JaruJaru faces what they think is funny and creates new forms of comedy

Entertainer Jar Jar
Junpei Goto and Shusuke Fukutoku

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Formed in 2003, this comedy duo consists of Junpei Goto and Shusuke Fukutoku, who were high school classmates and members of the same rugby club. They post their material daily on YouTube's JaruJaru Tower.
JaruJaru will hold a solo tour with 23 performances in 11 venues in 9 cities nationwide!! —JaruJaru in Spring/Summer 2023— I've become stupid x
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JaruJaru continues to take on new challenges, such as comedy cinema, overseas tours, and daily posting of comedy sketch videos on their YouTube channel. We spoke to the duo about their journey so far, their thoughts on manzai, and what they value.

Fukutoku: We met in the rugby club in high school. We got along really well and enjoyed spending time together, so we decided to continue living together and became comedians.

Goto: There wasn't any big trigger, we just naturally became partners.

Fukutoku: I turned 40 this year and feel like I'm getting older, but when I look next to me and have a partner who is getting older with me, I feel a sense of security and I'm glad we formed a duo.

Goto: The appeal of being a comedian is that we get a sense of satisfaction when the audience enjoys the material we create together from scratch. We sometimes get comments from people saying that watching our material helped them when they were struggling, and it makes us happy to know that we were able to help them.

Goto: It was tough when I wasn't passing auditions. Even if I thought something was interesting, I had to rely on other people's opinions.

Fukutoku: This is a unique job where as long as both of us are OK with it, that's enough. Of course, we want recognition, but it's also a world where we can do without it, and I'm confident that we'll get recognition someday.

Goto: When I watch old videos, I feel like I still have a long way to go. In the end, you get better by continuing to perform in front of an audience.

Fukutoku: I never watch the programs I appear in. I'll keep working hard until I can watch myself.

Goto: Even with material I've been using for a long time, I've continued to fine-tune it to make it more appealing to the audience, and that's how I've arrived at the form I have today. I don't consciously try to improve my expressiveness, but perhaps it's just through these fine-tunings that I've naturally improved.

Fukutoku: To be honest, material that is completed by repeatedly adding and subtracting isn't very funny.
The material that we do without any purpose, just the two of us doing it, like the seeds of the material we post on YouTube, is often more interesting.

Fukutoku: We create the material by talking together, but it's quite unique so it's difficult to explain.

Goto: We skip all discussions about plot development and setting. We've been spending time together since we were university students, just rehearsing material, and sometimes playing Shiritori (a Japanese word chain game) for over an hour leads to new material.

Fukutoku: I usually try to stay relaxed and not get too carried away with one thing. I like Bruce Lee's words, "Don't think! Feel." Rather than thinking about how to write a comedy script, I value the mindset of doing what we find funny.
It's impossible not to be nervous during a performance, so I try to practice while being as nervous as possible so that I can perform well even when I'm nervous.

Goto: I think you just have to get used to it. It's scary when your jokes get lost, but if they do, you just have to deal with it when the time comes.

Goto: Until recently, I would show my material on stage and occasionally on TV, but I discovered that there are many different ways to present it, such as on YouTube and in comedy shows. I think it would be interesting to continue creating sketches and come up with new ways to present them.

Fukutoku: I think it's good to have comedy at the core.

Goto: We're not the type to have much ambition ourselves, and our goals and ambitions tend to be based on suggestions that are made to us. We were encouraged by those around us to perform overseas and upload daily material to YouTube, so we went along with it, but we'd like to continue being a duo that others can suggest to us in the future.

Student Newspaper April 1, 2023 Issue by Tsuda University 4th Year Student Satoshi Okawa