Why the BBC's attempt at atomic humor bombed in Japan

The other day a friend of mine and I were talking the about the now notorious “QI incident,” where a British game show made light of a Japanese man’s having survived both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As we chatted, he forwarded me a link to another British show by the name of “Turning Japanese.”

“Here we go again,” he said. “This one is even worse.” The Channel Five show appears to focus on some of Tokyo’s strangest spots: a lingerie shop for men, a costumed stage performance, a samurai theme park. It was superficial. It was silly. But I couldn’t find myself getting upset about it. My friend couldn’t understand.

“QI was about one man's situation,” he said. “But ’Turning Japanese’ is ridiculing an entire race of people!” He’s right about one thing: the foreign media always loves a good “wacky Japan” story.

And superficially, the image of a British comedian running around Tokyo in a bra seems like a bigger slap in the face than a panel of comedians discussing a nuclear survivor. But you can’t compare these things one to one; they’re both “fruit” of a sort, but they’re apples and oranges.

There are two types of humor: laughing with someone, and laughing at them. It’s all about position. When you put yourself in the same space as someone, you’re in a position to laugh WITH them.

When you’re at a significant remove however, you’re completely isolated from the effects. You’re setting yourself up to be seen as laughing AT someone.

A British guy strutting on a stage in a silly costume in Japan? He’s making as much of an idiot of himself as the guys he’s covering, and doing it right in front of them. That’s entertainment.

A British guy making quips about the survivor of not one but two atomic bombings? That’s out of line. One is laughing with the Japanese; the other is laughing at them.

Imagine this: what if a Japanese variety show sandwiched a survivor of the 2005 London Underground bombings between photos of the mayhem, set to a laugh track? I’m sure furious Brits would have besieged the Japanese embassy with angry calls, and I wouldn’t blame them.

Why? Because making light of a tragedy from the safety of a distant land isn’t funny. It’s clueless and condescending.

The show’s host, producers, and network have since apologized, claiming that their intent wasn’t to offend. But when you make a big enough goof, intent is beside the point. And trust me, there’s no bigger goof to make than this one in Japan.

Regardless of how you feel about the military necessity of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is a fact that the bombs killed hundreds and thousands of people instantly, the vast majority of them civilians. That would be bad enough fodder for a joke, but the effects of the radiation carried over into the children and children’s children of the survivors.

In fact, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the man profiled on QI, lived not only through the bombings but also through the early deaths of his wife and son by cancer.

Treating someone like this with anything other than kid gloves isn’t just disrespectful to them. It’s like a punch to the gut for Japanese, who know far more about the devastation wrought by the bombs than outsiders do.

The BBC may not have intended to cause offense, but that’s exactly what they did.

I don’t want to give you the idea that Japanese are ready to jump on anyone who mentions the word Hiroshima or Nagasaki, however.

But if you take anything away from this, it should be to think twice before making jokes about sensitive issues. Sounds like common sense –- but you’d be surprised how many otherwise sensible people forget that sometimes.

Youtube clip is here.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hiroko Yoda.