Clean! Jerk! Snatch! Meow!

October 5, 2008 1:50 PM

Japanese Cat Weightlifting(SLYT)

Just like an Olympic weightlifting contest, the tension builds as the weight increases. Who will win? The tabby? The brown and white? The white one with the funny curly tail? Or will an outsider sneak in with a final snatch?

posted by essexjan (41 comments total)

IZ IN UR MEADOW LIFTING UR FISH
posted by crapmatic at 2:11 PM on October 5, 2008 [5 favorites]

I was expecting tiny barbells or people using cats as barbells.

I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not.

Go Tabby!
posted by The Whelk at 2:11 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

It's a good deal for everyone: the humans get to be amused, and the cats get to eat. FTW!
posted by astroworm at 2:14 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Clean! Jerk! Snatch! Meow!
This would be an excellent title for a movie that I would avoid at all costs.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:16 PM on October 5, 2008

This was a segment on the tv show Trivia. They did a few interesting "experiments" acting upon suggestions viewers sent in.

Another amusing one they did was to test dogs to see whether they would actually save their owners. (Part 1, Part 2)

Trivia would have segments about interesting "trivia" and investigate the story behind it. And show a little video. Then some desperate-for-attention talento would hit a button expressing their surprise level with a limit of 20. However many pushes (I can't think of the word the button pressing would sound) the trivia was ranked and the person who sent it in would get some money.

The show became so popular that they released several books about the trivia featured, and would do a run down at the end revising all the trivia that popped up so you could study it up for conversations at work the next day.
posted by gomichild at 2:19 PM on October 5, 2008 [10 favorites]

Clean! Jerk! Snatch! Meow!

This would be an excellent title for a movie that I would avoid at all costs.

Faster Pussycat! Clean! Jerk!

Oh now I feel dirty.
posted by The Whelk at 2:32 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Winning the war was the worst decision we've ever made. We could be living this right now. Thanks a lot, MacArthur.
posted by stavrogin at 2:46 PM on October 5, 2008 [8 favorites]

Why do they all come from the bushes, and why do they always take the fish back to the same place? Secret cat village in there? Do they just wait for stray cats? Is there someone in the bushes unleashing them?
posted by jimmythefish at 2:48 PM on October 5, 2008

So fun. I love that video and the Japanese sense of humor. Thanks essexjan.

That cat weight lifting is particularly Japanese somehow, the seriousness of the weighing, the white coats worn placing the fish, the wonderful variety of fish, on which the camera spends time for admiring, the patience for the set-up. I loved watching the sumo chunkiness of the white cat hoisting the big quarry.

Adding to the Japanese cat theme, the standing-sitting cat.

Japanese tv show pranks make me weep with laughter, till I'm gasping. Toilet prank 1, toilet prank 2, (Canadian toilet prank), sauna prank.
posted by nickyskye at 2:50 PM on October 5, 2008 [3 favorites]

jimmythefish, bush cat is watching you postulate.
posted by stavrogin at 2:55 PM on October 5, 2008

This is a few years old but easily one of my favorite videos of all time, so thanks for posting.

Oh, if you want to see a slightly longer version that's higher quality, you can check out this self-link.
posted by dhammond at 3:02 PM on October 5, 2008

I want to learn Japanese now just so I can understand the color commentary.
posted by birdherder at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2008 [2 favorites]

Japanese researchers must have located the awesome television receptors in the brain because they sure know how to massage the shit out of them.
posted by The Straightener at 3:49 PM on October 5, 2008

In other cat news a Japanese cat has earned millions for it's city.

Perhaps the bailout could be replaced by giving Wall St lots of cats instead.
posted by sien at 4:10 PM on October 5, 2008

Apostrophe apology.
posted by sien at 4:10 PM on October 5, 2008

へ
posted by mexican at 4:25 PM on October 5, 2008

笑
posted by ejoey at 4:37 PM on October 5, 2008

かわいい！
posted by zardoz at 4:43 PM on October 5, 2008

The ultimate in silly Japanese TV trivia videos: When the world speed walking champion is attacked by samurai, will he run or speed walk away?
posted by bettafish at 5:09 PM on October 5, 2008

I don't have enough life left to waste on watching the whole clip, but I'm guessing it ends with a cat trying to drag away an experimented on whale carcass?
posted by mattoxic at 5:13 PM on October 5, 2008

Aww, damn, sorry, video's no longer available - should have checked before linking. Here's a poorer quality version, showing that it comes from Trivia as well.
posted by bettafish at 5:13 PM on October 5, 2008 [3 favorites]

