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This undated photo released by Tokyo 2020 shows Kentaro Kobayashi, a key director of Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremony ©Tokyo 2020 via PA Images

Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony director fired over old Holocaust skit

Kentaro Kobayashi’s comments in a video of a comedy sketch from 1998 emerged online overnight.

THE SHOW DIRECTOR for the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony has been fired on the eve of the event over a decades-old skit referencing the Holocaust, in the latest blow for organisers of the pandemic-delayed Games.

Kentaro Kobayashi’s comments in a video of a comedy sketch from 1998 emerged online overnight and sparked shock from some in Japan.

“It came to light that during a past performance, (he) used language that mocked a tragic fact of history,” Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto told reporters.

“The organising committee has decided to relieve Kobayashi of his post,” she added.

In the sketch, Kobayashi and a comedy partner pretend to be a pair of famous children’s TV entertainers.

As they brainstorm an activity involving paper, Kobayashi refers to some paper doll cutouts, describing them as “the ones from that time you said ‘let’s play the Holocaust”, sparking laughter from the audience.

The pair then joke about how a television producer was angered by the suggestion of a Holocaust activity.

In a statement, Kobayashi apologised, describing the skit as containing “extremely inappropriate” lines.

“It was from a time when I was not able to get laughs the way I wanted, and I believe I was trying to grab people’s attention in a shallow-minded way.”

Kobayashi, a well-known figure in theatre in Japan, is the latest member of the opening ceremony team to depart in disgrace.

The creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies, Hiroshi Sasaki, resigned in March after suggesting a plus-size female comedian appear as a pig.

And on Monday, a composer for the ceremony stepped down following an outcry over old interviews in which he described abusing disabled schoolmates.

A four-minute musical piece he composed was removed from the ceremony, but organisers left it unclear today how Kobayashi’s firing might affect the event.

“We’re still considering how to hold the opening ceremony tomorrow,” Hashimoto said.

“I want to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible.”

Details of the opening ceremony have been kept under wraps, and strict coronavirus rules mean only around 950 people will be in the stands of the 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium for the extravaganza.

Tokyo 2020 has been plagued by a series of gaffes and missteps by Olympic officials, including Hashimoto’s predecessor Yoshiro Mori, who resigned after claiming women speak too much in meetings.

© – AFP, 2021

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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:20 AM

    Oh so we’re firing people for comedy sketches from the 90′s now. Oh great. It sounds like it was satirical and in any case what loser trawled through the archives to find this to get outraged about!

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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:28 AM

    @The Guru: Well said.

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    Mute Ally Mc Culladgh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:33 AM

    @The Guru: He couldn’t get the laughs during his performance so decided to use the holocaust. That is messed up.

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    Mute Ilarion Cibu
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:39 AM

    @The Guru: i would strongly suggest you enlighten yourself of the Japanese na.zi “unit 731″

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    Mute Ilarion Cibu
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:40 AM

    @The Guru: i would strongly suggest you enlighten yourself of the Japanese na.zi “unit 731″ and their atrocities to the humans.

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    Mute JedBartlett
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:40 AM

    @Ally Mc Culladgh: You’re fond of referencing that particular period in time yourself when it suits.

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    Mute Ally Mc Culladgh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:43 AM

    @The Guru: Remember as well Japan was allied with Nazi Germany, the propaganda at the time caused mass suicide, I just I don’t think it was ever funny to joke about the holocaust.

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    Mute Ally Mc Culladgh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:45 AM

    @JedBartlett: Never joked about it Jed aswell you know. Still defending Trunp fanatic Maurice I see, kinda sad he needs you to constantly defend him.

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:46 AM

    @The Guru: I don’t agree with you. That sketch sounds cynical and the audience laughter is disturbing, in that the audience should have realised it was very misguided. And I’m using a common sense filter, not a politically correct one. I agree with Koboyashi’s comment: “It was from a time when I was not able to get laughs the way I wanted, and I believe I was trying to grab people’s attention in a shallow-minded way.” The Holocaust is a subject that if you want to reference, then you better have both good judgement and genuine skill in how you approach it.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:47 AM

    @Ally Mc Culladgh: I don’t think you’ll find many people who will say the holocaust was funny, however a lot of comedy can be based on dark events and depending on the context it’s done in can be subjectively funny. Ricky Gervais has pretty much built a career on it.

