TV Discussion

[lcoqc@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu]

Excuse me for jumping in here, I confess I haven't 
been following this thread very closely at all (not 
for lack of interest but lack of time) and this 
may well be utterly irrelevant (or redundant?) but 
can't help recalling and reporting my single most 
shocking experience watching television in Japan. 
The setting was the kotatsu / living room of an 
extended family in rural Japan (my inlaws at the 
time), four generations, all eyes glued to the screen
(around 1986?). The program was (my recollection was 
that Takeshi was involved but could well be wrong) 
replays of excerpts from Gekko~ Kamen series of 
20 (30?) years back. No commentary, No funny subtitling
or other tampering. Just the excerpts straight. 
And the effect was totally ludicrous (and exacerbated 
by the absence of commentary), uncanny in fact. 
There was a strange nervous silence in the room 
because (so I assumed) at least two of the generations 
present had once watched these programs with a 
kind of awe or at least in all seriousness and now, 
just 2 (3?) decades later the sheer act of putting them 
on the tube was enough to achieve a sublime degree 
of humor (or ridicule?) Is there I wonder a word 
for this form of irony? 

I'd assume that the easiest criterion for measuring the 
worth of a TV program is can you imagine enjoying watching 
it twice? But I guess that goes without saying. 



LC