Last night, instead of going to sleep at a relatively reasonable hour like I should have, I stayed up to see if anything interesting was on TV. Lo and behold, among the plethora of programs featuring celebrities eating and badly dubbed American infomercials, I discovered yet another example of WTF-to-the-MAXXX!

On Tuesday nights on TBS there’s a variety show called Dragon & Ball Hour starring the combined members of the comedy duos Drunk Dragon and Football Hour. I hadn’t seen it before, but it seemed to be pretty standard fare as far as Japanese comedy shows go — bad wigs, cross-dressing, corny jokes and a peculiar fondness for smacking people over the head — except for one segment.

Unfortunately, I only caught the last few minutes of it, but it basically seemed to go something like this: a group of 20 or so women were standing on a stage, and each comedian was given a chance to make a guess about some criteria the women might possess (for example, one comedian asked if any of the women owned garter belts). If there were any women among the group who met the criteria, they would remain standing while those who didn’t meet the criteria would sit down. The next comedian would then get a chance to make a guess about the remaining women standing. In the end, if one comedian narrowed the group down to one last woman, he would win a kiss.

. . . Or something like that. I apologize for the shoddy description, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Anyhow, in the last round, only two women remained standing. The comedians made their guesses, but one-by-one, they failed. Their fate: The Punishment Game. What, pray tell, is The Punishment Game? Please allow me to illustrate with the following images:

(Yes, I had my camera handy while watching TV. Yes, I know that’s pathetic.)

Here, Tsukaji Muga of Drunk Dragon (bottom left) makes his guess. [BTW, I have no idea why the woman on the right is wearing a crown and robe.] Unfortunately, I didn’t hear what Muga said (I had the volume turned down because Judy was in the next room sleeping), but whatever guess he ventured was FALSE!

The sound of the buzzer brought the arrival of. . .

Three ripped black guys in briefs!

What followed next was madness. The three guys proceeded to strip Muga of his clothes, spread his legs in the air and slap him around like a little bitch. Observe:

Um. . . yeah, that pretty much left me speechless.