snl skit in japanese

Cafe Society
1

There was a Chris Farley-themed special on Comedy Central today, featuring quite a few skits from his old SNL days. One funny one involved Farley as a contestant (who spoke no Japanese) as a contestant on a Japanese game show. (Alec Baldwin, I believe, played another contestant.) No matter what he said, he kept winning (until the end of the skit, when he was electric-shocked).

I know that the joke of the skit (which had no subtitles and was spoken, except for Farley’s lines, in Japanese) was that he, along with the audience, couldn’t understand what was being said. But, I wonder…was there actually a “plot” to the skit? Was something actually being said in Japanese so that Farley’s character’s responses actually did make sense and correctly answer a question?

Any Japanese-speakers happen to see or remember the skit? I’m just curious if there is a real progression to what is being said.

2

I remember the skit well. Though my Japanese is rudamentary at best, there was definitely real Japanese used. Part of the joke, too, was that Japanese game shows appear very bizzar to the western eye. If you’ve never seen some of the whackier ones, then it would be hard to appreciate.

3

Yes, the skit was done in real Japanese, although frequently mispronounced. I recall that the first question was how many keys are on a piano. The answers given were 90, 100, or 88. Farley answered correctly.

4

Now I remember that. “Hachi-ju hachi!” Didn’t he just keep saying that over and over again?

5

What I want to know is, what was the bonus round question/answer that Farley’s character ALMOST got right with random syllables?

6

I want to know the translation of the final question too.

If anyone is interested, the syllables are as follows:

Farley’s answer: kwah kee sir pee nee koo

Correct answer: kwah kee sir pee pee koo

Those are ‘correct’ to the best of my knowledge. How they are transliterated is beyond me, so hopefully someone can figure it out.

7

Thanks so far. So, essentially, the quesions were multiple choice, and the character just happened to squawk out the right syllables.

OK, then, what was the question/answer when the contestants had to write down their answer? The word “Godzilla” was what CF’s character wrote down, because it was the only word he recognized. Can I assume that was multiple choice too? (The other contestants had to perform ritual self-mutilation after guessing wrong.)

I am also, like AwSnappity, interested in a translation of the final question. Hopefully a fluent Japanese speaker will show up soon and tell us why the judges on the show had to ponder whether his answer was “close enough” to warrant credit, being off by only one syllable. The host, played by Mike Myers, seemed to want to give him credit.