Japanese Game Shows You’ll Have to See to Believe (Part 2 of 2)

Part 1 of our two-part series on Japanese game shows showcased the strenuous, creative and just plain crazy challenges that contestants have undergone on live television. Today, we have more of the ridiculous games that await those who dare to sign up.

Dero! Dero!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdNdhJJMkNM

Remember the scene in Star Wars where Luke, Princess Leia, Han and Chewbacca are stuck in the trash compactor, and escape being crushed by a mere few feet? Well, that’s pretty much every episode of Dero! Dero! Players are faced with insanely stressful situations like falling floors, collapsing ceilings and flooding rooms. As if that weren’t enough, they have to conjure up the brainpower to solve puzzles or answer questions while under all that stress. Damn.

Human Bowling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5wc9Qeaf6g

We could’ve ended with How Many Larger-Than-Average-Sized Nails Can You Eat, or something equally unsettling, but we thought we’d take it easy on you to finish things off. Indeed, Human Bowling does seem rather quaint compared to some of the activities we’ve shown you. But it seems like something that would actually be fun to do—in fact, some Americans have already amped it up on ski slopes. It makes you imagine the possibilities of what other ball sports could replace their balls with humans. Human soccer? Human baseball? On second thought, maybe it would be best to stick to bowling.

So next time you’re watching Jeopardy!, Family Feud or even reruns of Fear Factor, remember that there are much, much stranger possibilities for the game show format.