The World is Spoiled--The Comedian's Resolve Against the Television Era (1980s)

The World is Spoiled--The Comedian's Resolve Against the Television Era (1980s)

In the 1980s, Japanese television entered a golden age, and comedians were all absorbed into the media. However, the price to pay for this was that their art became more "defensive," flattering to the audience and buried in a state of scheduled harmony. Against this trend, Tachikawa Danshi resolutely disagreed. The world is spoiled," he said. The weak are playing righteous." His words were a scathing critique of an age in which television laughter has been stripped of its poison and thorns and rendered harmless. At the Yose, Danshi never conformed to the conventional format, breaking his own style by improvising, and sometimes abandoning the classics to go off on a tangent. His ability to surprise and betray his audience was the lonely determination of someone who was trying to be a "luminary" in an entertainment world that had begun to sink into scheduled harmony. In his words, "It is natural for a professional to disappoint the audience," he condensed the pride that a perfo
rmer should have in his profession, as well as the spirit of criticism toward the times. Don't protect, illuminate. Danshi's art quietly continued to light a fire in a world that had been tamed by television.