Mameshiba: Japan's harbinger of trivia and cuteness

So last week I was looking at some internet list, and I found these. Behold the Japanese "Mameshiba" commercials, in which hapless people are subject to the unadulterated cuteness and pointless trivia of a dog-faced bean.
Why? Well, as far as I can gather, the Japanese word for "trivia" is literally "bean knowledge." So that makes sense, I guess. But it's the only thing in any of these commercials that does.



A note to my less Japanophile readers - that word the boy says before eating, "Itadakimasu," basically means, "Time to eat," but it's more elaborate than that. It's a Buddhist custom, apparently, and means "I will receive [the food I am about to eat, which shouldn't talk, let alone tell me some dandelion trivia]." People say it before every meal. Get ready to hear it a lot.







Natto is basically fermented soybeans, a traditional breakfast meal. It's an acquired taste, one that some, like Anthony Bourdain, would recommend for non-beginners. Others would just call it gross.



I just love the sound that little dogbean makes. Oon-gyooooooooooo.



Red beans are another traditional thing. It's a common filling in sweets, as well as an ice cream flavor. It's a much more accessible taste, though, and delicious to boot.





Oh my god that dogbean has a little mustache oh my god.



Did any of you see the lecherous way that dude stared at the flight attendant's ass? Luckily, Dogbean is there to bring him down a peg.



Oh my god that dogbean is trying so hard to speak English! So hard! I love how they set this short in America, too. But apparently, English dialogue wasn't enough to make the point, so they had to have a black kid in there, too, just to be clear.





And thus the Dogbean cycle is complete, as its stomach-turning trivia is not enough to terrify its unwitting victim. That boy looked pretty chunktastic, though (at least by Japanese standards), so maybe Dogbean is lucky that it could distract him from eating it with the tantalizing thought of women's undergarments.

What were these commercials adverising? I still don't know! It's just a weird way to spend five minutes, I guess, but what five minutes they were. God bless Japan. I miss it so.

Mame-chishiki, la la la