In the wake of the Charlie Chan imbroglio, Fox’s upcoming summer series Banzai has received comparatively little attention. But it arguably raises similar issues, with the added element of whether, as a parody of Japanese game shows, it is somehow immune from claims of bias or racism.
So, is “Banzai” an offensive portrayal of Asians or not?
Did you see the promo where they tied balloons to chicken to see how many balloons would make the chicken float in the air?
Well, someone in San Francisco saw it too and tried it! The balloons(with chicken attached) got caught in some power lines. PG&E had to turn off the power, then a cop shot out some of the balloons and they got the chicken down.
The local Fox affiliate got some bad press for a few days for running the ad, but they blamed it on the network, which runs the ads during the network slots.
BTW, the chicken survived and after recuperating at the SPCA, was adopted by a nice suburban couple.
Has the show even aired yet? I don’t want to judge a show as racist if I haven’t even seen it.
The pop-up ad for the show on entertainment Web sites is annoying as hell, though.
Actually, I ran across this show a few years ago on the USA Network. Basically, they just showed a movie and had those “Place Bets Now” things immediately before and after commercial breaks. I thought it was hilarious.
Is it racist? The Asian guys on the show don’t seem to think so.
Banzai has been shown in Britain for several years and I don’t think it’s even remotely racist. The important difference is that the presenters of Banzai are really Japanese, whereas the problem with Charlie Chan is that he was portrayed by white American actors playing up to the stereotype.
I wonder if the Fu Manchu films will be treated the same way as Charlie Chan now that Fox have started the ball rolling.
Seeing as how it’s Fox’s upcoming summer series, we can’t really answer that yet, as we haven’t seen it.
But just based on the advertisements and the premise, no, it’s not “an offensive portrayal of Asians.” It’s a parody of an aspect of Japanese (not Korean, Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Hawaii, etc.) popular culture. It’s no more racist than a parody of Melrose Place or The Price is Right would be anti-Caucasian racism.
My beef with the show isn’t any hysterical cries of “racism,” just that they’re missing the point. And they’re trying way too hard. Japanese game shows are funny. (And anyone who claims that we’re laughing at them instead of with them is seriously underestimating the ability of the Japanese to appreciate the absurd.) What they should have done is just take any one of the countless real-life wacky Japanese game shows, give it a dubbing job a la “Iron Chef,” and broadcast that. One of the San Francisco stations broadcasts a few hours of Fuji TV on weekends, including “Silly Go Lucky” and “Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ” and some more traditional game show that seems to be a version of “The Liar’s Club,” and I love watching that. I just wish I understood the language so I could appreciate it more.
You know what, that probably wouldn’t bother me as much. I think what sets off my racism meter here is the fact that all of the characters in the video clips sound like Yunioshi from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” one of the great racist portrayals of all time. A show in Japanese with subtitles or with an Iron Chef-style dubbing job (which preserves the grammar while keeping the absurdity) would probably trip fewer wires. But the way they’ve done it now, you have characters saying things like “He big basketball man.”
Have any of you seen Most Extreme Elimination Challenge on TNN? It is a hilarious re-dubbed version of the Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle, which is like Double Dare for thrill-seeking masochists.
The dubbing slays me every time, but most of the humor comes from silly names and sexual double-entendres, rather than anything remotely smacking of racism, or even mocking the Japanese. In that respect, it is a lot more like the classic Woody Allen film What’s Up, Tiger Lily, where Woody and friends redub a Japanese spy movie from the '60s.
I’ve seen MXC, and I find it to be a funny What’s Up, Tiger Lily? style parody of Japanese game shows. Banzai looks like it will be a parody of Japanese game shows in a different way. The only way we can find out is by watching.
Back to the OP. No the show’s not racist, just like Ali G isn’t meant to be offensive to the US Black population. It’s just very, very different. Be prepared for randomness and it’s best to keep an open mind about the show.
PS: Makes a great drinking game too.
PPS: The original version had a couple segments with full frontal male and female nudity. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep it in when it’s shown in the US…
Is this a direct import of the British game show, or an American version of the basic concept, a la Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
And where have I seen that bald guy in the promos before?
I’ll reserve judgement until i see it, but it looks really stupid. I’m not even sure when it airs. Some Asian American groups are just making noise to be heard lately so i’ve paid less attention to them.
Is it the same series as in Britian or an Americanized version?
Do you mean this guy?. I thought he looked familiar until I saw his head shot. The IMDB doesn’t list many credits for him, either.
It never occurred to me that Banzai could be racist. It’s made by Japanese people, after all. It doesn’t even seem like a parody of a Japanese game show - it simply is one. And if it was a parody, it would be Japanese people parodying a Japanese stereotype, and where’s the racism in that?
If it’s a direct import of the British show, then a lot of the humour will be lost. They invite a lot of C- and D-list British celebs onto the show for bizarre tasks (the celebs seem to think it’s quite a privilege to get on), and you wouldn’t appreciate that unless you knew who those people were.
I never used to like the show, but it is fun to have on when you have friends round after the pub. I’m surprisingly good at winning the bets. Takeshi’s Castle is good fun too - and over here in the UK we have Red Dwarf’s Craig Charles narrating it.
YES!!! Our family watches that show every week. We have to tape it because you miss so much of what they are saying, from laughing so hard!!
I saw the USA Network’s version mentioned earlier (with the “Place Bets Now” segements between commercials) when it was on . USA used to run very prominent disclaimers before it started, covering their asses I suppose.
Several people have mentioned that this was originally a UK show, and wonder if this is a new Americanized version, or just repackaged UK shows, like Miller. Now I’m curious too, especially after seeing the USA cable version.
When some of you say it made by the Japanese, are these just the on screen people, or is it originally a Japanese production?
I’ve seen MXC, it’s disposable fun with the new dubbing, but I would like to see a serious dub, a la Iron Chef, just to compare. The stunts and wipeouts are so much more fun than the heavy-handed dubbed humor. Guy Le Douche? C’mon the creators of that couldn’t get jobs working for Jimmy Kimmel instead?
Actually, the term Banzai itself is considered by some to be offensive.
It’s hard to make anything remotely interesting without offending someone or making people believe there’s an insult meant.
Not completely related, but it makes my point: there are many Japanese that are offended by the Japanese flag and the National Anthem. There are also Japanese that are offended that some people are offended by the Japanases flag and National Anthem. It’s impossible to make everyone happy.
cankerist, is it? what does Banzai actually mean? I Googled for it and asked Jeeves, but kept coming up with weird disparate sites, bands called banzai, sites called banzai that sold everything from socks to sex aids, lots of stuff about a film called Buckaroo Banzai … no indication of what ‘banzai’ means. Any idea?
widdershins - I’m not sure. I know the presenters are Japanese, but I think it might be UK production. It’s shown on Channel 4 over here, but their website’s down right now so I can’t check if it’s an original C4 programme, or co-produced with a Japanese TV station, or what. In any case, the presenters definitely are Japanese. My Chinese ex-GF loved the show, never thought it was racist.
From the FOX Web site:
So it seems that FOX is showing the shows that previously aired in the U.K.
In other words, Merkins should not take any bets offered by Brits because they already know who’s won!