#6「ラブレターズ（後編）〜嘘エピソードクイズ〜」

Finalist Comments ①: The Mummy

The Mummy (Sakai Takashi 坂井隆 and Hayashida Yohei 林田陽平) reached the finals for the second time in five years, and their comment VTR left no doubt about how they felt. Recorded right after the announcement, both voices were visibly — or rather, audibly — giddy. Making the moment even sweeter: September 4, the announcement date, happened to be The Mummy's founding anniversary, so the duo described it as "getting a birthday present." In their excitement, one member nearly fired off a teaser tweet on X the moment the news was out, but every other member of the group stepped in to stop them.

Looking back on the road to the finals, they acknowledged that out of 8 attempts they had made the finals only twice — more losses than wins in the column. Still, they spoke with real confidence: "There's a World Cup-like four-year cycle to this competition, and this is the year we're hitting our stride." Their question for Long Coat Daddy: "What kind of upbringing did Usagi have to turn out so cheerful?" After the four of them listened to the VTR together, the consensus was immediate: "You can feel the excitement radiating off it — and that's exactly what makes it good."

Finalist Comments ②: Nihon no Shacho

Nihon no Shacho reported their third finals appearance out of six total career attempts — while cheekily asking the room to treat it as their "fresh first time" since they had not competed the previous year. Their question for Long Coat Daddy: "What is the origin of your duo name?" That one question opened the door to a full four-person discussion on how each duo got their name.

Duo Name Origins

Long Coat Daddy was originally called "Curry" (written in katakana). The problem was that an accomplished Tokyo duo of the same name already existed — and that duo had reached the junkessho (semi-finals) of King of Comedy. A Yoshimoto staff member told them they had to change it.

After pooling rename candidates, they performed exactly one show under the name "Sauté." That ended fast: Usagi refused to keep it. "I absolutely cannot live with Sauté," he said, so the search started over. This time the winner was "Long Coat Daddy," constructed from the initials of each of the group's then-13 members' surnames: L-O-N-G-C-O-A-T-D-A-D-D-Y. Eleven members eventually left, leaving the current two-person lineup. "If Curry hadn't been taken, we'd still be Curry today," Usagi said — and the room reacted with genuine surprise.

Love Letters came together through pure process of elimination. In the early days, Tsukamoto was performing edgy underground-comedy material laced with broadcast-prohibited language. When the two decided to aim for television, they agreed to each bring a pop, TV-friendly name to the table. Tamaguchi proposed "Love Letters"; Tsukamoto proposed "Mickey Maus." Since "Mickey Maus" was off the table, "Love Letters" won by default — a punchline that drew a big laugh from all four.

Parenting Talk

The Mummy's question about Usagi's upbringing sparked a broader parenting conversation. Usagi grew up in the countryside with a lot of freedom, and when school rules banned sleepovers at friends' houses he pushed back hard at the time — though today he says he is "incredibly grateful" to his parents for enforcing it. His takeaway: "Knowing the joy of having fun within a framework is what lets you do interesting things. Without rules, nothing is interesting."

Fukamoto from Love Letters is currently raising a 2-year-old. He explained that loudly scolding a toddler doesn't land the way parents hope — language comprehension isn't there yet, so all that sticks is the memory of being frightened. Rather than snapping "No!" when his child bangs a toy, Fukamoto tells the child where and how it's acceptable: "On the mat is fine; on the hardwood floor it breaks, so that's the reason we don't do it there." His observation that "watching my child makes me feel like I've become a DSLR camera" got a good laugh from the group.

Fake Episode Quiz: Ganso Ichigo-chan's Uemura

Taguchi brought a "Fake Episode Quiz" he had developed for live events, and the four of them played through it together. The subject: Uemura, the tsukkomi half of Ganso Ichigo-chan. The rules: four options, one real episode — pick it.

The choices: ① there is mint gum inside the costume hat; ② at an Asai Kikaku (浅井企画) party, Hagimoto Kin-ichi (萩本欽一) accidentally took the wrong pair of shoes home; ③ Uemura once modeled for Fashion Center Shimamura (ファッションセンターしまむら); ④ Uemura has had VIO laser hair removal.

Taguchi walked through the logic. On the mint gum: "It's not an idea that would come out of my own drawer — that's exactly why it might be real." On the Hagimoto shoe story: "Uemura isn't at that income level yet, so his shoes would be beat-up; the scenario where Kin-chan mistakes them for his own nice pair doesn't really hold up." The Shimamura modeling option sparked debate about whether Uemura's build matched Shimamura's typically fitted designs. At the very end of the broadcast the answer was revealed: ① the mint gum in the hat was the real episode.