I'd like to see a follow-up video of people lifting sacks full of cats. Ok, Japan, I'm waiting.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:47 PM on October 5, 2008

Anyone else notice ...tentative the cats where when picking up the fish? The paw out, glancing around, quickly grabbing. It was eerily like someone trying to steal something.
posted by The Whelk at 6:45 PM on October 5, 2008

All due respect to MeFi's own, but I wish MythBusters spent half the time on reproducing outcomes that these guys do.
posted by DU at 7:05 PM on October 5, 2008

How much proof do we need that in Japan weed consumption is mandatory?
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:19 PM on October 5, 2008

I had a fluffy white cat like the one in the video. She'd try to steal entire roasted chickens. She was teeny, but she could carry her own body weight in purloined goodies. She was great.

I also wonder why there were so many cats in the bushes. Is there a secret cat cave that we don't know about? Because...if they've started to gather and make plans...this fiscal crisis is nothing compared to the feline crisis we may be facing. Let me be the first to say; woe be unto them that do not serve the purring masters.
posted by dejah420 at 10:35 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

How much proof do we need that in Japan weed consumption is mandatory?

Compared to the U.S. or Europe, even per capita, weed consumption is practically non-existent in Japan.
posted by zardoz at 11:44 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Compared to the U.S. or Europe, even per capita, weed consumption is practically non-existent in Japan.

OTOH, these clips suggest that the consequences of epidemic levels of crystal meth use can't be all bad.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:33 AM on October 6, 2008

へぇ〜。。。日本に住んでいるのに初めて見た。
posted by gen at 1:25 AM on October 6, 2008

The color commentary is very funny. There's a "sensei" person who serves as the expert and they call the white cat "yokozuna" which is comedy too.
posted by gen at 1:29 AM on October 6, 2008

I also wonder why there were so many cats in the bushes. Is there a secret cat cave that we don't know about?

Japan is overrun with feral and stray cats. If only they were able to keep the pigeon and crow problems in check... but no they are too busy stealin' fish.....
posted by gomichild at 2:10 AM on October 6, 2008

Anyone else notice ...tentative the cats where when picking up the fish? The paw out, glancing around, quickly grabbing. It was eerily like someone trying to steal something.

Yeah, the kittehs gently patting the fish, then looking guiltily around was amusing. They looked like they knew they were stealing.
posted by nickyskye at 2:15 AM on October 6, 2008

Those toilet pranks... if anyone tried that in the US, instead of a funy TV show we'd have a barrage of lawsuits.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:55 AM on October 6, 2008

we'd have a barrage of lawsuits

You're so right. The guys being catapulted bare ass backwards into the snow, yanked out of the porta potty to sea on jet skis or rocketed (yikes) naked down the ski slope bouncing up and down like a wonky trampoline. Yeah, lawsuits is an understatement.
posted by nickyskye at 6:55 AM on October 6, 2008

I love the way that white one struggled with the 1.8 kg fish - how the weight of it made him waddle from side to side as he walked. I was in tears with laughter here. Thanks for this.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:58 AM on October 6, 2008

This show used to be shown on Spike TV, accurately dubbed and everything. It is a tragedy they stopped airing it. A tragedy!
posted by spamguy at 8:15 AM on October 6, 2008

how the weight of it made him waddle from side to side as he walked.

Oh yeah, among the long list of things that made this video fantastic, that was the absolute high point. I also loved the grim determination in the cats eyes as it set it's teeth and prepared for the haul into the tree-line.

Why this isn't a TV show I can watch all the time in the States shows a lack of savvy on the networks parts. If you have to produce reality TV, give me more of this!
posted by quin at 9:15 AM on October 6, 2008 [2 favorites]

For me the best part was at about 4 minutes in when they zoomed in on the face of the tabby cat hiding in the bushes. The commentators got really excited and they showed a little recap of his previous successful steals so we would all know it was the same cat. I LOL'd at that point.
posted by essexjan at 9:46 AM on October 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

For me the best part was at about 4 minutes in when they zoomed in on the face of the tabby cat hiding in the bushes.

Yeah, you can never go wrong with a dramatic zoom and some "DUN-DUN-DUN!", especially when we're talking about cats.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:59 AM on October 6, 2008

This is making me hungry for sushi.
posted by leapfrog at 10:35 AM on October 6, 2008

...woe be unto them that do not serve the purring masters.

You who do not may beg forgiveness and save yourselves.... I have been given leave to present their emissary....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:40 PM on October 6, 2008