It all started with a broken toilet seat.
"The Benza" is an Amazon Prime Video series about Chris (Christopher McCombs) and Kyle (Kyle Card), two Tokyo-based, Bill-and-Ted-type friends who go on an epic quest to replace their busted benza (toilet seat). Along the way, they encounter lascivious Japanese teachers, Swedish treasure hunters, deadpan ghosts and the "final benza," a toilet seat with the power to destroy the world.
This literal toilet humor comes courtesy of McCombs, an American actor who has been a fixture on educational and variety television since he arrived in Japan in 2010. Frustrated with the lack of substantial roles for non-Japanese actors, he decided to create his own content. "The Benza," which started out as a 14-minute short film shot in 2017, was inspired by McCombs’ real-life travails in Tokyo: getting lost in the labyrinthine Shinjuku Station, dealing with coffee shop clerks who refused to believe he could communicate in Japanese, and being clueless as to where to buy a replacement toilet seat.