Amazon Prime has recovered the spirit of the mythical ‘Yellow mood’ with ‘Takeshi’s Castle’, the new version of the famous program in which a group of Japanese dare with crazy physical tests, and that arrives on the platform this Monday, July 10. the comedians Daniel Rovira and Jorge Ponce are now the benders, along with Eva Soriano. “The Japanese are very similar to the Spanish when it comes to joking,” says the protagonist of ‘Ocho apellidos vascos’.
Do you follow the scripts to the letter or do you have room for improvisation?
Dani Rovira: ‘Fifty fifty’. We have some great scripts, but they are still a mattress on which we decide if we want to lie down or not.
Jorge Ponce: That happens a lot in comedy. What comes to mind in the moment is always very lively, even if it’s not a better joke than what you have in the text, and we didn’t want to lose that on the show.
Dani Rovira: And then there are the dialogues. When the characters began to speak, we were really talking to each other, and that has stuck, because, to offend, improvisation is very important.
Jorge Ponce: We have insulted each other a lot. And that has to come from the heart.
Have they been insulted so much?
Dani Rovira: It’s just that there were many hours, and there’s nothing more fun than insulting a comedian. I love being disrespected by a comedian. I think it’s our code, our way of showing affection.
‘Yellow humor’ became very popular in Spain in the 90s, but since then comedy has changed a lot. Do you think ‘Takeshi’s Castle’ maintains the same essence or have you had to be more careful with your jokes?
Jorge Ponce: I think that both the program from the 90s and the one from now are pure nonsense, with people falling down and us making jokes about it. What has been adapted is the title, which has been a fairly correct decision by Amazon. Expressions like ‘yellow humor’ and ‘Chinese Cudeiro’ are not terrible, but rather from another era. Now there is more sensitivity to that and I think it is good that this step has been taken. But the nonsense is.
Dani Rovira: And the essence. We are seeing images that do not correspond at all with what the characters say, as before. And within that humor there are many things that do not make sense, so that part of surrealism and absurdity continues to have it, as when it was dubbed by Juan Herrera, a wonderful comedian from whom we have all drunk.
Jorge Rovira: We also wanted to have Fernando Costilla and Paco Bravo (the dubbers of the program when it was broadcast in 2006). In the original ‘show’ there was a reporter who was dressed as an explorer and now there are two, so it’s them.
What does it mean for a comedian to be on a show like this?
Jorge Ponce: It is a program that has made us laugh a lot and it is very strong that now we are the ones who have the opportunity to transmit those laughs to people.
Dani Rovira: It means being part of the nostalgia of the kids of the future. The idea is a bit that the new generations also get on Takeshi’s ship of the absurd.
As in the original show, here their comments have nothing to do with what they say in the Japanese version, which we don’t know if they produce so many laughs…
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Dani Rovira: We will never know that nor do we want to know. What must be recognized is that 90% of the merit of the program belongs to those who appear on the screen. For me, Japanese is very similar to Spanish in terms of joking around. They have an ancient culture, in which respect prevails, but then there is a part of their essence that is a constant bachelor party and they sign up for whatever has to be done. It’s a wonderful attitude and don’t think that everyone in Spain laughs like that or would do all that.
Jorge Ponce: We do have it and the first thing we asked when they told us to do the program was: but can we go give each other a good blow?
