Request Segment

Kohaku: Okay, next up’s the request segment. I didn’t think it’d be any fun if I picked the requests myself, so I left that to the staff.

Now what did they end up choosin’? Umm... “I’d like to see you talk in standard Japanese.”

Oh wow, they even put together a worksheet for speakin’ in standard Japanese. It says... “‘S that a chow-chow yonder? Naw, that ain’t no chow-chow, can’t be.”^[1]

I’m pretty sure this is more of a thing Kagehira-han’d say, but whatever.

All right, here I go. “Is that a chow-chow over there? No, that ain’t a chow-chow; it can’t be.” ...Huh? I messed up near the end?

Ngh~ Ain’t standard Japanese the one HiMERU-han an’ the others speak? Then...

“Do you think that dog over there could be a chow-chow? No, I do not think it’s a chow-chow.” Got it! So? How’d I do?

1. (sobbing) The original here is 『あれ、チャウチャウちゃう？チャウチャウちゃうんちゃう？』 (are, chau-chau chau? chau-chau chaun chau?) which is... a meme? It’s a joke among comedians when commenting on Kansaiben. So the joke is hinged on the word chau, which in Kansaiben means “to differ” (in standard Japanese, this equivalent would be “chigau” so it’s just shortened). In this scenario, two people are talking and point into the distance and the first person goes, “Hey, that’s a chow-chow, isn’t it?” and the second responds, “No, it’s not a chow-chow, right?” and it’s funny because all of the words involved in this are “chau.” The next line is Kohaku commenting on this being more of Mika’s Kansai dialect than his own, and then he uses a half-Kansai, half-standard Japanese and then a fully standard (and polite) Japanese to respond. Christ alive.