Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today I thought we'd do another You Should Laugh More post.

Research has shown that laughter is good for us. It has all kinds of health benefits. Despite most of us knowing this, none of us laugh enough. Yeah, I know, being an adult is tough, and furthermore there is a lot of grim stuff happening in the world. These things may be true, but that just is all the more reason for trying to get a little laughter into our lives.

Today I want to share a few hilarious clips from Ken Shimura. These are in Japanese and at least the first is without subtitles, but you don't need to understand exactly what they are saying to understand the situation.

Ken Shimura was something close to a comedy God in Japan. He was a member of the legendary Drifters who were something of a Monty Python-esque group, doing a similar kind of comedy show. In the case of the Drifters, their main show It's 8 o'clock! Everybody Gather 'Round (8時だョ!全員集合Hachijidayo! Zen'inshugo) lasted 16 years and 803 episodes. Much of the time the show was the highest rated show on, and in total it is one of the highest rated show of all time in Japan. After the show ended in 1985 they continued to do specials every now and again until the first of them, Chō-san, died in 2004.

I'll maybe write about the Drifters in the future, but of the group Ken Shimura was by far the most successful and popular. He hosted numerous shows and was frequent guest star on many other shows. He remained active and very popular until he died of Covid-19 in 2020 at age 70.

This skit is from one of his later shows, after Hachijidayo! Zen'inshugo ended. You can probably follow along. Ken Shimura is the old man who spills the noodles, an old man who has an amusing surprise.

But I can't leave you with just one, can I? Here's another funny clip, and I found one with English subtitles for you. The premise might seem a little strange to some of you not in Japan, but it's actually a somewhat common situation here. People very commonly fall asleep in the train, and having them accidentally lean on you while sitting is also not unheard of. I've had it happen. And just like this clip suggests, when it's a young pretty lady, you leave them be, but when it's a guy you push them away. Well, maybe not as rudely as he does in the video.

Anyway, enjoy:

Oh, what the heck, we'll go for one more to make it a nice three. Three is the magic number, after all.

This is an old Drifters skit that Shimura reused in several of his shows. This time he featured Leslie Nielsen, whom I'm sure most of you know. It's a funny skit. Shimura knew and could speak English, but I'm not sure how many others of the crew would have, so this was probably an interesting experience for Nielsen.

So what do you think? Did it make you laugh or was it just stupid? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.