They skipped the really stupid part:
I don’t even need to click the link to know what you’ve posted. Definitely one of the great moments in Taskmaster history. “There’s one less profiterole.”
And oddly enough, not the only time Alex Horne’s bare bottom has played a part on the show.
My theory is, human sexuality is like a balloon. You squeeze it small in one area, it pops out another. Make a society that’s uptight and repressed about normal sexuality, and out the other side tentacle port shows up.
And that’s why Japan came up with Kanchō.
Like I said. 
And without having yet clicked on that, I’m going to assume it’s Alex and Rhod swapping clothes.
I very much enjoy Alex’s (or at least his in-show persona/character) lack of shame with respect to just about anything. Plus, he’ll eat pretty much anything you hand him.
And have you noticed (I wouldn’t have, but Greg pointed it out) that Alex always wears long underwear under his clothes. Presumably, he’s just cold, but it’s amusing because he ends up taking his clothes off a lot more often than he seems to expect to.
Nothing delights me quite so much as a comedian who will do anything for a laugh. The commitment is inspiring.
I can’t speak to your theory about tentacle porn, but my impression from living in Japan for a year (albeit in Tokyo, which may be no more representative than New York is for the U.S.) was that Japanese people have a healthier attitude toward “unconventional” sex. Much more live and let live, whatever floats your boat, less prudish and judgmental.
That seems to be consistent with how the Wiki article describes social attitudes toward LGBT folk, which are also statistically quite liberal, even if the law hasn’t caught up in all respects.
But they’re far less repressed about it than we are. Homosexuality is much less of a taboo, and has been historically accepted much more in Japan than in European countries. They have parades on the streets where they carry giant phalluses in parades to celebrate fertility festivals. (Just look up Kanamari Matsuri.) Where we have gnomes, lawn jockeys, and flamingos in our yards, they have anthropomorphic tanuki statues with gigantic testicles prominently displayed. Japan is far less repressed about sexuality than much of the rest of the world.
Prostitution was legal in Japan until the US made it illegal when they occupied the country after World War 2.
If anything, tentacle porn is popular there because they’re more accepting of sexual expression than we are.
More like a zit.
I’m not going to put too much energy into defending an idle, completely nonscientific notion; but I don’t think that it necessarily conflicts with a greater acceptance of sexuality. If my half-baked guess is valid, the taboo being broken is not the sex, but the alien.
I also have to wonder just exactly how open Japanese culture is. All the examples you cited were related to male sexuality - penis festivals, totems with exaggerated testicles. It sounds like ancient Greece, which also tolerated (some) forms of homosexuality, and had icthyphallic processions. And that was of course a strongly patriarchal culture, albeit with high status courtesans, the hetaira, who sound cognate to geisha. But female sexuality was not valued overall,
and I suspect the same might be true of Japan. Are there parades of giant vulvas? Female fertility totems? Japanese erotica blurs out women’s genitals, and the act of penetration.
Again, I don’t know much of Japanese culture or it’s attitudes to sexual expression, and I could be completely off-base. But I suspect it’s far more complex and nuanced than either of us has suggested.
Well, we (humans) are all a bunch pervs. That one thing that really gets you off, I mean, ewwww – but me, trust me, you do not want to know.
I’m what the net nerds would call a semi weeb (I adore Japan even its bad sides) I would love to go down that rabbit hole of discovery. Would be very interesting they have a very stratified society with a lot going on “behind the scenes” that everyone knows that just no one mentions. It would be fascinating.
But I also think your theory is bang on. For the record… um not saying how I know but AV (common japanese porn) has TONS of “forcible” interracial scenes , id say split between “I dont like(but im still cumming omg)” and “omg I never knew bbc was soooo goooood” attitudes. When it comes to sex it seems nothing’s really taboo there (well everything is but its cool!Just shhhhh ).
I would theorize that your theory is grounded in pretty good logic and evidence heh.
(on edit due to previous post… yep definitely a perv here , no question everyone ive dated would agree, There is a reason I adore Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle…)
Pretty much. They were and still are pretty open about sexuality, but the oppression of women was at least as bad as the west, in most cases more so. And it’s still a huge problem.
Yes and no. They don’t have religious taboos about non-reproductive sex, but sexual activity does not, it seems to me and with exceptions, seem so universally highly prized as it does in the US (at least, which is what I’m familiar with). And as Slow-Moving-Vehicle so aptly pointed out, the sexes are not considered remotely equal when it comes to sex. It seems to me that women, ideally, aren’t supposed to enjoy sex, and that married couples might go months without having sex (with each other). And for a country where non-mixed communal bathing is routine, women seem very particular about which parts of the body they will show in public. For example, I recently found out that a woman’s clavicle is considered sexy, and that’s why most women button their tops up to the neck.
In summary, it’s a whole mix of different standards about sex roles, privacy, shame, and recreational pleasure. Some of those standards feel more repressive and some more open.
As I agreed with, yes.
Yeah, it’s definitely different.
Since when are clavicles sexy? Did I miss something somewhere? Is this in a different part of the country, or perhaps a different cultural norm within this country? I’m gobsmacked by this statement.
I think he means in Japan, but I find clavicles sexy. Why not?
I guess sexy. But cover 'em up sexy?
At one time, the western world thought so.
You probably are an ankle kind of person, aren’t you?
The Japanese also considered the nape of the neck sensual/sexy too.
Some parts arent for everyone, for instance feet/toes are not my thing, but they seem to be popular.
Any part of the body that’s routinely covered in a given culture is likely to be considered sexy in that culture.
Especially if it’s part of a female body.