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:49 AM

    @David A. Murray: And I don’t think Koboyashi should have resigned. But he definitely needed to issue that apology and demonstrate that he understood it was a cheap attempt at humor.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:54 AM

    @David A. Murray: ok so at worst his crime was making a bad joke. I don’t speak Japanese so can’t watch it and tell but let’s agree it was bad. Somehow for 23 years people have managed to live with the trauma of his joke but only now has it come to the point where it’s offensive, coincidentally on the eve of his biggest work. Do you honestly believe he should be fired for that? If so it’s a slippery slope.

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:03 AM

    @The Guru: I already clarified my first comment about his resignation. I don’t agree with your responses at all. Stop using deliberately gauged world like “crime” and also don’t presume to artificially modify the basis of your and my comments (“but let’s agree it was bad”). It was bad and he absolutely should have known better.

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:05 AM

    @David A. Murray: typo ….. gauged words like….

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    Mute Ally Mc Culladgh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:15 AM

    @The Guru: Well for a start he did it out of desperation for laughs. He had to resort to the lowest of the low to get a laugh, that’s awful.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:33 AM

    @David A. Murray: you didn’t actually answer the question. This wasn’t a resignation, he was fired.

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    Mute RogerRamjet
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:40 AM

    @Ilarion Cibu: and I would strongly suggest you don’t. Besides, what has that got to do with this story?!?

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:48 AM

    @The Guru: Yes, Koboyashi was fired. If he wasn’t fired, he would have had to resign. Effectively he was given no alternatives. I don’t agree with him either being fired, or resigning. His apology was honest (because it wasn’t flattering to himself) and was more than enough. And you are still playing around with words and missing the point, which Koboyashi himself has accepted.

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 9:59 AM

    @The Guru: it’s pretty amazing alright. This sketch looks like it was forgotten in Japan. Somebody decided to trawl through all of his footage to destroy this guys career.

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:03 AM

    @Ilarion Cibu: I just checked out unit 731 and it’s indeed atrocious. It wasn’t Na.zi though. It was Japanese imperialism against China. They killed up to half a million people using biological weapons. The Americans protected them.

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    Mute Ilarion Cibu
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 11:09 AM

    @john smith iv: 1937–1945

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    Mute Paul Mcnevin
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 12:50 PM

    @The Guru: ‘We’re’??

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    Mute Les Wynan
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:43 AM

    Joking about the holocaust is obviously bad but there needs to be a statute of limitations on this stuff.

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    Mute Sam Murray
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 7:32 AM

    People will do anything to tear eachother down

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    Mute Teresa O'Halloran
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:11 AM

    We all said stupid things twenty years ago that we wouldn’t dream of saying now. As human beings we are constantly changing and evolving, and things we thought funny twenty years ago might not be PC now. To make jokes about the Holocaust is, and was always disgusting, but I would be more interested in how this man conducts himself now and in recent years than what he said twenty years ago.

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    Mute Will
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:42 AM

    I was expecting something like ‘Hitler was right’ or along those lines.
    This kind of over reaction to a bad attempt at humour by a young comedian over 20 years ago has a chilling effect on free expression. Maybe that’s the whole point.
    We have allowed the most thin skinned in society to decide what is and isn’t acceptable in the public domain. You have wasters with no life trawling through old social media posts of anyone with a public profile hoping to find something to ruin a life over. It’s pathetic but it won’t last.

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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:43 AM

    @Will: I have a feeling it might last.

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    Mute Will
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 12:37 PM

    @Ger Cassidy: I hope you’re wrong Ger. I just think it’s very destructive and I’m hoping society will realise that sooner rather then later.
    Cancel culture is just the same holier then thou nonsense we used to get from the bloody Church. It hides behind a façade of empathy and compassion but it’s really just the same urge to control society.

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    Mute Anthony Quaid
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 5:21 PM

    @Will: nailed it!

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    Mute Niamh Hayes
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:17 AM

    Statute of limitations is 6 years for personal injury.
    Shouldn’t people be able to sue if fired for something that happening before that , no crime was committed here just a ugly joke that caused offence.

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:42 AM

    A joke skit from 20 years ago is enough to cause a firing of a veteran olympics director in Tokyo, but the organizers still let the Chinese Olympic team in for all its governments current atrocities and still won’t acknowledge Taiwan as anything but Chinese Taipei. The committee has their priorities in all the wrong places

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 11:34 AM

    @Paul Cunningham: and the Americans for all their atrocities.

