Video disappears from official account after O’Brien and Jordan Schlansky anger Toto showroom rep.
Earlier this month, American late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien visited Japan, delving into cute “kawaii” culture on the streets of Harajuku, hamming it up with Associate Producer and comedy pal Jordan Schlansky, and grilling hamburgers with the Mayor of Hokuei, aka Conan Town.
During his travels around Japan, Conan and his team were happy to share behind-the-scenes footage for fans as well, streaming clips live on Conan’s official Facebook page for their 3.8 million followers. However, one of the live videos mysteriously disappeared within hours of being broadcast.
Filmed at the Toto Showroom in Tokyo, the clip showed Conan and Jordan discussing Japanese toilets with Mr Kuwahara, a representative from Toto, the company who first invented the integrated electronic washlet bidet in 1980, and who now prides itself as Japan’s leading manufacturer of luxury toilets and bidets throughout the world.
However, the visit didn’t go without a hitch, as the Toto representative ended up losing his temper with Conan and Jordan after they refused to comply with his requests to not use the bidet with Jordan sitting on it.
While the video of their visit was erased from the TeamCoco Facebook page, a fan account uploaded the video to YouTube. The footage is grainy, but it can be viewed in full below:
At almost an hour-and-a-half long, there’s a lot to watch here, but the moment where the Toto rep loses his cool can be viewed from the 1:18:15 mark. This is when Kuwahara can be heard raising his voice, turning away from the two while firmly saying in Japanese to the interpreter, “Kore wa iya desu. Yamete kudasai”, which translates to “This is no good. Please stop.”
While the literal translation sounds polite, the nuance is actually more forceful and brusque. Take a look at the tense moment below:
Japanese people are known for their non-confrontational nature, and watching the clip leading up to this moment shows Kuwahara had refrained from speaking his mind at several points, trying to remain polite before eventually raising his voice.
So what exactly happened? Well, to start with, Kuwahara wasn’t immediately comfortable about having someone sit on their showroom toilet, but he finally allowed it, saying Jordan could sit on one as long as they didn’t operate the washlet at the same time.
However, after Jordan sat on the toilet, Conan started pressing buttons on the washlet’s operating panel and each time he did, the sound of rushing water could be heard and Kuwahara stepped in to press the stop button. After Conan continued to press the buttons, Kuwahara finally raised his voice, telling them in no uncertain terms to stop, at which point Conan says, “Oh, he doesn’t want us to do this.”
Kuwahara continued to talk to the interpreter in an authoritative tone, saying that filming this part is definitely “NG” (no good) as it would damage their business. The interpreter then told Conan that they won’t be able to broadcast any of this, only the part up until Jordan sits on the toilet, and Aaron Bleyeart, who filmed the clip, took this as his cue to take the camera away from the scene.
▼ They still managed to get footage of Jordan’s wet butt for the show, though.
The comments by Bleyeart earlier in the clip, suggesting that Jordan would be sitting on one of the toilets, along with the quiet discussions between Conan, Jordan and the producers in between filming, suggests Jordan getting his pants wet was part of a pre-planned comedy bit.
▼ After all, Jordan’s love of Japanese washlets is well known.
It was a cheeky move by Conan to test the rep’s limits for the sake of comedy, and after pushing the buttons on the washlet he ended up pushing Kuwahara’s buttons as well, so it will be interesting to see how they edit this scene for the upcoming show.
▼ Will they include the awkward moment when Conan walked away to talk to the producers while everyone avoided making eye contact with each other?
It’s likely that Conan and his team pulled the video from their official Facebook page to respect Kuwahara’s request that they not broadcast the part where Conan wet Jordan’s pants with the washlet. Whether Kuwahara was aware that Bleyeart was live-streaming all this as it happened to thousands of viewers, though, remains unknown.
Source: Facebook/teamcoco
Featured image: Instagram/jordanschlansky
Insert images: YouTube/Conando O’Brien