is 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 ...

duo ( kombi) consisting of and . They are employed by

Sony Music Artists , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and are mostly active in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Viking are graduates of the 17th generation class at

NSC NSC may refer to: Sport and competition * NSC United, an American soccer team * National Scholastics Championship, an American quiz bowl competition * National Scrabble Championship, now known as the Scrabble Players Championship * National Sho ...

Osaka. They specialize in ''

conte Conte may refer to: * Conte (literature), a literary genre * Conte (surname) * Conté, a drawing medium * Conte, Jura, town in France * Conté royal family, a fictional family in Tamora Pierce's Tortallan world * Conte, the title of Count in Italy ...

'' and were the winners of ''King of Conte 2012'', followed by many television performances.

Members

* Eiji Kotōge (小峠英二) Born June 6, 1976 in

Ōtō, Fukuoka is a town located in Tagawa District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2016, the town has an estimated population of 5,127 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The s ...

. Mainly plays 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 be ...

''. He writes all the material and skits for the unit. Kotoge is known for his quick and reactive ''tsukkomi'' in almost any situation. * Mizuki Nishimura (西村瑞樹) Born April 23, 1977 in the city of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

. Mainly plays the '' boke''. Known for his sensible yet unpredictable and odd character.

History

The two met each other at the dormitory of a

driver's ed Driver's education, driver education, driving education, driver's ed, driving tuition or driving lessons is a formal class or program that prepares a new driver to obtain a learner's permit or driver's license. The formal class program may also ...

school they attended in Oita. At the time, they were only acquaintances and were not too familiar with each other. In 1996, the two of them met each other by chance again in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, as the same class at the

audition in 1996. Believing it was fate that brought them together, they formed the unit in May of that same year.De☆View（オリコン・エンタテインメント）December 2012 Edition of インタビューより。 The unit moved to

soon after graduating NSC as they found little success in Osaka. They rose in popularity and were more active in Tokyo around 2008, but broke out in 2012. Viking was represented by

Watanabe Entertainment is a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate and a member of the Watanabe Production Group. Its head office is in Shibuya, Tokyo and the company's principle functions include organizing television and radio programming, managing Japanese entert ...

in 1999 and changed to Yoshimoto in 2004, but were released after just one year, becoming free agents. Currently, they are represented by

. When the unit first formed, they wrote their unit name "Viking" in ''

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

'' (バイキング). However, this resulted in confusion by the public when they rose to popularity as バイキング is the same word as

buffet A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve ...

. To avoid being mistaken for the all you can eat restaurants on search engines, the unit changed their name to write in both ''katakana'' and ''

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

'' (バイきんぐ).バイきんぐ：解散危機5回、コンビ結成は偶然　いまさら聞けないネクストブレーク芸人
- MANTANWEB Accessed 2019-04-25

Career

Viking made it to the semifinals of ''King of Conte'' in 2008 and 2011, became a finalist in 2012 for the first time and won with the highest points in the history of the competition at that time. In 2011, Kotoge entered the ''R-1 Grand Prix'' as a solo performer and made it to the semifinals. After 2012, the media exposure from winning ''King of Conte'' has enabled Viking with continued success in the industry. The unit appeared on numerous television programs, with Kotoge at the forefront as he had more success than Nishimura, who did not achieve major recognition until 2016.

Achievements

*The 1st King of Conte (2008) - Semi-Finalist *The 4th King of Conte (2011) - Semi-Finalist *The 2nd Onbato+ Championships (2011) - Finalist, 3rd place *The 5th King of Conte (2012) - Finalist, Winner

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Profile at Sony Music ArtistsProfile on NEET PROJECT

Kotoge
(@viking_kotouge) -

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Nishimura
(@vikingnishimura) -

Official Youtube Channel
Japanese comedy duos