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    Mute Rochelle
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:37 AM

    I mean, the subject of the comedy sketch wasn’t even the holocaust it was just irresponsible characters coming up with inappropriate ideas. Basically the entire premise of Father Ted and so many other 90s comedies.

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    Mute Ally Mc Culladgh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:29 AM

    Summer games of 1936 was held in Nazi Germany, I suspect the IOC felt it was inappropriate that someone making desperate jokes about the holocaust and Japan being on the wrong side of history didn’t want that association during an opening ceremony of the olympic games.

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    Mute Disco Inferno
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:45 AM

    @Ally Mc Culladgh: so he loses his job over a joke he made over 20 years ago, a joke mind, not expressing his personal support of what happened, a joke, not inciting hatred, a joke. You shouldn’t lose your job because something you joked about, rightly or wrongly, caused offence to a small minority. Causing offence isn’t a crime the last I checked

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    Mute Will
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 8:50 AM

    @Ally Mc Culladgh: The IOC didn’t mind dealing with China despite their appalling human rights record. This is just for the optics. It’s obvious the IOC don’t really care about such things. This man has lost his job over poor taste he showed 23 years ago as a young up and coming comedian. That’s Orwellian.
    If George Carlin came along today he wouldn’t make it out of the club circuit. The new puritans of progressiveness would make sure of it.

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    Mute Ally Mc Culladgh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 9:26 AM

    @Disco Inferno: It was a desperate joke because he couldn’t get a laugh any other way. He loses this specific job yes. He made a god awful desperate attempt for attention using the holocaust. The IOC are acting in protecting itself from embarrassment and ridicule, given the history of the event, the country the games are held, it’s not appropriate for him to be associated with the opening ceremony

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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 2:30 PM

    @Ally Mc Culladgh: yet it was still a joke. Stop looking for things to be outraged about and live your life

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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 12:28 PM

    1998? Really? 1998,as in 23 years ago? Seriously this needs to stop it’s not going to end well.

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    Mute Ro Molloy
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:10 AM

    Unfortunately there have been many holocausts, mans inhumanity to man knows no bounds. It is also unfortunate that only one of the many get the recognition they all deserve.

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    Mute michael macken
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 11:11 AM

    everyone so PC now, has anyone watched southpark, jokes spread the virus, hmmmm

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 11:14 AM

    I still laugh at Alf Garnet, I better resign myself to a life on the dole!!!

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    Mute Siobhan O'Sullivan Morrin
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    Jul 23rd 2021, 2:11 PM

    @Tony Harris: unfortunately a lot of people out there fail to spot that the joke was on Alf for being a bigot. Great comedy can take a heavy topic, satirise it and show it up for what it is.
    The current PC climate in which we live allows only a black and white view of everything and doesn’t recognize nuances. I’m waiting for the day when it’s decreed that offensive parts of history must never be taught or spoken of in case people might be tempted to take inspiration from them and repeat them!
    PS You could look at certain elements in England today and see Alf’s attitude and philosophy but you certainly wouldn’t be laughing, sadly.

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    Mute michael macken
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 11:12 AM

    maybe bar the germans for starting 2 world wars also while there at it

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 11:34 AM

    @michael macken: Tine to move on, Michael.

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    Mute David Gaffney
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 9:59 PM

    @michael macken: Very good point Michael! If there is no temporal limit to finding a reason to identities someone to something then there will be either subjective or objective reasons to in some way justify something. History shows that no country or nation does not have bloody hands. It now begs the question how far back in time social media or a spiteful individual is entitled to go when it is clearly and deliberately designed to solely cause discontent and agitation. That is the motivation of an individual with an agenda.

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    Mute Kingshu
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 1:02 PM

    Looks like David Jason should get ready to hand back his knighthood, for the racist terms (that were the social norm in the 80s) used in the early days of only fools and horses by his character Del Boy.

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    Mute David Gaffney
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 9:48 PM

    It was 23 years ago! I can only imagine what I may have said back then that may be considered offensive in present times. I am also pretty sure that most, if not all of you, have similar regrets from such a long time ago irrespective of your current age. As we get older, we should get wiser and historical indiscretions should not dictate someone’s future forever more!

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