Kazuyoshi Morita – better known as Tamori-san, the pet name that a loving Japanese public has addressed him by for decades – is one of the longest-running comedians to appear on Japanese TV. He’s been around so long, we assume he got his start doing stand-up before TVs were even invented.
In addition to being the longest-running host of a live television program, having hosted the widely beloved morning variety show Waratteii Tomou, Tamori-san is also famous for his talent in mono mane (doing impressions). While this is common knowledge in Japan, it apparently took a decade-or-so-old clip of a (still very old-looking) younger Tamori-chan doing spot-on impressions of what foreign languages sound like to non-speakers to wake the rest of the world up to his unique skill set.
Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen or talked about someone with an uncanny ability to mimic world languages, but it is a little surprising to see it crop up in racially homogeneous Japan, where people are rarely exposed to languages other than Japanese.
Of course, most of what Tamori-san is saying in this segment is complete gibberish; it’s just approximating the various sounds made by, apparently, tour bus drivers of different nationalities escorting people around Tokyo. And, while some might be offended – it is, after all, essentially one extended “ching chang chong” joke – the North Korea bit is kind of comedy gold in our opinion.
For Japanese audiences, finally, there’s also a big payoff at the end where Tamori-chan is asked to mimic Japanese and simply speaks normally, but we wouldn’t know; it just sounded something like, “ah sou, Toyota Subaru tempura arigatou,” to us.
Source: Kaigai no Hannou