<figure id="attachment_281109" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-281109" style="width: 2810px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="26846e9a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/12/87c5393bfa25fc94e7294dcdde2c4e4f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-281109" class="wp-caption-text">Nishikigoi&#8221; is the duo of Hasegawa (left) and 44-year-old Takashi Watanabe, the first finalists in their 50s in the &#8220;M-1 Grand Prix. Their comedic delivery is fierce, but their material is mild.</figcaption></figure>
 The popular comedy duo &#8220;A Masso,&#8221; who competed in the final of &#8220;Women&#8217;s Comedian No. 1 Contest THE W 2022&#8221; (NTV) for three consecutive years, was eliminated for the third time without success. Viewers voiced their doubts.
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 The duo performed a contrived routine that took advantage of the &#8220;no teasing about physical appearance&#8221; rule: they went to a job interview &#8230;&#8230; in a box, saying that they did not want to be judged based on their physical appearance. The audience laughed, but even if it was self-deprecating, it is taboo to make references to one&#8217;s appearance on TV. I think it had more than a little influence on the judges.
 Similar to &#8220;The W,&#8221; there have been a number of cases where comedians who performed jokes about their appearance in award shows were eliminated from the competition even if they got a laugh.
 For example, &#8220;Momo&#8221; was eliminated in the third round of the &#8220;M-1 Grand Prix&#8221; (TV Asahi). Last year&#8217;s finalists, the yankee-like Mamoru. (28) and otaku-like Semeru (29), who were finalists in last year&#8217;s M-1 Grand Prix (TV Asahi). (29), who looked like an otaku, were making jokes with each other, saying, &#8220;You have a face like a zero! (You have a face like a yankee, Mamoru, 28) and otaku-like Semeru (29), who is popular for his comic dialogue. Kishitaka Kishitaka&#8217;s specialty was hagejiri, but he was eliminated in the quarterfinals despite his hilarious performance. Incidentally, &#8220;Momo&#8221; had already been criticized by some viewers who saw their material in the final of last year&#8217;s &#8220;M-1&#8221; for &#8220;making fun of otaku. The fact that they were eliminated early this year may have been a message from the judges that they would not allow comedians who compete in the finals by making fun of the way they look.
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 In fact, comedians who dominated the competition with their self-deprecating jokes have been forced to change course.
 The winner of the &#8220;M-1 Grand Prix&#8221; in 2003, &#8220;Trendy Angel,&#8221; both have thinning hair. They gained popularity with their &#8220;bald wrap&#8221; material, but their appearances as a duo have drastically declined. Saito Tsukasa (43), who is in charge of the &#8220;blabbermouth&#8221; act, has been increasing his stage-related work by making the most of his singing ability. Since even the king of the bald rap duo is in such a situation, the survival of the young duo who are selling their baldness is in jeopardy. Even if they are happy to do bald material themselves, they will receive complaints that &#8216;the staff must be making them do it.&#8217; Nishikigoi,&#8217; the 21-year champion, is getting away with it because they are teasing the silly, not the bald head of Masaki Hasegawa (51),&#8221; said a broadcaster.
 According to the director of the production company mentioned above, &#8220;Complaints are made even when praising their appearance,&#8221; which is troubling.
 Even if you praise a woman with a model&#8217;s figure by saying, &#8220;I envy you because you are so thin! but it is criticized as &#8220;inducing anorexia. This teasing has already become NG. It is also against the law to refer to a talent with big breasts as an &#8220;H-cup beauty. It is also illegal to refer to a talent with big breasts as an &#8220;H-cup beauty,&#8221; as it is considered &#8220;sexualizing women. Unexpectedly, it is also dangerous to compliment a beautiful witch talent by saying, &#8220;You are young. By the way, the model answer is, &#8220;You haven&#8217;t changed at all.
 Even the makeup for the comedy acts is subject to detailed orders,&#8221; laments the aforementioned broadcaster.
 I heard that an airline commercial in which Bakarhythm appeared in a blond wig and a false nose received complaints that it was racist. Since then, if there is a blonde wig as a prop used in a comedy act, &#8220;people might think we are teasing a foreigner,&#8221; he said. &#8221; and the upper management began issuing NGs. There are Japanese people with blond hair, too. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;
 TV&#8217;s cessation of thought, one can only say.
 From the December 30, 2022 issue of FRIDAY

 Takero Yui

 The fact that "appearance teasing" is becoming taboo even in the world of comedy can be seen from the state of award shows these days. In this age of complaints even when praising the appearance of a person, the ways of expression on TV have to be narrowed down. How will terrestrial broadcasting survive?

Blonde wigs and fake noses” are now a no-no… The day when “appearance teasing” disappears from terrestrial broadcasting

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