Characters
The show's MC, Mr Banzai, played by opera singer Masashi Fujimoto, did not speak except for saying and singing the word "Banzai" in different ways. Mr Banzai acted as referee for many of the contests, directing participants to begin by solemnly clapping his hands and emitting a kiai.
Other regular contributors included Mr. Shake-Hands Man who tried to maintain a handshake with people for as long as possible. He was later replaced when he became too well-known with Mr. Shake-Hands Man 2 (played by Japanese-American actor Tadao Tomomatsu), who did the same thing, although his role was mainly with celebrities. There was also Lady One Question played by non-professional Shizuka Hata, who posed as a celebrity reporter, asked a single interview question and then stared silently at the interviewee. In both of these segments, viewers were invited to bet on how long it took the celebrity to put a stop to the ruse. Often appearing between segments was Mr Cheeky Chappie (Jit Loi Chong), wiggling his spectacles and grinning.
Voiceovers were provided by Burt Kwouk and Eiji Kusuhara.
Read more about this topic: Banzai (TV series)
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
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—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
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which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)
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—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)