from UK book "'BEAT' TAKESHI KITANO" 1999

While the rest of society was enraged by the duo, the younger generation - mostly in their early twenties or younger - adored Takeshi's anti-social, anti-.humanitarian jokes, which is why The Two Beats became so popular. Consequently, some critics gave the show glowing views. They said things like, 'The Two Beats possess a high level of irony which discloses the true feeling of society, namely that the elderly are a burden'. Some even called Takeshi Japan's answer to Lenny Bruce.

The best-known Two Beats joke is a parody of a public transport safety slogan which goes, "Cross when the traffic lights are at red, like everyone else and you will be safe." Initially, that was attacked for encouraging children to break road safety rules. Eventually. however, people came to see it as poignant criticism of the collective psychology particular to the Japanese -i.e. 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em'. But was sharp-tongued social criticism really what Takeshi was aiming for? I think not. Lenny Bruce was another comedian who made a point of using racially discriminating words such as 'nigger', which were taboo in his time. His act was described as focusing the spotlight on discrimination which is hidden from public media and the surface of society, but which actually exists in the very depths of it'. But was that right?

When they were not dealing with discrimination, both Lenny and Takeshi joked about death and illness. The reason was that these subjects were not considered funny. Likewise, both men repeatedly used words like, 'dick', 'cunt', 'shit' and 'puke'. They chose these because they were words that most people thought should not be uttered in public, let alone broadcast to the nation. It's like being a child, when the more your parents tell you not to say certain words, the more you're tempted to shout them out loud. It's the same sort of childish urge that makes Takeshi want to say things he's not supposed to.

There was one sketch that Takeshi would persistently repeat which demonstrated the depth of his childishness. In it, he would call out, "Comaneci!", then make movements with his hands outlining a V-shape around his crotch. He first came up with this gag when he was talking about how erotic Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian Olympic gymnast, looked in her groin hugging leotard. Takeshi took up a half squatting pose and used his hands to portray this image, while at the same time shouting, "Comaneci!". This in itself was not at all funny, but for some reason, Takeshi seemed to like it so much that he took to doing it at every opportunity. Soon, his audience joined in with the joke, but it was partly because they were appalled with Takeshi for doing, as one critic said, "Something so ludicrous for someone his age (Takeshi was already in his thirties)." But that was precisely what Takeshi was aiming for, The intention of the Comaneci gag was to stop the public from seeing him as an arrogant man who used his intelligence to spray poison-tongued sarcasm. When he told the joke, Takeshi wasn't a sarcastic guy with brains, he was one of those lads in the classroom who is always being cheeky to the teachers and getting told off. Like Bart Simpson! That's why it was kids at kindergarten or at primary school who enjoyed the joke the most. They may not have understood Takeshi's manzai, but they got the Comaneci gag. They proved it by placing their hands on their groins and being told off by their parents and teachers. 
 

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