
Turn on the TV at any time in Japan, and you’re likely to come face-to-face with its many unique styles of comedy. While most Japanese comedy is fairly incomprehensible unless your Japanese listening skills are good enough to catch its bullet train-speed jokes, you can always find comedians making funny faces, getting thrown into a freezing swimming pool, or getting hit hard in the crotch when they can’t say tongue twisters.

Owarai
The word for comedy of all shapes and sizes in Japan is owarai (お笑い). This refers to comedy that’s on television, as opposed to live comedy that’s done in traditional theaters, which is called yose (寄席). For the most part, owarai refers to variety shows that feature various types of comedy acts. A typical variety show will have a bunch of different kona (コーナー– segments, after English ‘corner’). These include comedy routines, quizzes, physical challenges, music (live or karaoke), short documentary-style video segments, and segments where everybody eats.
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