Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Japanese Man Who Got Trapped In a Game Show - The Story of Nasubi

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

This is the story of Nasubi, the man who was part of a strange Japanese game show.

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So this guy, let's call him Eggplant, because that's what everyone calls him. An Eggplant is just a dude living in Tokyo, and he really wants to be a famous comedian.

And one day, he tries out for a TV show, sort of a game show. But they're a little vague about what this show is going to be. Regardless, this is a big opportunity for Eggplant. This could launch his career. So he shows up to the casting office, and they select him. And the producer, let's call him Tosh. Tosh blindfolds him and takes him to a little studio apartment in Tokyo. And once they're there, Tosh finally explains to him the TV show they're about to be filming.

They want Eggplant to strip down naked and live in a studio apartment with no food, no clothes, no contact with the outside world, he's not allowed to leave. The only thing he's allowed to survive off of are the items he wins from mailing in magazine sweepstakes. And he has to do this challenge until he's won over a... a million yen worth of prizes from all the mail-in sweepstakes, which is around $8,000 US dollars. And once he does that, the game will be over. So, Eggplant agrees to do it.

And bam, he starts his challenge. And suddenly he's just there, butt-naked, alone, filling out as many mail-in sweepstakes as he can, up to $200 a day. And, like, first, he's hoping he can win some food, because they gave him nothing, only water. Now here's where the whole thing starts to get a little short. Shady. Eggplant knows he's being filmed. He knows this is for a TV show. But Tosh tells him that little to none of this footage will ever make it to air. And that the show itself probably won't make it to air. But that is a lie. That footage immediately goes to air. It's part of a variety show. Once a week, producers take the footage and they cut it up, and every Sunday night they air a compilation of Eggplant's weirdest and craziest and funniest moments. An eggplant in that apartment has no idea any of this is going on.

Millions of people watch this show every week. And they watch Eggplant just living in this apartment. Alone, butt-necked. And people freaking love it. They think Eggplant is so funny and quirky. Meanwhile, in reality, Eggplant's actually having a really hard time. He's completely isolated from anyone.

He doesn't have any clothes. And to make it worse, he's starving. Because magazine winnings take a while to come in, because they have to come in through the mail. So producers, they end up giving him a small amount of crackers so that he doesn't, literally die. And then about two weeks go by and bam, he wins something that feels life-changing to him. A bunch of packs of fiber jelly, which is like a sugary drink. And so he lives off that for a while.

Then a week after that, thank goodness, he wins an 11-pound bag of rice, which hallelujah is his first real food. But sadly, he has no way to cook it. He would have to win pots and pans for that. So he has to eat the rice raw for a while. Then about two months. months in, he wins his first article of clothing. Used women's panties. Because I guess in Japan, you can just win used women's panties through magazine sweepstakes. Regardless, that all fails, because he tries them on and the panties ultimately don't fit him. Then, around the same time, he wins a stuffed animal, a seal. And he hasn't held a conversation with a single human being in months. So this stuffed seal becomes his best friend. And he straight up hangs out with it and has

conversations with it, like it's Wilson the volleyball. Then three months in, he wins a toothbrush. So this poor guy finally gets to brush his teeth for the first time since he started this challenge. He's gone three months without brushing his teeth. But then his freaking rice runs out. And so he's got nothing to eat until he wins a bunch of dog food. So not only does he have to start eating dog food, but that becomes his primary food source for months. So now we're six months into this. And at this point, Eggplant has submitted over 38,000 magazine sweepstakes. And he's won a bunch of random stuff, a bicycle, a chair, a VHS player, a PlayStation game that he can't play because he doesn't have a PlayStation. But on the outside world, his segment in that variety show, it's still airing

every week. And it has become massively popular over the last few months. And it's now getting around 15 million views in episode every week. In fact, the show has become so popular in Japan, The fans have figured out where Eggplant's studio apartment is. And the fans, and the media and the paparazzi, they're all constantly showing up outside the apartment as they're looking for him. An Eggplant has no idea any of this is going on, because he can't see out, he doesn't have a window.

He still doesn't even know the show is on the air. That's how in the dark he is. And Tosh and the other producers, they start to get worried. They're worried that Eggplant will see all this attention outside the apartment and that he'll figure out that he's being broadcast on TV every week. So they give him some bullshit excuse, and they blindfold him and they relocate him to a new studio apartment about five hours away. And while they're at this new studio apartment, the producers decide that this show is so popular, they're gonna start live streaming the footage 24-7, so that anyone can tune in at any time of the day and see what Eggplan is doing.

And so more months go by, and the show becomes even more popular, and millions more people are tuning in every Sunday to watch the weekly episode. And Eggplant still has no idea any of this is going on. He's just constantly filling out sweepstakes all day, every day. And then, one day, finally, after 335 days in captivity, kaboom, he wins a small bag of rice. And that bag of rice puts him over the 1 million yen mark. An Eggplant has officially won the challenge. Until.

After winning, Eggplant is suddenly woken up surrounded by a camera crew and they're congratulating him. And producers give him back his clothes and they blindfold him and they take him to a new surprise location. They actually take him out of Japan where he's super famous and they take him to South Korea where no one would recognize him. And they let him visit an amusement park for the day. And they take him out for Korean barbecue, his favorite food. And eggplant has a great time. And he still has no idea that he's now a celebrity in Japan.

Then Tosh and the producers they blindfold him and they take him to a new studio apartment. And there they coerce him to take off his clothes and do yet another challenge. Because this show is straight up a hit. Gintosh and the other producers they want to keep it going. And poor Eggplant, he really wants to launch his career. So he reluctantly agrees. And this time he has to mail in magazine sweepstakes until he wins the value of a flight back to Japan. So Eggplants like, fine, if this is my ticket into show business. But this time, it's different. By now, he's so good at mail-in sweepstakes that he just aces this challenge. After a few months, he wins enough prizes to meet his goal easily. So then finally, after all this time,

they clothe him, they blindfold him, and they take him back to Japan. But instead of taking him home, they take him to yet another studio apartment. And poor eggplant, he's like, damn it, another challenge. And he instinctively takes all his clothes off and gets naked. But then, suddenly, out of nowhere, boom, the walls of the apartment start to fall away. And strangely, he's standing in a TV studio in front of a full live studio audience. And they're all applauding for him. The producers

had tricked him yet again. And poor Eggplant, he's like, what the fuck? Because again, he didn't even know this show had aired. He still thought that they weren't even going to use much of his footage. And on top of that, not only is he super famous in Japan now.

His show broke numerous broadcast records. There were over 17 million people tuned in to watch his show every Sunday night. Now, as interesting as that is, all of this definitely traumatized him. And there were plenty of negative psychological side effects. But this bit of fame does eventually help him

break into the entertainment industry a little bit. He goes on to do some variety shows. He becomes a dramatic stage actor and performs all across Japan. He gets a role in a live action anime type drama. So after all that torture, he ended up with a pretty good career. So shout out to him.