One of my great regrets is that, when I was super famous (back in the Swatches-on-jacket years), I didn't get to do one of these bizarre Japanese commercials. I think I would have been the most number one super terrific selling power in the entire prefecture for surprise time.
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If more American commercials were like this, I might actually watch television.
What is this I don’t even –
This confused me so much, yet I couldn’t turn away. Nicholas Cage + shiny things = MUST. WATCH.
hahaha!! I can so see you doing one of these commercials. What the heck happened to good commercials anyway??? Substitute the truck and cowboy clothes for a spaceship and trek uniform and there you have it. This was great..thanks Wil:)
Pachinko Fever sounds like it would be an awesome movie.
Nicholas Cage in…PACHINKO FEVER.
So I was thinking this was Japanese pinball right up until the dancing metal men…
Honestly, I think you should send the Swatch jacket pics out to people who want your autograph today. That would be so awesomepants.
The role Nic Cage was meant to play…
This is completely crazycakes, and I say that as a kid who HAD a Pachinko machine!
All I keep thinking is, he did all those ridiculous commercials and the guy still has a shitload of money problems. Ha!
Ah… Nick Cage… I don’t even know what to say about this except it was both awesome and hilarious but in a humiliating kind of way… The kitsch factor just reached garden gnome painted on black velvet.
You were a guest on Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. This means you’re every bit as awesome… except on purpose.
Hahaha, pachinko is one of those absurd things for which an an absence of cultural familiarity allows the raw insanity of the activity to shine though. Not so unlike watching Andrew WK, but even more pure and intense. Not unlike these commercials.
Whoo, a guy with money problems advertising gambling? Guess now we know where it all went . . .
“I’ll be takin’ these Huggies, and whatever Pachinko balls you’ve got there behind the counter…”
(Hilarity ensues…)
I LOVE his level of commitment. 😀 Fabulous…
Every day I thank the universe for Japanese people. What would the world be like without them and their super awesome happy fun times?
These commercials were clearly done as preparation for his character in “The Wicker Man”.
Why is it that watching things like this makes me want to learn more about the Japanese, and yet at the same time… want to avoid them like the bubonic plaigue?
wow. that’s all I can say.
You may not be regular super-famous, but you’re certainly geek super-famous, and japan certainly has geeks, and I’m sure there’s japanese geeks out there who freaking love Pachinko. …Who love Pachinko and are really looking for a guiding principle in life. Jeez dude, you’re like 4 steps away from the Holy Temple of Weaton’s Law, Kyoto.
I wouldn’t think you would WANT to be “super famous” nowadays…those freakin tabloids and photographers are ruthless (not to mention idiotic and insane). Some of us are just tickled when you appear on our fave tv shows (watched “Paradise” ep over the weekend–you play psycho very convincingly. Hmmm…?).
How could you forget about the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show??? You were in that, Wil! You played an agent of some sort, dressed up in a suit. I has proof!
I know it isn’t the same as being on a Japanese game show…but it isn’t far off 😉
Just when I thought Nic Cage had hit rock bottom, he starts drilling! That commercial was…well, I feel violated and not in a good way.
Sweet merciful crap! That’s some serious verbal diarrhea dude 🙂
And my great regret is not paying $35 for that pachinko machine I saw at a garage sale.
When can we expect Memories of the Future Volume 2? Please hurry, as I’ve finished volume 1 and now my life is back to being meaningless again.
Why live with regrets, Wil. Just grab a camera and make your own bizarre Japanese commercial.
Funny you should say that …
Oh Wil grabs his camera and makes bizzare tapes with it all right. He just doesn’t wan’t everyone knowing about his “super secret tea parties” with stuffed animals and a life-size cardboard cut-out of a famous celebrity that shall remain nameless…for now, anyway. It’s a blackmail thing. He knows what I’m talking about.
Wow. That made me crack the hell up and I’m sick as a dog today. Thank you for that! And, um, feel free to comment on all of the wonderful verbal diarrhea that I usually post on here.
I know, right? It makes you wonder how much he got paid to do this spot, either that or he’s a much better actor than I’ve given him credit for in the past!
Hahaha. OK, seriously, as sick as I am right now you’d think I wouldn’t be laughing as hard as I am at these comments. It really does sound like a craptastic movie that he would be starring in, though.
I don’t know, Wil, you shouldn’t sell yourself short. I’ve seen less famous actors than you in foreign commercials. The guy who played Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs did a Swedish commercial for lip balm and recited the whole “Would you fuck me? I’d fuck me, I’d fuck me HARD!” speech verbatim while applying the lip balm and “Goodbye Horses” was playing in the background. I’m kind of torn over which spot is more disturbing, his, or Nicolas Cage’s.
My greatest regret is that I can experience this clip for the first time only once. Oh, if only I had *known it would be so amazing, I could have saved watching it for a special occasion; like my birthday, or during the birth of my next child.
*Wil Wheaton, I will trust your opinion of awesome things in the future.
For some twisted reason, I’m seeing Wil doing commercials for maid cafes in Akihabara. I’m sure Wil will say, “Whoa, I’m not that kind of geek–wait, was she wearing cat ears?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maid_cafe
Ah, thank you! That was simply amazing … I will now geek out for a week. 🙂
Oh, god! I still remember when I first saw the commercial.
I couldn’t believe what I was watching and took some minutites until I realize the man was the NICHOLAS CAGE!!!
And of course laughed so hard. Gosh.
Here in Japan, Pachinko CMs are aired in the time slots in late night due to the nature of Pachinko that is the R18 game of gambling. I guess that condition fuels the wackyness to all the other Pachinko CMs here; midnight=you are either too “high” or too sleepy to keep your sensibility which functions OK during the daytime.
Thanks for the entry. I really do hope you will be on one of the CMs here. (crossing my fingers)