Susunu! Denpa Shonen
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese reality TV show which aired from November 1, 1998 to September 29, 2002 on the Nihon TV network and has once again started airing on the Internet
from October 2009.
The title is a difficult-to-translate pun. The predecessor of the show was called Susume Denpa Shōnen (lit. Forward! Signal Youth). To depict that the show indeed moved forward, one of the characters
of the title was made longer (graphically changing the into ), resulting into a title more or less meaning Do not advance! Signal Youth.
The show was known for the extreme and absurd situations in which the participants were put. It reached extremely high level of audience during its short course, also spawning a sister show on Sunday afternoons called , and became also quite controversial due to the challenges bordering on the sadistic and television producers changing the rules if they felt the participants were doing too well. The show also received criticism for some of the show segments being staged
The participants were usually unknown comedians who were ready to do anything to get famous. Upon application, they were chosen randomly, and were not told what the objective of their challenge was. Some of the challengers became more or less famous, while some remained relatively unknown.
The program's initial cancellation was related to a government crackdown on "torture"-themed shows , but has seen a revival on the World Wide Web
from October 2009 on the streaming website Number Two Nihon Television (第2日本テレビ). Its first new "challenger" for the webcast was comedian
Yoshio Kojima
.
Amongst the best known are
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
from October 2009.
The title is a difficult-to-translate pun. The predecessor of the show was called Susume Denpa Shōnen (lit. Forward! Signal Youth). To depict that the show indeed moved forward, one of the characters
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
of the title was made longer (graphically changing the into ), resulting into a title more or less meaning Do not advance! Signal Youth.
The show was known for the extreme and absurd situations in which the participants were put. It reached extremely high level of audience during its short course, also spawning a sister show on Sunday afternoons called , and became also quite controversial due to the challenges bordering on the sadistic and television producers changing the rules if they felt the participants were doing too well. The show also received criticism for some of the show segments being staged
The participants were usually unknown comedians who were ready to do anything to get famous. Upon application, they were chosen randomly, and were not told what the objective of their challenge was. Some of the challengers became more or less famous, while some remained relatively unknown.
The program's initial cancellation was related to a government crackdown on "torture"-themed shows , but has seen a revival on the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
from October 2009 on the streaming website Number Two Nihon Television (第2日本テレビ). Its first new "challenger" for the webcast was comedian
Owarai
is a broad word used to describe Japanese comedy as seen on television. The word owarai is the honorific form of the word warai, meaning "a laugh" or "a smile". Owarai is most common on Japanese variety shows and the comedians are referred to as owarai geinin or owarai tarento...
Yoshio Kojima
Yoshio Kojima
is a Japanese comedian famous for appearing only in a small bathing suit, during both performances and interviews. Among his well-known catchphrases are Sonna no kankei nee and Oppapī , an abbreviation of "Ocean Pacific Peace",...
.
Major challenges
In the four-year course of the original program, participants completed about 20 challenges.Amongst the best known are
- Denpa Shōnen teki Kenshō Seikatsu (電波少年的懸賞生活 lit. "a life out of prizes by Denpa Shōnen") is probably one of the most known challenges of the show. NasubiNasubi, better known as , is a Japanese comedian who was locked up in an apartment for "Susunu! Denpa Shōnen" , a Japanese reality television show on Nippon Television after winning a lottery for a "show business related job". He was forced to enter mail-in sweepstakes until he won ¥1 million...
, a young comedian was forced to live over a year naked in an apartment in both Japan and KoreaSouth KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
by living (including eating...) only on commercial sweepstakes.
- Denpa Shōnen teki Mujinto Dasshutsu (電波少年的無人島脱出 litt. "Escape from a desert island by Denpa Shōnen) and the Swam series. Two comedians were put on a desert island, with no food nor clue about where they were, and were only told that their ordeal would finish if they built a raft and reached Tokyo. After their escape from the desert island (it took them 4 months), they were given a swan looking pedaloPedaloA paddle boat or "pedalo" is a form of waterborne transport, primarily for recreational use, powered through the use of pedals....
and were told to reach Tokyo with it, and then go with the same pedalo from India to Indonesia.
- Denpa Shōnen teki Africa Europa Tairiku Odan Hitchhike no tabi (電波少年的アフリカ・ヨーロッパ大陸縦断ヒッチハイクの旅, litt. "Hitchhiking across the continents of Europe and Africa with Denpa Shōnen"). A comedian and a Radio DJ from Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
named Zhe Zhiuyan hitchhiked from the Cape of Good HopeCape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
in South Africa to NordkappNordkappNordkapp is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Honningsvåg.Nordkapp was separated from Porsanger on 1 July 1861...
in Norway.
- Denpa Shōnen teki Pennant Race (電波少年的ペナントレース) "The Denpa Shonen Pennant Race". This segment tested the loyalties of diehard fans of the Central LeagueCentral LeagueThe or is one the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country,The Central League...
teams - the Yomiuri GiantsYomiuri GiantsThe are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
, the Hanshin TigersHanshin TigersThe are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Koshien, Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and are in the Central League. Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., the subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., owns the Hanshin Tigers directly...
, and the Chunichi DragonsChunichi DragonsThe are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chubu region of Japan. The team is in the Central League. They won the 2007 Japan Series and 2007 Asia Series.-History:...
. The contestants would be confined to a single room with a TV that only showed their team's baseball games. Their faces would also be hidden from public view. If their team won, they got to eat dinner and a small portion of their face would be revealed to the audience. If their team lost, they would get no food and the lights would turn out, leaving them in darkness until the next day's game. If the contestant's favorite team went on a win streak, the quality of the food they could eat would increase as well as gain public exposure and popularity due to their entire face being shown on TV until their team finally lost. A losing streak would mean that a contestant could go days in the dark without food. At the end of the season, the contestant would win an overall prize depending on how their team placed.
See also
- NasubiNasubi, better known as , is a Japanese comedian who was locked up in an apartment for "Susunu! Denpa Shōnen" , a Japanese reality television show on Nippon Television after winning a lottery for a "show business related job". He was forced to enter mail-in sweepstakes until he won ¥1 million...
- A comedian that gained a modicum of fame via the show. - Bluem of YouthBluem of YouthBluem of Youth is a Japanese pop group whom achieved their greatest success in the late 1990s after being the subjects in a reality television series called Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. The name is a mix of 'bloom of youth' and 'blue'. Its members are Yuji Bessho and Hiroyuki Matsugashita...
- A J-Pop duo that garnered its biggest success with their involvement with the show.