Banzai is a British comedy gambling game show which spoofs Japanese game shows. It was produced by Radar, part of RDF Media. Each segment of the show is a silly or bizarre contest. Members of the viewing audience were encouraged to bet with each other on the outcome of each segment.

Format

The show plays off like a betting show. In each segment, a bizarre challenge is presented with a choice of outcomes. Viewers are given a short amount of time to 'place their bets' before the challenge starts.

Betting contests on the show included grannies playing chicken with motorised wheelchairs, amputee football, egg eating, blindfolded petrol pumping, and the length of time it would take an object to hit the ground after being dropped from a roof. The show regularly skirted the bounds of what some would consider politically incorrect television content including nudity, sexuality, violence, swearing, racism, and sexism. Examples of the controversial contests would be to guess which man in a line-up has the longest penis, spying on lady nurses getting undressed, or who will first put their foot into a shoe filled with dog poo.

Many minor, and occasionally major, celebrities took part in the stunts. Usually the celebrity would be ridiculed in the segment while they stay composed, straight-faced, and serious. In one, actor Peter Davison, was asked which of three other Doctor Who lead actors he would most like to have sex with. Celebrities appearing with Mr Shake Hands Man or Lady One Question would be caught unaware in public setting.

Virtually every segment features background music, taken from the 1970s or 80s United Kingdom charts. Voiceovers (Eiji Kusuhara, and especially those by Burt Kwouk) are Engrish spoken with a heavily exaggerated Asian accent ("prace your bets – no bet, no get!"). At the end of each episode are the outtakes, often with the featured celebrities breaking their serious composure, and upcoming gambling contests that would never be shown.

Characters

  • Mr Banzai (Masashi Fujimoto)<br />He does not speak except for saying and singing the word "Banzai" in different ways. Mr Banzai acts as referee for many of the contests, directing participants to begin by solemnly clapping his hands and emitting a kiai.
  • Mr Cheeky Chappy (Jit Loi Chong)<br />He wiggles his spectacles, grins, and laughs to camera. Occasionally he facilitates some of the contests.
  • Mr Shake Hands Man (Ryozo Kohira)<br />He tries to maintain a handshake with unaware celebrities for as long as possible. He was later replaced when he became too well known with Mr Shake Hands Man Two.
  • Mr Shake Hands Man Two (Tadao Tomomatsu)<br />He has a slightly different tactic to the original Mr Shake Hands Man. He poses as a Japanese reporter and often translates dialogue into Japanese to make conversations, and handshakes, last a little longer.
  • Lady One Question (Shizuka Hata)<br />She poses as a celebrity reporter, asks a single interview question and then stares silently at the celebrity interviewee. Bets are on how long it takes the celebrity to put a stop to the ruse.<br />

Broadcast history

Banzai first aired in the United Kingdom on the digital channel E4. It was repeated a few months later on E4's parent channel, Channel 4. It has been repeated on three other channels in the United Kingdom: Challenge, Dave and 4Music. It was later picked up for broadcast in Canada by Citytv, which broadcast the original, uncut, unedited episodes.

It was broadcast in the United States on USA Network for a short time only, and in a different format where the segments were cut up and interspersed with a movie. In 2003, Fox picked up the series in the United States (and Americanized it by editing content and saying that some of the people were from the United States instead of parts of the United Kingdom), airing its first episode on 13 July<!-- 2003 -->.

It also aired in Brazil in 2005 on the cable channel Multishow. It was broadcast with subtitles with no editing whatsoever.

After six episodes, however, pressure from Asian American groups led Fox to drop the show. In early 2004, the show found a new home on Comedy Central. Repeats moved once again on March 6 2006, to G4 as part of its late-night prime programming block Midnight Spank (formerly known as G4 Late Nights and Barbed Wire Biscuit). The recently-opened Philippine cable channel Jack TV also runs Banzai in a primetime weekend slot. RPN also runs the series in the Philippines every Thursday night at 7:30pm. It also airs in Australia on Fox8 and Channel V.

The series was broadcast in Italy on MTV Italy on Friday nights with Italian dubbing in early 2002. It was also broadcast in the United States on Fox 5 and Fox 5 HD on Wednesday nights. Banzai is sometimes mistaken for a Japanese-produced show, such as on Comcast's interactive guide.

Controversy

In August 2001, two years before Fox aired its first episode of Banzai, USA Network aired clips of the Channel 4 edition of the show as part of their Banzai Movie Friday. Some Asian American groups objected to the clips.

