Netajin is the name of a series of comedic skits done by Japanese comedian Tomonori Jinnai. Essentially, each skit has him acting out a one-man Manzai routine, where he functions as the Tsukkomi and the boke is usually an inanimate object that has decided to stop working for him. Notably, almost all of the skits feature him interacting with a large screen on his right that is something different every time, like a TV, arcade machine, airplane safety video, etc. Though none of the skits were initially given English subtitles officially, some nice people at TV-Nihon
went and did the first 3 volumes themselves. You can find some of the subtitled skits on YouTube (see here, though the ones posted by Jodi Caesarnada have been blocked for copyright) or you can download them all straight from TV-Nihon.
In March 2021, an official channel dedicated to uploading Netajin skits with English subtitles went live, which can be found here. However, the subtitles aren't quite as polished as the aforementioned unauthorized source.
Tropes present in Netajin include:
- As Himself: Tomonori’s character shares his name and is also a comedian, although his character is stated to be younger than him (he’s 30 in Crystal Ball, when the real Tomonori was 36).
- Black Comedy: Some of the skits involve death as comedy, especially in the 3rd volume. Hell, the 6th skit of the 3rd volume stats with Tomonori about to hang himself because of Japan's "Lost Decade" recession, only to meet a talking cicada that really is about to die. Many jokes are then made about the behavior of cicadas and the talking one manages to convince Tomonori to live.
- Butt-Monkey: Tomonori never gets what he wants, no matter what. Everything seems to be conspiring against him in the most outrageous ways.
- Call-Back: One of the ringtones in Lost and Found is the weird school anthem from, well, School Anthem.
- Clue of Few Words: Parodied in one of Japanese comedian Tomonori Jinnai's skits; he plays a police officer who is investigating a series of murders, where the victim has written a clue in their own blood as they died. However, the clues are not as straightforward, do not make sense, or, for humor, outright defy the trope. As a few examples out of the two versions of the skit that were performed, one victim has written what appears to be the name of the suspect, but when read in Kansai dialect in Kanji, it translates to "What the hell?!" Another one has written and drawn an apology notice for inconveniencing their friends and family (even with a bowing character), and as a final example, one drew the music staff and notes for the death theme from Super Mario Bros..
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Tetris, it's subverted at first because the first two levels are completely unloseable, but then it's exaggerated when the game employs several outrageous tactics to get Tomonori to lose. It uses super tiny blocks, goes too fast, and then becomes a Mario game at the end.
- Also, the Zombie Game Tomonori plays requires him to pay 500 yen to win against the final boss.
- Creepy Child: Downplayed for comedy, but Tomonori says that of the kids in Graduation, because of their strange school song. It involves, among other things, three students getting left behind in "darkest France" and the vice-principal(s?) causing an outbreak of some sort.
- Cultural Translation: When doing his skits in the US, certain references have to be changed to suit the country. This includes having candy-crush and Spider-Man appear in Tetris instead of Puyo-Puyo and Mario (the latter is odd considering most people in the US also know Mario), and changing the name of the soccer player in Driving School.
- Kafka Komedy: The humor in the skits comes from the audience watching Tomonori fail even though he doesn't do anything to deserve it. Poor guy just can't catch a break! subverted in the skit about suicide, where Tomonori loses his job but is still convinced to not kill himself.
- Manchild: Tomonori seems to be one in-character. He tries to teach his parrot the word “booger” by actually showing him one, can’t yet drive, and never seems to succeed in dating.
- Mood Whiplash: The skits sometimes play this for laughs (usually by randomly saying that someone died), but out-of-universe, this can happen when switching between some of the more innocent skits and some of the darker ones (i.e. the attempted-suicide one).
- No Indoor Voice: Because he’s the Tsukkomi, 90% of Tomonori’s dialogue is shouted.
- Not in Front of the Parrot!: Tomonori's parrot gets him in trouble with his girlfriend and his landlady by spouting book quotes out of context, and it also doesn't help that Tomonori isn't even supposed to have a pet in the first place.
- Only Sane Man: Tomonori frequently complains about how weird everything and everyone around him is.
- Painting the Medium: The subtleties of any language can’t really come across if you don’t speak it, so the subtitles sometimes have to show them in various ways. In the case of Netajin, this is accomplished in a few ways:
- If characters start speaking gibberish, the subtitles will start showing random shapes instead of letters
- In the skit Peddlers, when Jinnai is solicited by 20 potato sellers at the same time, 20 copies of the subtitles are shown in a pile on screen. Also, when three peddlers race by him, so do the subtitles.
- Plane Awful Flight: Airplane (no, not that one). The pilot pretends to be a terrorist, chewing-gum is provided as a substitute for airbags, and there aren't oxygen masks but instead just scrolls that read "good luck!". Tomonori lampshades this by saying that he's never even heard of this particular airline.
- Shout-Out: Plenty. Almost all of them are in reference to some Japanese media (naturally), so the subtitled versions have to explain the joke. See Cultural Translation above.
- Surrealism: Half the joke is seeing what utterly random shit will happen to Tomonori. The other half is his reaction to all of it, and how he has no control no matter how much yelling he does.
- That One Boss: Invoked. The final boss of Zombie Game is so hard, Jinnai actually has to pay 500 yen just to win.
- Toilet Humor: Many of the skits talk about mucus, ear wax, and especially poop.
