8/8/2008

As I mentioned a few weeks ago , in the 1980s and early 90s, Japanese movie director/ comedian Beat Takeshi used to do a wildly popular comedy routine were he would yell “Comaneci!” and do what he thought was the Nadia Comaneci’s leotard “pose”. In the gag, the hands are thrust diagonally like the bottoms of a gymnast’s one-piece leotard. Now it has become an exercise routine on Japanese TV (rather than old shimoneta/dirty joke).

Now according to my friend Mulboyne, this ‘Comaneci’ exercise has suddenly become insanely popular on Japanese YouTube. It is called the “Yakitoro Jiisan Taiso” (やきとりじいさん体操)—an exercise routine derived from Fukushima City’s yakitori (skewered chicken) campaign song.

Here’s the “traditional” shimoneta/dirty joke version of Beat Takeshi’s Comaneci gag.