日本で一番面白いボスです

Last night, Steve Carell participated in one of the funniest SNL Digital Shorts I have seen in a long time. Now, it’s kind of a stretch, as far as Tofugu’s “Japanese Culture and Language” theme goes, but I feel that it’s interesting enough to warrant a post. Here’s the video, after the break:

Also available here.

If you could understand everything the actors were saying, congratulations. Which is not to say that they’re speaking in tremendously advanced Japanese; it’s just that their accents are so thick (Steve Carell’s especially) that at times I had to strain towards my speakers in an attempt to make out the actual words. Anyway, I hope you found this little video amusing. My favorite part was definitely the bit where they do rajio taiso (ラジオ体操 or “radio exercises”), which many Japanese companies actually do encourage their workers to preform.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    I’ve got some time on my hands, so here’s a rough transcription for anyone interested:

    Pam: もしもし、Dundlermiflin Co.、パムです。
    Michael: パムパムパム。。。さん。
    Pam: マイケルさん、何ですか?
    Michael: そう言ったもんです。

    Michael: 日本で、一番面白いボスです

    Dwight: もしもし?
    Jim: Staplerは。。。どこですか?
    Dwight: アッ!バカ!
    Michael: これは何ですか。
    Dwight: ごめんなさい。
    Pam, Jim, Dwight: ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい。

    *Commercial*

    Michael: 僕は君たちのRegional Manager。
    Dwight: 僕はAssistant Regional Manager。
    Michael: Regional ManagerのAssistantです。どうしてここにいるの(?)だ?
    MIchael: じゃあ、ラジオ体操をしましょう!

    Pam: マイケルさんは皆の健康を心配しています!

    Michael: では、いい日でした。いい仕事をした。そう思う。。。かな? 
    Michael Bobblehead: はい、はい、はい!

    *Karaoke Scene*

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    the ‘gomennasai gomennasai gomennasai’ part was classic. nice find!

  • JohtoKen

    お姫さまタンポンww

  • http://www.goddesscarlie.com GoddessCarlie

    I believe my comment was eaten by a bad internet connection. Anyway, I enjoyed it, and understood 99% of what was said which is also fantastic. I have trouble “hearing” when there is lots of background noise, like the laughter, I find, I feel like I can’t hear it all, but I still understood it…

  • fredydb327

    I saw this yesterday as well and was like “WHAT!?”

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Most Japanese women don’t even use tampons XD

  • http://youtube.com/profile?user=chokudori クリス

    That was great. I couldn’t stop laughing. Only if every episode was in Japanese.

    ”ステプラどこですか?”。。。”バカ!”

    fantastic lol

  • http://youtube.com/ch1ka ch1ka

    Oh my! the tampon advert was scary! and hilarious!

  • Pete

    I’ve always hated the Office over here (UK) and have never seen the american version, but can’t imagine I’d enjoy it.
    If all episodes were filmed using dodgy Japanese, then it might appeal to me.
    Still, gotta give credit to the writers for coming up with this, it’s one of the few genuinely funny sketches I’ve seen from The Office.

    BTW I only understood maybe 75% of the spoken Japanese so thanks for the transcript :O)

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    You’re welcome, Pete!

  • Zaywex

    You think they were making fun of the fact that a cooking show (forget the name) was coppied of the Japanese by the Americans?

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    料理の鉄人?nah, they were mostly making fun of the fact that american office was copied off of the british office

  • mmnessa

    Finally the office does something right, LMAO “it’s funny because…it’s racist”

  • Hans

    I don’t know if I could have figured out some of this without the transcript. Well, I suppose I could figure out most of it on repeated hearings. Despite knowing all of the Japanese they used, their pronunciation is so goofy – especially Michael’s.

  • jordan

    i have a friend who lives in the UK and he cant view this clip supposedly because of his ip adress not being a US one?
    but i see above me a UKer is able to view it….. so idk what’s wrong
    and i can’t find this clip anywhere else, i really wanted to show it to my friend :(

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Hmm… I don’t really know what to tell you. You could look around on iTunes and see if they sell SNL episodes, I suppose. Too bad that the Youtube videos got taken down.

  • http://www.michaelburnner.com oo0speed0oo
  • http://fangirlsdiary.livejournal.com/ Aranka

    The link works, thanks a lot (^^)
    The accents are unbelieveable xD Recognizable as Japanese, but almost unitelligble XD
    I hope I’ll do a lot better next year. The one thing I have going for me is that I’m not American (no offense ;D).

    Really cool stuff, thanks a lot! Love the site <33

  • paranoid

    Loved it!

  • keikan16

    SNL rocks, I loved this video…I as well understood some of what they were saying….My favorite is the secretary.

  • Fitzy

    Ugh, not doing Japanese for the past 4 years have hurt me… no idea what they were saying >.<

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    don’t worry, it’s pretty hard to understand what they are saying for pretty much anyone

  • Fitzy

    Ah good, I’m not as retarded as I thought.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    That’s what the transcript is for! Hehe.

  • Fitzy

    Yeah… I can’t read that anymore… I suck. Well I mean I can say it… so I’m half way there. Someone needs to kidnap me and drop me in the middle of rural Japan for a year, then I can force myself to remember.

  • emiko

    the tampon comercial was a bit scary

  • Kitam

    yea.. i didnt understand anything that isnt repeated in anime over and over..
    dont look down on me =(.. i just started learning japanese like 4 days ago

  • duseldorf

    man! lol ilike the stapeler bit

  • duseldorf

    man! lol ilike the stapeler bit

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    Pam: もしもし、Dundlermiflin Co.、パムです。
    Michael: パムパムパム。。。さん。
    Pam: マイケルさん、何ですか?
    Michael: そう言ったもんです。

    Michael: 日本で、一番面白いボスです

    Dwight: もしもし?
    Jim: Staplerは。。。どこですか?
    Dwight: アッ!バカ!
    Michael: これは何ですか。
    Dwight: ごめんなさい。
    Pam, Jim, Dwight: ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい。

    *Commercial*

    Michael: 僕は君たちのRegional Manager。
    Dwight: 僕はAssistant Regional Manager。
    Michael: Regional ManagerのAssistantです。どうしてここにいるの(?)だ?
    MIchael: じゃあ、ラジオ体操をしましょう!

    Pam: マイケルさんは皆の健康を心配しています!

    Michael: では、いい日でした。いい仕事をした。そう思う。。。かな? 
    Michael Bobblehead: はい、はい、はい!

  • http://www.handbags-club.com/ Designer handbags

    Pam: もしもし、Dundlermiflin Co.、パムです。
    Michael: パムパムパム。。。さん。
    Pam: マイケルさん、何ですか?
    Michael: そう言ったもんです。

    Michael: 日本で、一番面白いボスです

    Dwight: もしもし?
    Jim: Staplerは。。。どこですか?
    Dwight: アッ!バカ!
    Michael: これは何ですか。
    Dwight: ごめんなさい。
    Pam, Jim, Dwight: ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい。

    *Commercial*

    Michael: 僕は君たちのRegional Manager。
    Dwight: 僕はAssistant Regional Manager。
    Michael: Regional ManagerのAssistantです。どうしてここにいるの(?)だ?
    MIchael: じゃあ、ラジオ体操をしましょう!

    Pam: マイケルさんは皆の健康を心配しています!

    Michael: では、いい日でした。いい仕事をした。そう思う。。。かな? 
    Michael Bobblehead: はい、はい、はい!