Talk:Yatta

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[edit] Irrational Exuberance "Support" Message

The article seems to imply that Veloso's message to support the corporations (AOL, Sony, Disney, etc.) is an appeal to support the economy. I was under the impression that they were listed because he used some of their products, photoshopped with Yatta onto them, of course. I know off the top of my head that applies to Johnson and Johnson. Does anyone else know anything about this? --BDD 01:36, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Philip Morris is a famously hated company because its primary business is selling tobacco products, even though it has its fingers in a lot of pies, and I'd be very surprised if he were sincerely supporting them. I don't know Veloso but I doubt he was sincerely encouraging people to use those products -- the Alan Greenspan refs and (IIRC) repeated refs to encouraging people's greed (like the ironic Dr. Ruth thing about SUVs being a compensation for penis size) seem like a really obvious parody of attempts to stimulate the economy and end the recession to me. As far as whether he personally uses all these products -- it seems irrelevant. Most of these aren't cool products one would sincerely promote -- they're random things like Band-Aids, toothpaste, fast food, etc. If anything he's *parodying* brand identification and cliqueyness -- taglines like "The clothes you wear determine your value as a person" and "Apple users would all willingly give (Steve) Jobs a hummer" seem pretty ironic to me.
There's no doubt that the work is a parody, and I grant that IrEx is not as random and more formulaic than the average animutation, but I just can't see an animutation being used for such a specific and serious purpose. Is there any evidence supporting this idea? --BDD 18:14, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
No doubt much of it is just sheer randomness, sure, but I can't help thinking that there's enough lucid moments that much of the humor does come from skewering people's obsession with the economy and stimulating consumerism and branding. I don't think it's particularly serious, or that Veloso is trying to recruit for the socialist revolution or anything -- but the humor has a bite because it's about something real. The same is true of the original Yatta!, which makes a bit more sense if you recall how incredibly dire Japan's economy looked and how bombarded with pessimism Japanese people were when it came out.

[edit] Timeline

It's in Category:2001 singles, but other than that the article doesn't seem to mention any dates. Perhaps someone who knows could add when it aired originally, release of Flash animation, rise and fall of popularity and so on. --Woseph 11:05, 2005 Jun 19 (UTC)

[edit] More information...

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I'd really hope that more information is added to this article, perhaps by Japanese wikieditors who have more experience with this song. Among some of the things I'd like to know:

1) The article says that the song is by a Japanese "group" named Happai-tai, and that it was first performed on the sketch show by famous comedians. I'm a little confused. Was it originally recorded by a band, and then adopted into the show by comedians? Are the dancers we see on the videos actually "Happai-tai" (a band created for the sketch show), or are those dancers actually performing a song written by a real band called Happai-Tai?

  • Happatai is the cast of the television show. They first donned their Happatai getups in a totally different sketch, but I presume the original sketch was popular enough to warrent the music video.

2) This page says the name of sketch show is "Adventures of a Laughing Dog", while other websites say it's called "Silly Go Lucky". What's the difference?

  • The Japanese name of the show has two names. The Japanese title (as in the title that uses Japanese characters) is "Adventures of a Laughing Dog". There is also an English title they've given themselves, "Silly Go Lucky", presumably to give the show a more "hip" attitude. Adding English words/phrases to Japanese products/shows is a fairly common practice in Japan.

3) The page says the dance is done by well known comedians. What are their names?

4) The sketch skewers many of the stereotypes of Japanese pop culture -- Could some more examples be given? Maybe an analysis of the whole music video?

5) The actors who performed as Happa-tai were even brought to perform "Yatta" in the United States -- Were are of the original actors used? I think I can tell of at least one different actor in the Kimmel live performance. --Rc251 09:54, 18 July 2005 (UTC)


Thanks so much for the information! I'll refrain from editing the article right now and see if anyone with more experience does, but I think the intro could be a little more clear. It could say that the Happatai "group" consists of the cast of the sketch show, because right now, one could mistakenly think the group is independent of the show, and happened to perform Yatta for the first time on the show.
It would be great to know more too. I think I read that a cartoon spinoff was created, and also I think I recently read that the sketch show could possibly be cancelled sometime soon due to declining ratings. Also, the translations I've seen online and on the Kimmel broadcast didn't really agree with each other, so maybe we could have a translation on this article too (I realise there are always difficulties when translating music, especially when it has cultural aspects to it). In addition to the English you mentioned in the show names, I also noticed what I think is English in parts of the song besides the intro/outro and the "Everybody say Yatta!". For example, I think I hear "wonderful", "lucky", and "movie star" within Japanese phrases.
Maybe I'm just in my Yatta phase, but all of it is really fascinating to me, especially that the group gained enough popularity that they actually performed in the US. --Rc251 02:09, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why was this removed?

An anon editor deleted this with no reason given in the edit summary. I'm not entirely sure why.

The sketch appears to be at least partly ironic commentary on attempts by the Japanese government and others to maintain optimism in the face of Japan's severe economic troubles, depicting men impoverished to the degree of having no clothing but the figurative fig leaf (though in this case the leaves are attached to white briefs) yet maintaining an irrational, irrepressible belief in their own potential for success.

Is the statement possibly POV or inaccurate? It doesn't seem so to me... --TexasDex 01:15, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Revert the edit if you think its worth keeping. --Billpg 10:51, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
I wondered about that section, actually. It seems more like an opinion piece, as well as being completely out of tune with the lyrics. If this is satire, it's the happiest satire I've ever heard. Blast [improve me] 26.04.07 0628 (UTC)
These are the lyrics in question:

"We've got recession these days...in goverment we've no faith. Could we hit "reset," that'd be number one! And since we're all here, it's just so much fun!" It seems clear to me that the relentlessly upbeat tone of the song is *intentionally* over-the-top, crazy and unbelievable, especially with this incongruous section of lyrics in mind.

I was not the person who removed it, but I question that statement as well. It's not "clearly" over-the-top. That may be an opinion that you and perhaps I share, but the honest truth of the matter is that the song does NOT give a sense of satire the way Swift does, at least from a Western perspective on the English translation. In fact, saying "in government, we have no faith," sounds like something in line with strong libertarian philosophy, nearly akin to hippie subculture, and as such may not strike everyone as sarcasm. It's the happiest sarcasm I've heard. At the very least, I don't think the above paragraph should be kept because it seems like an original analysis of the video.

Since Wikipedia tells me to be bold, I'll remove it now, but if you think it should be placed back, you can do that. I won't immediately revert and block without discussion. 71.59.91.78 (talk) 21:28, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright

This song is copyrighted, of course, so I'm removing the direct link to downloading the official music video. Illegal desu. DJLarZ 16:36, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Links have since returned, I am removing them again. Wikipedia articles are not allowed to link to content that is in violation of copyrights. -Verdatum (talk) 15:55, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Go West?

Are you sure this is based only on "Go West" by the village people? Both of those songs are basically Pachelbel's Canon in D.--Dwedit 05:00, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Strange Reference - Off Topic

I removed this paragraph: Unfortunately, Yatta's reputation has been tarnished by a well known member of a popular New York City community website. The user has been subjected to much in the way of self induced failures and, in addition to expressing a familiar brand of homosexuality, has been noted for being quite eccentric.