Kasou Taishou (translated: "Costume Grand Prix" or "Maquerade Contest") has aired semi-annually in Japan since 1979. Since then, it's been a popular competition in which amateurs perform short skits which are rated by a panel of judges.

There are ten judges who can give a skit 0, 1, or 2 points for a maximum of 20 points. Earning 15 points is considered a major achievement and earns a medal for the team (sometimes an individual).

Some of you have probably seen the show without realizing it. This video became popular on the internet after it won the competition in 2003.

Matrix Ping Pong- 69th Grand Prix Champion

The skits make extensive use of kurokos, a stagehand usually in all black costume to imply they are invisible and not actually part of what's happening on the stage.

The participants are often remarkably ingenious and create stunning illusions, some of which the judges and audience don't understand even after the skit is over.





Here are some videos from recent competitions.

78th Grand Prix (5/10/07)

Daikon

Shoes- Hard Work Prize

Thunderbirds- Best Humor

All Messed Up- Best Idea

That was Hot- 3rd Prize

The Reason She Got Mad at Me- 2nd Prize

Reflection- Champion


79th Grand Prix (01/05/08)

Olympic Games Highlights

Cursed Room

Friend in the Graffiti

UFO- Hard Work Prize

Bubble Fantasy- Best Fantasy

Skiing- Best Humor

Music Video- Best Tecnique

Washing Machine- Best Idea

Chasing Lupin- 3rd Prize

Stair Falling- 2nd Prize

Clock- Champion


80th Grand Prix (05/03/08)

Massage Chair

Cutting

Base Stealing- Best Idea

Bandage Cinema- Best Tecnique

Chameleon- 2nd Prize

Orangutan Conductor- Champion



These videos are from other Kasou Taishou competitions.

Manzai

Pole Vault

Super Mario

Thief

Breakout

Hammer Throw

Tunnel Opening

Karate

Cards Duel for Queen

Scuba Diving (poor video quality)

Shall We Dance?- 77th Grand Prix, 3rd Prize

Hokusai meets Salvador Dali- 77th Grand Prix Champion

Terminator- 72nd Grand Prix Champion

Shadow Basketball- 67th Grand Prix Champion

I didn't watch all but the Matrix Pingpong is pretty good.

Lots of these are really good. Thanks for putting a collection of the videos together.

Haha that's pretty awesome

made me think of this clip

asian girl head trick

Is this from that show?

That head trick is indeed from Kasou Taishou. You can see her scoring twenty points and getting the medal at the end.

You're the king of Japanese shows.

I loved the show where the guy had to enter contests to survive and the other eps in that series. Are there any other shows that are similar to that?

I was really hoping Hulu.com was going to come through with more videos from Denpa Shonen.

Unfortunatley, Hulu took down the whole Nasubi season and the entire Gaki no Tsukai page. It doesn't seem like anybody is subbing this show and uploading to You Tube or other non-torrent sites.

HAHAHAHA the washing machine one is hilarious. Love Japanese humor & TV. Shame i can't watch the hulu ones in the UK

Thanks Dynasty:

I watched the first set and enjoyed them. Will watch more later. I did sneak a look at the 79th Grand Prix champion, Clock. Ummm, I don't know how that won. Seemed pretty mediocre imo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRHQUb6YJq8 this is the 55 yr old man dancing with himself. i would LOVE to see a movie about this... some poor no family 55 yr old man watches the show on tv and gets inspired. movie follows his yr long journey to create this, and his eventual 3rd place, which is bittersweet.

Just watched thru the 79th Grand Prix. The two I liked the most didn't seem to win anything, Olympic Highlights and Friend in the Graffiti.

Also found this link which shows a brief clip of the winners of this competition for the last 30 years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xltzz...eature=related

so rigged that 'the reason she got mad at me' lost to 'reflection'

both were sick but come on now

I'm at work, so no sound and I didn't feel like wading through the idiotic youtube comments to find an explanation. What made this one so great? It was really lame compared to a lot of the others from the same episode.

I'm sure Clock won because of the humor. It was obvious the audience thought it was hilarious.

A lot of Japanese humor is based on how a lot of words sound the same or can have multiple meanings. I think that was a part of what was happening here.