6 thoughts on “Slip sliding away”

  1. I spent a month in Japan on business in the late 1980’s. They are a very sick people. One comedy showed them testing skyscraper escape tubes. Fabric tubes that you go into head first that take you slowly down the outside of high buildings (in case of fires, earthquakes, etc.). They tied the bottom ends shut, and when people reached the ends, and started screaming in panic, they would beat them with sticks. Ha ha ha?

    Another show capitalized on a solid Japanese tradition of folks making citizen’s arrests. Far safer than trying to do so here in the U.S. as “criminals” would realize their mistake and the near certainty of being found later, and would go along. But the “bad person” (an actor) who was harassing an old woman would pull out a stick and start beating the good citizen. Then when the good person was on the ground would pull out a sign that said “smile, you’re on candid camera!” On one particularly “entertaining” episode the arrester pulled out a larger stick and started whaling away at the actor’s head and shoulders. He went down and the guy continued beating him. He got up and was chased by the other guy for a couple of blocks, being struck nearly constantly. Struck hard, mind you. Got trapped in a dead-end alley, and after being beaten bloody, curled into a fetal position, begging for his life, the “bad person” pulled out a sign that said “smile, you’re on candid camera.” Ya, loads of fun.

Comments are closed.