL


Poor Tampopo had no idea they'd been introduced in such a BIZARRE fashion! AHAHAHA

Doing The Utaban Mambo

Been watching some of my old Morning Musume / Tampopo VHS tapes that I've dubbed over the years and the ones that inevitable crack me up the most are the girls' appearances on the Ishibashi Takaaki/Nakai Masahiro Music Show UTABAN, where the duo always seem to have a time playfully harassing the group, making them perform strange stunts, and putting them on the spot!

One of the finer little shorts came when Kaori, Nattchi and Asuka were demonstrating their dance moves to "Daite Hold On Me" and Nakai just couldn't resist kicking Kaorin in the butt as she talked to the sitting members. In true UTABAN fashion, the video team took that clip and edited it into a fun "Instant Replay" of sorts, and has there EVER been a finer homage to Perez Prado's "Mambo Number 5"? LOL

SPEED Cake Capers

Now that I’ve finally gotten around to ripping some of my old VHS tapes, I’m coming across some gems that I’d heretofore forgotten about!

Here’s a cute short clip from Utaban of years past, back when j-pop supergroup SPEED were just starting out  and had come on to promote their new single White Love.

The last time SPEED had come on, Hiroko had baked a few homemade cakes for Nakai and Takaki as omiyage. When asked how it was, Nakai (in his usual jokingly insulting way) stated that it was pretty bad, to the laughter of all the girls except Hiro-chan, who hid her face.

 Everyone continues laughing, until they realize Hiroko has actually had her feelings hurt by Nakai’s remark, and as the girls in SPEED soothingly console her, Takaki and Nakai nervously glance at each other as if to say “Holy CRAP! She was really hurt by that!”

Back to the present, and Nakai tells Hiroko that he REALLY felt bad about that last time, and so has come with a present for her to make it up to her, a beautiful long  suede jacket, and her happiness upon receiving the gift makes Nakai feel a little better about what had happened before.

 Suddenly, Nakai realizes he’s fixed Hiroko’s problem, but has neglected to bring anything for the OTHER girls!  When he admits he should have got them something, too, cute Takako pipes up, “I want a dog!” AHAHAHAHA!!!

 At the end of the show, Takaki tells the girls he’ll get all of them something,a nd the mischevious Nakai says, “That’s your Papa, girls!” To which all four girls call out “Papa! Papa!” to a wincing Takaki!! AHAHAHAHA, too funny!