"Detective! Night Scoop" (ABC TV, Fridays at 11:17 PM) is a popular variety show where "detectives" tackle bizarre requests and worries submitted by viewers. On April 10th, Detective Ken Maeda investigated a "deaf comedy fan." Yokoyama Yu from the popular group "SUPER EIGHT" made his first appearance as the special director, with Ishida Yasushi as assistant director and Masuda Saori as secretary.
The request came from a 25-year-old woman from Tokyo. She was born almost completely deaf. Her greatest hobby, and arguably her passion, is comedy. She goes to live shows featuring her favorite comedians almost every week.
Basically, I understand the jokes by reading the lip movements, and I can understand a lot of stand-up comedy. Among them, my favorite duo is "9th Street Retro." Yet, their jokes are hard to understand.
The reason for this is Kyogoku Futo, the straight man of the duo. His unique low-pitched comedic style involves little movement of the mouth or changes in facial expression, making it difficult for women, who rely on mouth movements to understand what he's saying. Incidentally, I have a female friend who is a deaf comedy fan. This friend also says that Kyogoku's mouth movements are hard to understand.
I love 9th Street Retro's comedy routines because they always cheer me up, but it's frustrating when I don't understand them. I really want to be able to laugh at 9th Street Retro's jokes from beginning to end, just like someone who can hear.
Watching the stand-up comedy video of 9th Street Retro, it's clear that Kyogoku's mouth movements are small, and her profile is particularly difficult to read. So, we went to the theater to meet 9th Street Retro and honestly explained our request. The client suggested that it might be easier to understand if they were at a distance where they were "like the center microphone." When she actually acted as the center microphone and performed their stand-up comedy, it was "incredibly easy to understand." However, that's usually physically impossible. So, what was the next idea they came up with?
