Comedian Hard Gay tries professional modeling

smithinjapan - It's clear that you found HG offensive, and that's fine. That doesn't mean you have the right to say everyone else should have been offended by him. THAT is what 'gokai' is saying. S/He didn't find HG's antics offensive because S/He was raised in a different environment and culture to you. It wouldn't be acceptable in your country, or in mine in fact - however there are things in our countries that absolutely wouldn't be acceptable here. Imagine a Japanese person living in the UK, on a bulletin board, complaining about a British comedian, drama, Tarrant on TV portrayal of Japanese people, Stephen Fry QI joke etc. Then imagine how the majority of British people would probably react: This is British humour; this is the UK, not Japan; that's the beauty of freedom of speech; go back to your own country and watch your crazy game shows etc.

I personally couldn't stand HG, but I wish him well in his new career as a model.

gokai: "smithinjapan: "in another country" We are talking about JAPAN and Japanese. Nobody is talking about foreign countries. We were never Christianized and don't have your sex hangups (we have our own)."

Yes, we are talking about Japan -- a nation that would have celebrated this man in ever single newspaper for months if someone abroad praised him and put him on TV. As it is, he would have been at the very arrested if he went somewhere else. All you're doing is saying Japan is WAY behind the times in terms of sexual assault. I'm not Christian at all, I'm Buddhist. But Buddhist or not if I saw some jackass trying to make money (and that's all he's doing, and the sheeple go for it) by thrusting his crotch at my children or teaching six-year-old how to masturbate, he would lose an eye from the glass after I decked him in the face. There is NOTHING funny about thrusting a penis towards a child's face. NOTHING. But in a land of rape comics and allowed kiddy-porn, or costume play fantasies of little girls in junior high-school suits, or actual web-sites that have coined the term 'enjou-kousai', I'm not surprised, really.

And yet when a French newspaper makes jokes about pervading facets of Japanese culture the media is in an uproar and says the world is attacking Japanese culture. If I dressed up as a 'Japanese' and started doing 'karoshi' or 'hikkikomori' or other 'jokes' like South Park sometimes does, the media would scream bloody murder; they wouldn't call it 'informative' (even if it gave some background to the terms), would they? Would you think it was funny?

HG was nothing but offensive, and if you think he taught ANYTHING about homosexuality, then I say all the more the fool who believes it.

From hard gay to soft gay.

He scrapes the bottom of the barrel like most entertainment and "talent" these days. Biit of an attention seeker me thinks.

I am so confused.

Japan2012 - I totally agree with you! For me his hard gay character was ridiculous, boring and offensive... My gay friends and I, we don't behave this way...

I can't speak for the "gays" like some have but as for myself (gay) and every one of my gay friends...none of us could stand him. He was tasteless and offensive and like every other gay talento on J-TV, was a stereotype that didn't do a single thing to advance gay rights in Japan. It's 2013, marriage is legal in so many countries, progress can be seen everywhere, but it's no easier for any of my Japanese friends to come out to their family now than it was 15 years ago when I first came to Japan. Hard Gay did absolutely nothing to make people more at ease with gay men and women in Japan.

I love him, honestly! During dark long depressive nights as a college student, when all I wanted was a laugh, and British coms weren't cutting it for me, I used to search for his vids! I remember that thanks to him, I made friends with a fellow Japan-lover haha. He was imitating him and I was like "omg! HGM!!!" Wish I had the guts to imitate him too, but haha.

This Hard Gay was very popular among college students here in the U.S. I watched some of the youtube videos, it was hilarious. Some people need to lighten up.

I watched a show about this guy and he actually is a decent man. I do believe it when he says he only makes $70 a month. He pretty much is Mister Mom as his wife brings home the bacon and he takes care of the kids.

smithinjapan: "in another country" We are talking about JAPAN and Japanese. Nobody is talking about foreign countries. We were never Christianized and don't have your sex hangups (we have our own).

I thought this was a great comment and an excellent reply to the inference that Japanese values should be aligned to those in the West (an accusation that most of us who post comments here have been guilty of at some point, including me).

smithinjapan: "in another country" We are talking about JAPAN and Japanese. Nobody is talking about foreign countries. We were never Christianized and don't have your sex hangups (we have our own).

Lowly: I agree that he was too ridiculous to be homophobic, but that doesn't in any way mean his actions were not offensive.

I don't know what that means, one does not entail the other. I guess you just don't like him. To each his own. He wasn't offensive to me. His schtick was funny as far as it went.

That's a really weird idea that he, or any guy, would ever be "spit out the porn industry" that only happens to the girls. I think there's a waiting list of guys who want to be in porn, and they make like 1/50th what the girls make, and no one wants to see their faces or much else of them, so actor and model has-beens can't really use it as a career alternative if they wanted to.

but fancied himself above bagging groceries.

Sorry, but where do they bag groceries in Japan? I know Seijo Ishii will have staff do it if they're otherwise free and there's a line at the till, but it's not really standard practice. Or is it only in The Big Onigiri that supermarkets have baggers?

What is that red dot on the photos? Leica (or a rip-off?). Anyway, looks like modeling will be his best career. He looks scrumptious.

gokai: "smithinjapan, we think differently here, which you many have noticed (if you are really in Japan). Notice how mothers laughed when he did the crotch-in-the-kid-face routine."

That is a statement on just how uninformed the public truly is and that this man did not help them in the least. Seriously, I want to see him go do that to a child in another country and see how quickly he is arrested (if not shot on the spot). What he did was criminal, pure and simple, and I remember on a variety show when he did that to a foreign guest (young actress) and she left the stage and all the other tarento were like, "What, doesn't she think it's funny?"

Lowly: I agree that he was too ridiculous to be homophobic, but that doesn't in any way mean his actions were not offensive.

Anyway, I'm with Hoserfella on this one -- the guy will get spit out of the porn industry, eventually.

since his outing as a straight man resulted in the career death of the Hard Gay character

NOT

Like, everyone pretty much knew he was straight from the beginning. And if they didn't they knew partway through when he started showing up in those weeklies hanging out w/celebrity women and going in and out of their apts late at night.

His character was too too over the top to be misconstrued as homophobic, I always thought. He was always a weird funny character more than a weird gay character, I always thought. He was alright, made me laugh once or twice.

Since I'm not familiar with this guy I can only go by what's in this article. And I have to say that it's all very confusing: Gay/Straight? Comedian? Wrestler? Model? Maybe you can be a little of everything in Japanese entertainment.

smithinjapan, we think differently here, which you many have noticed (if you are really in Japan). Notice how mothers laughed when he did the crotch-in-the-kid-face routine. Lots of gay groups working for acceptance here, but sometimes you need a little comic relief too.

Gokai: the guy was not making things " more acceptable", unless you consider sexual assault an acceptable moray. If he painted his face black and started going around doing 'black stuff' would he be exposing the people to African culture or simply miseducating them via stereotypes? (not to mention being offensive to boot!) Thrusting your crotch in a child's face is nothing short of a crime. Hope his modeling career flops! But knowing the love of talentless tarento here though, he's likely to succeed.

He will bottom out very soon in the porn industry. Book it.

What do you mean "tasteless gay stereotypes"? We (gays) loved it! And it was one contribution to making people more at ease with gays. Nobody expects taht gays are actually like Hard Gay. But like anything, it runs its course. Anyway, he does look pretty good in the pictures above.