obstinate.org

Here’s the deal. I know funny, I look in the mirror every day. It is hilarious.

Movie executives on the other hand, have no idea. They think funny is watching Ben Stiller or Aston Kutcher getting themselves into awkward social situations with to-be in laws is funny. It’s not, no really. But it does make money, indeed. You see, movie studios are in the business of making money, not say – making a good movie. They take enormous risk to produce and market a hit movie, and they would be silly for them to not make another romantic comedy full of embarrassing moments.

The great thing is, there are  countries where there aren’t movie executives – and here we can find some truly hilarious things.

If you have cable, wait up until 2am on Tuesday and turn on ESPN3 – you will find yourself watching Magnús Ver Magnússon in a valiant attempt at hurling a cement filled keg over a 40ft brick wall, then sprinting up a hill while charioting a cart filled with viking women then race to the finish by pulling a semi truck on a rope.  To top it off, he has to do all of this before Jón Páll Sigmarsson reaches the finishing line.

Yes, you’re thinking – this is FAR too ridiculous to be true. I mean, who names their largest son Magnús Ver Magnússon? Well, if you went through the torture of birthing the worlds strongest man, wouldn’t you name him something terrible also?

Anyways, watching the world strongest man competition is one of the most hilarious forms of entertainment.  It is by no means at the top. For the top, we must turn to the self-loathing Japanese.

Imagine if you will, a ridiculous game in which I throw an impossible task at you which will result in you being thrown into a variety of lakes with differing amounts of mud in them, hurled onto rocks and put into general peril. You have just seen the glory that is Takeshi’s Castle – rebroadcast by Spike TV as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Spike get’s it, they understand that in order to make something funny, you have to not try, or to try to do something else.

In Japan, this show was a semi-serious attempt at a game show that was received as moderately funny, it had rules, regulations and governing bodies that made the entire thing organized. When dubbed and sliced and put on MXC the result was a tv show that was like a real-life Super Mario adventure, complete with enemy mushrooms and blocks.  This is the chaotic sort of funny that we Americans like. Take a serious game show and remove all the rules and show the people getting gouged in the face by a rotating boulder. Good.

Additionally, anyone who has ever been to Japan, or Youtube will have seen a variety of American actors who put get on the roster of Japanese commercials. So you get the best celebrities on the worst endorsements. Genius. Throw the super-mario sense of humor into the mix and you get some truly horrendous results. This is what the movie executives should be trying to figure out. How do we mix Magnusson strong-man competitions with the Japanese robotic obstacle courses?

Japan has already had an attempt, and it works. I about fell out of my chair watching this.