Talk:Yatta (song)

Irrational Exuberance "Support" Message

The article seems to imply that Veloso's message to support the corporations (AOL, Sony, Disney, etc.) is an appeal to support the economy. I was under the impression that they were listed because he used some of their products, photoshopped with Yatta onto them, of course. I know off the top of my head that applies to Johnson and Johnson. Does anyone else know anything about this? --BDD 01:36, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Philip Morris is a famously hated company because its primary business is selling tobacco products, even though it has its fingers in a lot of pies, and I'd be very surprised if he were sincerely supporting them. I don't know Veloso but I doubt he was sincerely encouraging people to use those products -- the Alan Greenspan refs and (IIRC) repeated refs to encouraging people's greed (like the ironic Dr. Ruth thing about SUVs being a compensation for penis size) seem like a really obvious parody of attempts to stimulate the economy and end the recession to me. As far as whether he personally uses all these products -- it seems irrelevant. Most of these aren't cool products one would sincerely promote -- they're random things like Band-Aids, toothpaste, fast food, etc. If anything he's *parodying* brand identification and cliqueyness -- taglines like "The clothes you wear determine your value as a person" and "Apple users would all willingly give (Steve) Jobs a hummer" seem pretty ironic to me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.58.225.137 (talk) 05:03, 26 April 2005 (UTC)

There's no doubt that the work is a parody, and I grant that IrEx is not as random and more formulaic than the average animutation, but I just can't see an animutation being used for such a specific and serious purpose. Is there any evidence supporting this idea? --BDD 18:14, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

No doubt much of it is just sheer randomness, sure, but I can't help thinking that there's enough lucid moments that much of the humor does come from skewering people's obsession with the economy and stimulating consumerism and branding. I don't think it's particularly serious, or that Veloso is trying to recruit for the socialist revolution or anything -- but the humor has a bite because it's about something real. The same is true of the original Yatta!, which makes a bit more sense if you recall how incredibly dire Japan's economy looked and how bombarded with pessimism Japanese people were when it came out. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.105.247.164 (talk) 23:24, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Timeline

It's in Category:2001 singles, but other than that the article doesn't seem to mention any dates. Perhaps someone who knows could add when it aired originally, release of Flash animation, rise and fall of popularity and so on. --Woseph 11:05, 2005 Jun 19 (UTC)

More information...

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I'd really hope that more information is added to this article, perhaps by Japanese wikieditors who have more experience with this song. Among some of the things I'd like to know:

1) The article says that the song is by a Japanese "group" named Happai-tai, and that it was first performed on the sketch show by famous comedians. I'm a little confused. Was it originally recorded by a band, and then adopted into the show by comedians? Are the dancers we see on the videos actually "Happai-tai" (a band created for the sketch show), or are those dancers actually performing a song written by a real band called Happai-Tai?

• Happatai is the cast of the television show. They first donned their Happatai getups in a totally different sketch, but I presume the original sketch was popular enough to warrent the music video. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.92.0.61 (talk) 19:33, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

2) This page says the name of sketch show is "Adventures of a Laughing Dog", while other websites say it's called "Silly Go Lucky". What's the difference?

• The Japanese name of the show has two names. The Japanese title (as in the title that uses Japanese characters) is "Adventures of a Laughing Dog". There is also an English title they've given themselves, "Silly Go Lucky", presumably to give the show a more "hip" attitude. Adding English words/phrases to Japanese products/shows is a fairly common practice in Japan. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.92.0.61 (talk) 19:33, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

3) The page says the dance is done by well known comedians. What are their names?

• Thier name are Kiyotaka Nanbara, Noboru Oouchi, Jun Ooki, Jun Nagura, Ken Horiuchi, Taizou Harada. Since Noboru Oouchi retirement, Ryuhei Uejima joined to this band and perform yatta! on Jimmy Kimmel Live. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.141.137.115 (talk) 11:50, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

4) The sketch skewers many of the stereotypes of Japanese pop culture -- Could some more examples be given? Maybe an analysis of the whole music video?

5) The actors who performed as Happa-tai were even brought to perform "Yatta" in the United States -- Were are of the original actors used? I think I can tell of at least one different actor in the Kimmel live performance. --Rc251 09:54, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the information! I'll refrain from editing the article right now and see if anyone with more experience does, but I think the intro could be a little more clear. It could say that the Happatai "group" consists of the cast of the sketch show, because right now, one could mistakenly think the group is independent of the show, and happened to perform Yatta for the first time on the show.

It would be great to know more too. I think I read that a cartoon spinoff was created, and also I think I recently read that the sketch show could possibly be cancelled sometime soon due to declining ratings. Also, the translations I've seen online and on the Kimmel broadcast didn't really agree with each other, so maybe we could have a translation on this article too (I realise there are always difficulties when translating music, especially when it has cultural aspects to it). In addition to the English you mentioned in the show names, I also noticed what I think is English in parts of the song besides the intro/outro and the "Everybody say Yatta!". For example, I think I hear "wonderful", "lucky", and "movie star" within Japanese phrases.

Maybe I'm just in my Yatta phase, but all of it is really fascinating to me, especially that the group gained enough popularity that they actually performed in the US. --Rc251 02:09, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Why was this removed?

