Nielsen, for instance, tries to communicate with Shimura’s family in English, but they have no idea what he’s saying. The scenes where Nielsen enters Shimura’s home are a great satire of the culture clashes that often occur whenever foreigners visit Japan. In another episode, Nielsen and Shimura play detectives. This time, it is Nielsen who is the thief and his dead serious face throughout makes the whole scene all the more sillier. One routine is a re-doing of a classic Shimura sketch, where he steals food from the train passengers sitting across from him whenever they get into a tunnel. He also did a few skits with the great American actor Leslie Nielsen of Airplane and Naked Gun fame. Also, being an American, I doubt if I’ll ever understand his best or most culturally resonant jokes as well as a Japanese viewer could. Given that Shimura had been doing this for over forty years, it would be impossible for me to cover everything. I would now like to highlight some of my favorite gags and skits from Shimura’s long comedy career. For instance, he asks for a “kanenoko” (金ノコ) or “hacksaw”, but she hears “kame no ko” (亀の子) or “baby turtle.” Another time, he asks for “kayaku” (火薬) “gunpowder” and she gets him “zayaku” (座薬) “suppository” (a form of medical dosage). The joke is that she always mishears him. Shimura is trying to break out of prison, so whenever his daughter visits, he requests a number of items. Minayo Watanabe also played such a figure in the skit “Ken and Minayo’s Secret Prison Break Tale!” If you are learning Japanese, you might enjoy the wordplay here. In one humorous sketch, she begs her father to get her orange juice from the vending machine, but for some reason or another, the juice always comes out wrong. Ohanabo, played by Yoko Ishino, in addition to her goofy hair, is also quite whiny. Sometimes, Shimura played opposite to fictional “daughters” who existed only to irritate him. “Ken and Minayo’s Secret Prison Break Tale!”
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