"Danny Wilde" wrote:
> "Eric Takabayashi" wrote 

> > ... ask why people would argue against
> > the existence of stupidity in Japanese programming.
> 
> Actually I don't understand what people mean when they say a TV programme is 
> "stupid" or talk about "the existence of stupidity in Japanese programming". 
> Indiscriminate application of the word "stupid" to Japanese television shows 
> a limited articulacy and perhaps indicates much more about the  intellectual 
> level of the people applying it than the programmes they are commenting on.
> 
> Do the people who label TV programmes as "stupid" mean the contents are 
> trivial, or banal, or that only a limited amount of intellectual effort is 
> required to understand them? Or do they mean that the people who make the 
> programme are incompetent, or inadequate? Do they mean that the programme is 
> boring? Do they mean that the TV programmes don't deal with any serious 
> issues, that they're too lightweight? Do they mean that the programme is 
> factually incorrect? Do they mean that watching the programme is a waste of 
> time, because the programme is so lacking in entertainment? Do they mean 
> that the performers on Japanese TV are stupid? If so, who is stupid and why? 
> Do they mean that the programmes are fake? Which programmes, and why do they 
> believe this? Or do they mean the programmes are made with a different 
> cultural perspective, or a different sense of humour, than their own, and 
> thus are "stupid"? Do they find the programmes repetitive, uninspired, 
> formulaic?
> 
> Let's all try to say something more articulate than "Japanese TV is stupid", 
> in case we who rashly label the entire output of Japanese TV as such, end up 
> looking far more stupid than the thing we're seeking to criticise.
> 
> Bye for now.

Japanese television is much like the above post, mindlessly 
entertaining. It can drone on in the background, while i do other more 
productive things- read a book, write a paper, scratch my balls-  
occasionally catching my attention with a spiffy phrase, "in case we 
who rashly label the entire output of Japanese TV as such" or a brief 
"whatever happened to Amuro Namie" segment, but otherwise 
unchallenging.
Discussing it in detail would be stupid.