TIM is the name of a Japanese

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

unit (''kombi''). The unit consists of and . They are most famous for their antics on the

owarai is a broad word used to describe Japanese comedy as seen on television. The word ''owarai'' is the honorific form of the word ''warai'' (by adding o- prefix), meaning "a laugh" or "a smile". ''Owarai'' is most common on Japanese variety show ...

show

Uchimura Produce , produced by Teruyoshi Uchimura, is a Japanese TV comedy program that aired from 2000 to 2005 on TV Asahi. Summary The program that Teruyoshi Uchimura produces shows things with an original technique and concept every week. There were only tw ...

, as well as various children's shows such as . The two are also members of the ''owarai'' and music group NO PLAN. Red, the

tsukkomi The following glossary of words and terms (generally of Japanese origin) are related to ''owarai'' (Japanese comedy). Many of these terms may be used in areas of Japanese culture beyond comedy, including television and radio, music. Some have b ...

, is originally from

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

, and Golgo, the boke, hails from Saitama. As ''tsukkomi'', Red is easily embarrassed and blushes quickly, which is where he gets the name. At the end of every episode of ''Uchimura Produce'', the host,

Teruyoshi Uchimura , half of the Japanese comedy duo Utchan Nanchan, is one of the most famous and influential comedians in the owarai community. His nickname is ''Utchan'' ("Wutchan"), and his partner, Kiyotaka Nanbara, is known as ''Nanchan''. He was born on July ...

would shout, "And today's Red is..." to which Red would insert some strange (often embarrassingly un-funny) pseudo-English or meaningless Japanese phrase. Occasionally Red was given his own corner, "Red's World" (a play on Summers' Ōtake's "Ōtake World") in which he would perform weird and nonsensical ad libs (e.g. "Ariga-ton, ton, Washington!" and "Pan! Pan! This is Japan!"). Red is a graduate of

Bukkyo University is a private university in Kita-ku, Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The school's predecessor was founded in 1912, and it was chartered as a junior college in 1949. Bukkyo means Buddhism in Japanese, and the university's philosophy is based on ...

. Golgo (named after the famous manga

Golgo 13 is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Saito, published in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Big Comic'' since October 1968. The series follows the title character, a professional assassin for hire. ''Golgo ...

) is the ''boke'' and is also known for being confusing and rather odd. Golgo is known for his physical and set-up gags, contrasting the more verbal and corny mental humor of Red. Formerly, Golgo was often seen with an un-lit cigar on-air (although he hates tobacco), and he also always sports a small, chaplin-esque moustache. A famous gag of Golgo's has him crying out, "Ah... Inochi!" and then spreading out his arms and lifting one leg in an attempt to mimic the shape of the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

, meaning "life".

History

TIM was formed by the two in 1994 as an acronym for Time Is Money after close apartments in Tokyo brought the two together. Both went to the Japanese

National High School Baseball Championship The of Japan, commonly known as , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan. The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and ''Asahi Shimbun'', t ...

; Red with the winner of the Kyoto Prefectural Baseball Tournament, and Golgo with the winner for Saitama.

External links

Watanabe Entertainment (Official)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tim (Owarai) Japanese comedy duos Watanabe Entertainment