I only know the German version from RTL2 which had funny commentary dubbed over it with made-up names and stuff. Curious, did the dubs in other countries do the same? Were there languages with the original commentary translated?

I actually watched it as a kid on Eurosport. It also had the dubbed over commentary. The original has lots of comedy bits between the games, most of them were cut in the German version.

I disagree that the cuts hurt it. Those skits are dense Japanese variety-show humor, and the made-up commentary is why it worked abroad.

The dubbed Hindi version in India had really funny and entertaining commentary too! My friends and I loved the show.

Italy too

Mai Dire Banzai, with the Gialappa's Band, right? Smart cheap TV: buy footage for peanuts, add funny commentary, you've got a hit.

Minor nitpick: the Spanish version was called Humor Amarillo, and the UK had Craig Charles riffing over it too, IIRC.

Back in the early 2000s, I always had a good laugh whenever I was flipping through TV channels and stumbled upon Takeshi's Castle.

I was involved in pro paintball for several years and at the start of every one of their matches, one of the pro teams would chant:

"DON'T. GET. ELIMINATED."

Right you are, Kenny.

My ncpa team would just say "fuckem up!". They did not like that at nationals.

“Right you are, Ken!”

(From MXC, based on footage from Takeshi’s Castle)

Still remember that phrase from years ago.

Spike TV, 2003. The dub was funnier than the original. Saw the Japanese version years later, weirdly sincere.

Kenny Blankenship and Vic Romano! The names so discordant with the visuals...

You can watch some English subtitled rips here:

https://archive.org/details/takeshis-castle-with-english-sub...

The other archive link shared here, it's to another set of rips that appear to lack subtitles.

His movies are also worth a watch: Hana bi, Sonatine, Brother, Dolls, and Zatōichi are all amazing movies.

Should do a rewatch again, it's been a while...

Getting Any, a total Takeshi movie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Any%3F

I watched Hana bi and Sonatine recently. I thought "this sounds like Joe Hisaishi" - turns out it was, he scored basically all of Takeshi's films

You're forgetting the one.

You know the one.

Dies Irae plays softly in the distance

if you're into yakuza campyness try the outrage series. he's great in them.

absolutely blowing my mind to realize vic romano and detective nishi are the same actor

Thanks! Someone once told me about this, told me MXC is actually Takeshi's Castle, but I forgot, long ago. Fun fact.

wait did you see that microsoft execution container (mxc) article and think "oh wow remember the best show that was on spiketv"? :D

I don't know about spiketv but yes @ microsoft execution container post

Most of Beat Takeshi's work is amazing, from this, to his films, even his infamous Nintendo game.

There's a related Famicom game that's quite (in)famous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi%27s_Challenge

Wouldn't have expected this on Hacker News. Used to love watching this as a kid!

IRL OG Fall Guys

"Right in to the mud!"

Remember watching this as a kid after school eating my bag of chips I'd been given for lunch which I'd save up so I can eat it later while watching this. In Canada, it was aired as MXC.

Sinkers and floaters. Lots of jokes about remedial dental work that would be required.

Did anyone ever actually beat the final game? Some obstacles looked nearly impossible, so I suspected falling in was the whole point.