Tenuous language connection, I admit, but very funny, and utterly amazing. A good language workout for students of Japanese, and those who don’t speak/study Japanese will still get the premise and the point. Basically, just a demo of how to streamline your morning “get ready for work” routine. My wife and I spent ten minutes working on the tie bit which I’m definitely fitting into my life (those 3-5 times a year that I actually find myself socially obligated to wear a tie, that is). The wife is demanding that I formally acknowledge that it was she, in fact, who figured it out… To be honest, I got a bit of a “mercy pass” on Cub Scout knot-tying activities. Anyway, I got it from Allahpundit, so give him so traffic. He’s got some great observations on the nature of why Japanese television concepts like this just wouldn’t work in US culture, as half the appeal is what he terms the fun of watching WTF culture… I’m not completely convinced, as Japanese are completely in on the joke (i.e., you don’t have to be watching from outside the culture to find this funny). I think it’s merely a matter of Japanese self-depreciation taking forms that Westerners would never dream of, and voila, instantly comic and unreplicable…
