As a reporter, I don't particularly enjoy being swamped with breaking news to cover. That's when the pressure really becomes intense to get all the quotes and check all the facts in as short a time as possible.
However, for members of the comedy group The Newspaper (TNP), which has satirized political and social events in Japan for 20 years, times of big news are when they thrive the most — because at these points, they never have to worry about running out of jokes or prominent people to poke fun at.
So when the nine-member, all-male cast of TNP appeared in front of a 120-plus audience at a theater in Sengawa, western Tokyo, on May 23, they were on a roll.