Tokyo Breakfast

A very good commentary on whole-scale importing American culture, and doing it the wrong way. It's also a parody on (my understanding of) Japanese pop culture, as well as the result of overusing and devaluing obscenities. It's rather intelligent, despite its first appearance, kind of like an episode of South Park.

I would recommend obtaining and watching it, especially if you're a cynical and bitter person who hates popular culture and today's youth. I think it's a frighteningly possible look at how the near future might be in Japan, or really any other country, for that matter.

Six minutes of art.

It's easy for some to call Tokyo Breakfast racist and sophomoric due to the content of what it's parodying. In reality, though, this short film is a completely brilliant and well-executed multi-level satire of:

1- America's emulation of black culture. 2- Japan's blind emulation of American culture. 3- America's stereotyped perception of Asian people.

The execution is nothing short of genius. It's just a shame that most people don't get it. They choose to lump Tokyo Breakfast in with the very dime-a-dozen comedies that it is parodying. That's a mistake.

Watch this short film if you can find it. And just try to remember to think of it as a social critique before you go off, get offended, and start typing out your disgust in the form of an IMDb review. The pair that wrote and directed this thing aren't high school idiots. They've worked with the Onion. They know comedy/satire and they know what they're doing. So let's just trust them, OK?

We need more shows like this nowadays. Shows that are actually funny, and not meant to be taken so seriously - unlike most shows released recently. This pilot was clearly born from a stupid idea spoken aloud, and it probably would've been great had it actually been made. An instant cult classic.

As a black man I should hate it! It wasn't written by Japaness, blacks, or the combination of the two. It was written by two whites guys (Mike Maguire and Tom Kuntz) that hired Japanese actors who speak broken English, when it's clear that their accents where put on, and use the N-word a lot (where's Jesse Jackson when you need him).

I can't help it. I love this thing. It had me on the floor dying with laughter. I just found it a week a go and it one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. To watch a Japanese family call each other the N-word was a master stroke. Its so wrong (making fun of two cultures at the same time) but so funny.

And that's the bottom line-It's funny.

By the way, when was this thing made-2000 or 2002?

Mike and Tom, you did good.

I'm still kicking your asses when I see you....Neeeggaaa!

Actually, having just downloaded this from another web site, I found it to be hilarious. The format was definitely intended for an American audience, rather than a Japanese one. In addition, the studio audience was also laughing on-cue to the jokes, which were in English (rather than the Japanese lines, which although they were aimed at comedy, fell short of anything truly comedic). The show lost points from me for the reason of being openly racist against both black people (which was the entire point of the comedy) and Asian people (which was unintentional and shows a lack of involvement of anyone really Japanese... stereotypes aside, this was not what I would call good form). Being an American, I appreciated the humor side of it far more than a friend of mine, who is from near Tokyo (Chiba City? Is that right?) and who explained some of the finer points of error to me. As pilots go, this wasn't entirely bad, and actually showed some promise. However, I'm not sure that the content was appropriate to a pilot on the basis of broad appeal and I have to wonder if there was something ulterior where motivations are concerned. Was this going to be a standard situation comedy? Was it going to be a series of skits, a la MadTV? Was it going to be a show about some Japanese people who were simply far too influenced by Western culture to fit into either Japanese or American societies? The point, it seems, was lost in the translation, and so I can see why this was never picked up beyond the pilot.