None… really.
Apparently I ran out of "e"s as well as words… :smack:
Ah, Yatta. This is a really popular song that was originally a comedy sketch. These guys, Happatai, are sort of like a Japanese Kids in the Hall.
The lyrics are super happy, and you can find one translation that’s correct here: http://www.slackstreet.com/content/yatta_lyrics.htm
and one that’s completely wrong here (this is shockwave): http://www.maniacallaughter.com/yatta/yatta_shockwave.swf
Ignore that second link. Should be: http://www.verylowsodium.com/fanimutation/exuberance.php
The guy in front doing the singing at the beginning is Kiyotaka Nanbara, half of the comedy team Ut-chan Nan-chan, and the song is based around a skit he created for their show “Happy Go Lucky” (all the other guys are also comedians). The original skit was about a guy wearing just a fig leaf (for reasons that are lost to me) going up to someone who was feeling down or stressed, and doing a little happy-dance over every tiny thing that had gone right. In the fine tradition of SNL, it snowballed out of control until fig-leaf guy had an army of naked dancers behind him showing up in every possible setting. The next step, of course, was to make a music video.
The video in the link, btw, was the first time the song was ever heard, so I think the stadium shots of screaming fans were actually clips from other concerts. Either that, or the people were there for a comedy show with some creative camera work making it look like a huge audience.
Now that I think about it, it could also have been a parody of the empty lyrics of many of the boy bands in Japan, particularly those produced by Johnny’s Jimusho, like Hikari Genji, SMAP, Tokio, and V6. Producer Johnny (Japanese guy) has a penchant for sending out pre- and newly-pubescent boys in costumes so skimpy that he’s earned a reputation for having more in common with Michael Jackson than just music.
In any case, yes, they realize just how silly it looks. They meant it to be that way.
Ah! Now it makes (a bit) more sense!
I’ve been over-exposed to Korean pop, which looks just as silly but is not meant to be so!
Thanks for the enlightenment!
Hey, you take that back! Highfive Of Teenager is a highly professional group of talented young men!
… (cough)
Uh, since we are on the subject of J-pop, here’s my favorite karoke version of a j-pop song. I don’t quite understand why they throw lines of English in here and there.
Batto ingurishu izu COOL!
Shinyingu ingurishu izu HAPPY!
Eburibadi, rettsu enjoi Shinyingu HAPPY ingurishu! COOL!
I want to COOL HAPPY English, yeah!
Do you?
Oh yes, let’s!
HEY! Thanks for posting “Link not for workplace viewing” in your OP. Oh wait! You didn’t! :mad: :mad:
Err… no, I didn’t.
Um. There’s no nudity, no swearing (that I know of… tho I don’t speaka da Japanese), no overtly lewd behavior. Just a buncha goofy guys dancing around in their underoos with fig leaves sewn on the front… 
Sorry if you got in any trouble over that, Bosda… had I thought the content in any way likely to result in workplace troubles, I certainly would have warned you. My bad!
(just out of curiousity, though, what exactly was in the video to get you in trouble?)
That’s actually Korean. This is Japanese.
Sorry. Saw the first five seconds & misunderstood what was happening.