When Fox picked up the show, the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans protested outside a presentation of the show in Hollywood. Group co-founder Guy Aoki told BBC News, "It's just all the backward images of Asian American people. This is like an Asian minstrel show. Can you imagine the black version of Banzai?". When sponsors were alerted to the content of the show, many dropped their sponsorship, and as a result, Fox canceled Banzai.

In April 2002, the show caused further controversy when they attempted to record a sketch during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The film crew were reportedly trying to measure the speed of the funeral procession, with a speed gun to allow viewers to bet on the speed. The police however stopped this, before the procession could pass.

Series overview

Episode list

Episodes are listed in the series order on the Channel 4 on-demand service, which vary from the original broadcast order, and include the Christmas special into Series 2. The betting opportunities and celebrity appearances are listed for each episode.

Series 1 (2001)

Series 2 (2001)

Series 3 (2003)

Merchandise

Book

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Book !! Year published !!Publisher !!Cover photo !! Notes!! Ref

|-

| || ||Channel 4 Books|| || Paperback ||

|}

VHS

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Release name

! Release date

! Classification

! Publisher

! Format

! Language

! Subtitles

! Notes

! Ref

|- style="text-align:center;"

|| Super Banzai Video Show

|| 4 November 2002

|| 15

|| Universal Pictures

|| PAL

|| English

|| None

|| Released in the United Kingdom.

||

|}

DVD

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Title

! Region 1

! Region 2

! Region 4

! Notes

! Ref

|- style="text-align:center;"

|| Super Banzai Video Show

|| -

|| 11 November 2002

|| -

|| One Disc

||

|}

Contains best bets from first and second series and also unseen bets. Includes a Banzai screensaver for Windows and MacOS.

In Super Banzai Video Show, players could play Banzai with the DVD player and the remote. Mr Banzai shocks viewers by jumping in front of the copyright warning at the beginning of the disc. Players are then asked to guess which letter is the Super-Banzai DVD button, A, B or C. If viewers select the wrong option, they see about long sections of Tony Hart or Erik Estrada standing staring at them.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Best Bets

| The Man Monster Petrol Pump Off Puzzle (Roger De Courcey & Nookie Bear vs Keith Harris & Orville the Duck), Squirrel Fishing, The Lonely Man Christmas Specimen Showdown, The Famous Man Dingle Dangle Dilemma (Normski), The Mr Dean Insult Generation Game (Dean O'Loughlin), Old Lady Wheelchair Chicken Challenge, A Very Interesting Beefeater Investigation Question, The Old Lady Fish Man Challenge (Fish), The Speed Soul Struggle (Lou Ferrigno), The Peter Purves Satanic Message Puzzle, The Blessed Bucket of Bibles Bet, Mr Shake Hands Man (Anna Nolan), Mr Shake Hands Man Two (Kelsey Grammer & Bill Murray), Lady One Question (June Whitfield, Bob Holness, & John Inman), The Lying Breast Puzzle, The Celebrity Sexy Party Selection (John McCririck & Christopher Quinten), The Dirty Old Grandma Gamble, The Miniature Mr and Mrs Interesting Offspring Option, The Wheel Of Misfortune, The Fantastic Freddie Man Flutter, Ye Olde Supermarket Trolley Jousting Tournament, A Very Tricky Dicky Diana Doll Decision, The Genital Wedge Gamble (Peter Dean), The Four Letter Word Water Wager

|-

! Unseen Bets

| An Interesting Doggie Death Dilemma, A Very Difficult Dummy Decision, The Wheel of Misfortune Insect Roulette

|}

DVD betting game

RDF, the licence-holder of "Banzai", has also worked in conjunction with Screenlife, the makers of the popular Scene It? DVD games, to make possible the creation of a DVD board game for the show (Banzai.com). Board game creators Gary McGrew and Nick Saad can be seen as animated figures in the "How to Play" section of the DVD. The game DVD is packed with many of the best clips from the programme and uses plastic sushi pieces as the main betting and winning device.

Players must use chopsticks to transfer four types of bizzare sushi characters (King Fu Carl – the world's last starfish assassin, Lois – the Louisiana Squirrel Roll, Chum and Tako's Tentacle) into the main community betting bowl. Whoever transfers the most for that round gets to put down a numbered or lettered betting card in conjunction with the "Banzai" clip in the hopes of getting it right and winning all the sushi in the community bowl.

The player with the most sushi wins the game. The "underground" appeal of the show and the game has also contributed to drinking game rules. The show's MC, Mr Banzai, also starred in the making of the DVD as the man who jumped out and shouted "DVD!" and did a number of comical things on the DVD.

Banzai – DVD Betting Game was released 16 September 2011

Soundtrack

The Banzai soundtrack was released by 4Music 18 June 2001 on CD.

References

  • Banzai at BFI