Denpa Shonen. Hooray for Hulu.
It seems to me that at around the same time that the internet started becoming THE internet, Japanese game shows started getting their reputation here as being completely fucked up/hilarious. I’m guessing there’s a pretty direct correlation there.
I never knew the name of the show at the time but the most notable one I remember hearing about stripped it’s winning contestant naked and forced him to live locked in an apartment with only sweepstakes entries to survive on. Sadistic, embarrassing, heartwarming and hilarious. Everything Japanese game shows were know for. (And, if you think about it, kind of what most American television programming began getting known for in the 2000’s.) I think all that was available online at that time were a few lousy dithered GIFs and a bad Quicktime file or two but now, NOW we have Hulu. And, god bless ‘em, Hulu’s got the entire season of ‘Denpa Shonen’ with it’s lovable, naked contestant Nasubi and an entire two seasons of sadistic Japanese sweet hilarity. HOORAY FOR INTERWEB & HULU! (and hooray for my friend Brian for forwarding this on to me who doesn’t have a website and I think has even deleted his facebook account so he doesn’t get a link so fuck him anyway!)