An anon editor deleted this with no reason given in the edit summary. I'm not entirely sure why.

The sketch appears to be at least partly ironic commentary on attempts by the Japanese government and others to maintain optimism in the face of Japan's severe economic troubles, depicting men impoverished to the degree of having no clothing but the figurative fig leaf (though in this case the leaves are attached to white briefs) yet maintaining an irrational, irrepressible belief in their own potential for success.

Is the statement possibly POV or inaccurate? It doesn't seem so to me... --TexasDex 01:15, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Revert the edit if you think its worth keeping. --Billpg 10:51, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I wondered about that section, actually. It seems more like an opinion piece, as well as being completely out of tune with the lyrics. If this is satire, it's the happiest satire I've ever heard. Blast ^{[improve me]} 26.04.07 0628 (UTC)

These are the lyrics in question:

"We've got recession these days...in goverment we've no faith. Could we hit "reset," that'd be number one! And since we're all here, it's just so much fun!" It seems clear to me that the relentlessly upbeat tone of the song is *intentionally* over-the-top, crazy and unbelievable, especially with this incongruous section of lyrics in mind. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.105.251.169 (talk) 23:33, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I was not the person who removed it, but I question that statement as well. It's not "clearly" over-the-top. That may be an opinion that you and perhaps I share, but the honest truth of the matter is that the song does NOT give a sense of satire the way Swift does, at least from a Western perspective on the English translation. In fact, saying "in government, we have no faith," sounds like something in line with strong libertarian philosophy, nearly akin to hippie subculture, and as such may not strike everyone as sarcasm. It's the happiest sarcasm I've heard. At the very least, I don't think the above paragraph should be kept because it seems like an original analysis of the video.

Since Wikipedia tells me to be bold, I'll remove it now, but if you think it should be placed back, you can do that. I won't immediately revert and block without discussion. 71.59.91.78 (talk) 21:28, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Copyright

This song is copyrighted, of course, so I'm removing the direct link to downloading the official music video. Illegal desu. DJLarZ 16:36, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Links have since returned, I am removing them again. Wikipedia articles are not allowed to link to content that is in violation of copyrights. -Verdatum (talk) 15:55, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Go West?

Are you sure this is based only on "Go West" by the village people? Both of those songs are basically Pachelbel's Canon in D.--Dwedit 05:00, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Strange Reference - Off Topic

I removed this paragraph: Unfortunately, Yatta's reputation has been tarnished by a well known member of a popular New York City community website. The user has been subjected to much in the way of self induced failures and, in addition to expressing a familiar brand of homosexuality, has been noted for being quite eccentric. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.142.53.253 (talk) 08:44, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Popularity in the West

the article states While the song was intended to be humorous, some viewers outside Japan assumed it to be earnest, perhaps due to the obvious work that went into the special effects in the video. The incomprehensibility of such an elaborate video enhanced its popularity among Western audiences who could not understand the Japanese lyrics.

But what is this factoid based on? Some (western) worldwide study? This is anecdotal, and personal opinion, but when I saw the Yatta! video for the first time, my assumption was that it was a comical music video. Was the video popularized because "some" thought it was "earnest" - whatever we mean by that ... Some people thought it was an earnest non-humor video? And what does that have to to with its popularity? Maybe I'm missing something here. Why would the understanding of lyrics have a bearing on this either? There are tons of people worldwide that don't understand English lyrics in American pop songs, are we to add similar statements to those articles too? Anyway, putting up a 'citation needed' for the paragraph. --Popoi (talk) 16:55, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Does anything in wikipedia need [cition-needed] for groups of "some"? I thought it was real. Does that mean wikipedia can now cite this discussion? There is a lack of logical thinking coming from your Poposhka. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.23.56.12 (talk) 05:23, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

I have to support that the comment implying that it didn't become earnest is partly wrong, this song didn't hit #6 (which was verified) by having no emotional resonance with the populous. In addition, production values seem a bit beyond the reach of a handful of comedians in an economic crisis. Sadly, I can't cite this circumstantial evidence, but I can't help but feel that the article currently is closer to inaccurate then accurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.250.133.48 (talk) 20:47, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

"Bye-Q"

What does "Bye-Q" mean, anyways? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.4.242.128 (talk) 02:51, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Requested move 24 September 2017

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Start a new RM if anyone wants this to be moved to Yatta! (song). (non-admin closure) feminist 01:23, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

---

Yatta (song) → Yatta! – Page title doesn't match song name; most references seem to include the exclamation mark. Ixfd64 (talk) 00:20, 24 September 2017 (UTC)

• Oppose - If the title is incorrect, it should be moved to Yatta! (song), but Yatta! should really be redirected to Yatta._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 05:51, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose -agree it should be moved to Yatta! (song), and Yatta! should ideally be redirected to Yatta: Hooray! やった! Yatta! is an interjection and usually occcurs with !. This article is about a song and should be titled according to WP:CRITERIA to be helpful to readers. In ictu oculi (talk) 07:17, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
• Oppose both [Yatta!] and [Yatta! (song)] per MOS:TM. Sawol (talk) 09:23, 24 September 2017 (UTC)

---

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.