Japanese pranks...BWAHAHAHA! Awww....!

I think that part of the charm behind Japanese variety shows is the fact that they really feel no compunction to pull their punches when coming up with pranks to spring on the next unfortunate bystander/celebrity that they can get their hands on.

I'm sure that if I were on the receiving end of these pranks I probably wouldn't feel the same way. However, there's just something very funny about watching someone else unwittingly suffer at the hands of some elaborate ruse set up all for the sake of television.

Of course there's always a fine line between comedy and outright cruelty and these pranks constantly toe the proverbial line.

Sometimes, it just comes down to a matter of personal opinion.

For example, check out Exhibit A, wherein a Japanese idol group, Morning Musume, are being forced to watch the 1998 classic Japanese horror film, "Ring" in a dimly lit television studio.

For those who haven't watched the film yet either because they've been too busy or are too much of a wuss to, there's a scene at the climax of the movie where a girl in a cursed video clip clambers out of the television screen and proceeds to kill the viewer (so now you get why a girl, coming out of a TV set with hair like Cousin Itt from the Addams Family, would incite so much fear).

So...comedy or cruelty? (I vote comedy)

Now take a look at Exhibit B: Three Japanese kids being led to believe that they are being attacked by a "zombie". Of course, the kids are adorable running around the house executing "zombie counter measures" but these kids could seriously be scarred for life!

Comedy or cruelty? I think this one took the gag a little too far. Sure, it was quite funny, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for these kids. One of the boys looks like he's only about 4 years old. Awww! Poor kid!

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Edit: I can't seem to hunt down the behind-the-scenes footage but from memory, you basically find out that the mother was the one who dobbed them into a local talk show since she thought it was really cute the way her kids kept obsessing over anti-zombie traps for their house.

The talk show host arrived at their house earlier on under the pretext that he wanted to learn more about what counter-measures they had thought up and asked them to set the house up as if a zombie would come and attack them at any moment.