All About The Takeru Kobayashi\DragonBall SNL Parody.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Yes, this was shown in 2006 so why make a post about it now? Well I was talking to someone about this and they had no idea what I was talking about. I posted a few avatars from this and someone wanted to know where those pictures came from. If you've never seen this parody then you will probley enjoy the read ahead. If you've already seen it then hey, you've probley forgotten about it, why not revisit it!

Takeru Kobayashi had eaten an incredible amount of hot dogs and broke some records doing it. He was the champion of the Nathan hot dog eating contest 6 years in a row! Sometime in the summer of 2006, Saturday Night Live did a parody about him. This parody could of easily just been about how he somehow saves people by eating hot dogs. But no, they decided to make it an anime (which I think worked out well). This parody incorporates so many things from DragonBall it's almost a parody about DragonBall. I thought it was incredible that the people at Saturday Night Live would have this much knowledge about DragonBall to make a parody out of it. Oh well, here we go...

The very beginning of Cha-La Head Cha-La starts to play, but soon changes tunes and starts into the Kobayashi theme song! During the opening we see knock offs of Hirudegarn and Dabura





along with Kobayashi turning into a Super Saiyan and some shots straight from DragonBall itself!



The lyrics to this song are few but really make no sense. Just like Cha-La Head Cha-La! Awesome!

"Kobayashi! What hero is defined, which he exemplifies. In braveness and cultural. Kobayashi!!!"

The basis is, Kobayashi is a hero who saves people by turning Super Saiyan which gives him the power to eat a crazy amount of hot dogs and somehow save people by doing it. The dialoged itself is a joke too. The joke being the subtitles. For example, when a fire breaks out in a school and the kids yell "We do not want this", that's how they would say it in Japanese and that's normal for them. But if it was a real anime being translated to English it would probley be translated to something different.

During this cartoon they play a small sample from Faulkner's BGM, have original Japanese sound effects and come across various DragonBall knock off villains such as Ginyu, Android 20 and 19, and some variations of Freeza. Funny thing about the Androids is they really don't look like they tried to re-color them or do anything to make them not look like the official thing. Oh well.





Then there are these live action segments where Kobayashi is talking to some kids about what had just happened in the cartoon. While this is going on the background is playing various scenes from the DragonBall series\movies. The scenes are obviously strategically picked not to focus on any characters abut, you can spot a few. Check it out...



As if that wasn't enough DragonBall on Saturday Night Live, movie 13's ending theme (Ore Ga Yaranakya Dare Ga Yaru) plays near the end, but with funnier lyrics of course!

This dark world now shines embraced in love.
We battle our foe to save the Earth, where dreams dance.
With a bang-up passion...
Kobayashi!!

And just like before, there are DragonBall scenes playing in the background...







And I just thought this was hilarious. When the kids are all laughing and dancing around, I think this kid took it a bit to far. I think he really got hurt on this. Look at how twisted his torso is, his legs flailing helplessly and he seems to be flying. There is real fear in that kids face, he knows he went to far, there is no going back.



Also, if anyone is interested in the credits and such...



Well there ya go. I looked on youtube for it but they didn't have it, but this site did:

http://www.metatube.com/?Seccion=Videos ... Video=6429

[Smooth Criminal]

Well, that was somewhat amusing, though I think a lot of the humor would be lost on the general viewing audience (as indicated by the sparse laughs heard throughout the segment).

I think what I found most interesting was that it used both the Japanese AND American Dragonball Z BGMs. Clearly, the creators of this are hardcore fans of the series. That's always neat to see.

[Velasa]

I for one have never heard of this before, and it was pretty hilareous ^^

I think the general public would at least pick up on some of the jokes as Dragonball, and the rest'd probably just be seen as a general anime parody. it's clear somebody made this with a lot of love for obscure bits of the fandom though. Nice find.

[DB_Fan1991]

I just saw it and it was very funny, but that's not Saikyo Wa No Fusion they're parodying at the end it's Ore Ga Yaranakya Dare Ga Yaru (Movie 13's ending).

[Kunzait_83]

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[Hao_Kaiser]

Haha, I remember the night that aired.

I think I was half-watching SNL while I was in the IRC chat or something.

I remember nearly crapping my pants when I heard Cha-La Head Cha-La come on, and realized it wasn't playing from my computer.

I love that segment, though. Definitely my favorite TV Funhouse bit, and easily in my top 10 of SNL stuff over all.

It was really awesome to see that much love for the series manifest itself in something that got aired on national television.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

I just saw it and it was very funny, but that's not Saikyo Wa No Fusion they're parodying at the end it's Ore Ga Yaranakya Dare Ga Yaru (Movie 13's ending).

Ah, thanks. I thought it was movie 13's ending but figured I was wrong and went ahead and put movie 12. Thanks.

[Vekurotto]

This was pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

[sailorspazz]

LOL, haven't seen that in awhile (had it favorited on youtube until, as was mentioned above, NBC really cracked down on clips from SNL). Sugoi na~! I always just loved the absurdity of it all. "Remember, kids, if you're walking down the street and see a downed powerline, eat a lot of hot dogs very quickly!" I'm sure "normies" didn't really understand it, but it sure is hilarious to those who really know what it's parodying.