SLack of imagination has not stopped TV producers from coming up with new outlets for all the comedians looking for work. Every week TV Asahi's variety show "Quiz Presentation Variety Q-sama" (Mon., 8 p.m.) offers about a dozen comedians and other tarento the opportunity to present their own quizzes, though the term "quiz" is used pretty loosely.
The main segment on this week's program features Japan's Number One practitioner of the fine art of air guitar, Dainoji Ouchi, himself a 34-year-old comedian who knows nothing about music but will do anything to attract attention. In the segment he is forced to scale a high-dive platform and jump ten meters into a pool all the while demonstrating his air guitar technique. How this segment can be made into a quiz is beside the point. Another segment involves something called "pressure bowling."
In 1996, in a mountainous area of southeastern China, 40 female newborn babies were abandoned at the entrance of a Buddhist temple over a period of six months. The region is populated mostly by farmers, who still think of girls as being a burden since they aren't considered as useful as boys and won't be able to take over their farms.