Perhaps You've Heard The Term "Meathead?"

One of the things about this blog gig is that you get to see things you probably never imagined you would see — and not, "oh, gosh, Dick Cheney's chief of staff wrote a smutty roman a clef" — but, rather: "have you seen those Japanese girls who strap meat to their foreheads and then stick their heads through holes onto a table where a carnivorous lizard is prowling about?" Well, have you seen anything like that? Now you can: our no. 21 top link is a Google Video file of exactly that happening. There are cultural things at work here, too, including Japanese cultural misogyny, traditional Japanese reverence for lizards and the modern Japanese penchant for combining the two. Bloggers are all over the place on this one; we'll start with Japundit, which writes: "Well, never underestimate the ability of Japanese TV to tap new lows." Noted. Other responses include this Metafilter response list, where one wit has asked: "Man. Why can't we get American pop stars to participate in such tomfoolery?" For our part, we would pay admission to see Hillary Duff take part in this exact same program. Still other posters expressed sympathy for one of the humiliating things about this game show: "Oh no! How embarrassing for those girls! They all showed up to the show wearing the same meat hat! That fashion faux pas would make me scream, too."

Posted by Philip Ewing at November 10, 2005 10:01 AM

Category: The vast electric lunchroom