Today's video moment of Japanese surrealism

Courtesy of TV in Japan (you are reading them on a regular basis, right?) comes this disturbing footage (YouTube link) of an oiled-up guy getting licked by a dog on the Japanese equivalent of the Gong Show. Please don't tell Rick Santorum about this clip.

Comments

[Will]

Hate to provide context to Japanese surrealism (the best kind!), but I can identify the clip.

This show is 'Toribia-no izumi'. It was marketed in the US briefly on Spike TV as 'Hey! Spring of Trivia.' The concept: viewers mail in bits of trivia, and the show goes to whatever lengths necessary to confirm its truth...sort of a 'Mythbusters' for trivia, except everything is known to be true. In addition, celebrity guests vote on the coolness of said trivia item. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_of_Trivia .

It's an amazing show, and I wish it got more attention in the US. It could never survive as a local production -- this show THRIVES off the goofy risque Japanese culture. Conservative corporate TV heads would never understand here.

What trivia we're seeing in this clip, I have no idea...I don't speak Japanese. I'd love to know, though. It's not, as the article suggests, talent-based.

[Listener Jim]

Cool, thanks for the bit of background. I kinda figured it wasn't *really* the Japanese Gong Show, since the guy wasn't gonged. But you know, you don't get many chances in life to use the sentence "oiled-up guy getting licked by a dog on the Japanese equivalent of the Gong Show", and you just have to seize those opportunities when they present themselves.

[John]

This is great. You really did a good job thanks.

[trivia buff]

Actually, this isn't from "Toribia no Izumi". It's actually a show called "Gaki no Tsukai" making fun of Toribia no Izumi. There's some great clips on YouTube about Gaki no Tsukai.

What the guy's saying in Japanese is that "the owner's dog will lick him -- ANYWHERE."