Okay, here’s a follow up about Denpa Shonen. This special was from the show Susunu! Denpa Shonen (進ぬ!電波少年), which was the third major Denpa Shonen series, following Susume! Denpa Shonen (進め!電波少年), and ***Denpa Shonen INTERNATIONAL (***電波少年INTERNATIONAL).
Here’s a DeepL translated entry about this, from Japanese Wikipedia.
Let’s go make Americans laugh by Denpa Shonen’s Hitoshi Matsumoto
The question, “Isn’t Japanese comedy funnier than American comedy? This was the question that prompted Downtown’s Hitoshi Matsumoto to take on the challenge of creating a Japanese comedy that would be accepted in the United States. However, unlike previous projects in which unknown talents and comedians (whose schedules are almost completely blank and can be tied up for long periods of time) took up the challenge, Matsumoto gave priority to his current schedule and was not tied up. The project began with a visit to Naoko Nozawa, a comedian in the U.S., to observe a local comedy show, and a few months later, Matsumoto’s past comedy works (subtitled versions) were shown to Americans for their reactions. After a few months, Matsumoto showed his past comedies (subtitled versions) to Americans and asked for their reactions. After much polishing until he was satisfied with the work, he went to New York for a screening. The audience of 200 people at the screening was based on the ratio of race, age, and gender in the U.S. at that time. As a result, the film was well received by the American audience.
The project was done in a state of exploration, and the limited content of the broadcast made it difficult to move forward (Tsuchiya once forgot to turn on the sound switch while interviewing Matsumoto and had to hold the audience guessing as to what he was talking about). Sasuke” took a long time to complete, and there were times when it did not air for more than six months. Tsuchiya also accompanied Matsumoto on location in the U.S. in person.
Loving your work on this series. Quick verification question. Here you say this episode aired on 2021/04/28, but the file on pastebin is labelled 2021/04/08. Which is it?