MovieChat Forums > Abenobashi mahô shôtengai (2002) Discussion > Smacking people with giant white paper f...

Smacking people with giant white paper fans?!

posted 17 years ago by sark-2
5 replies | jump to latest

What's the cultural significance of this? When I was in Japan last year I was watching TV--and in one show there were just two dudes whacking each other over the head with these giant paper fans (like what Arame does in this show all the time). What's the meaning of this fan?

[–] SW_Jones 17 years ago

I think in America it would be the stereotypical equivalent of a lady with an attitude hitting someone over the head with her purse. I could be wrong, though.

[–] tskums 17 years ago

Yeah, it's probably something as simple as this. As in, at one point or another, those kinds of fans were used a lot.

[–] bent-mangseth 16 years ago

From what I´ve heard, those paper fans look perfectly harmless - but hurt like heck for some reason. Maybe that show you saw was a local variant of Jackass?

[–] deadlygreenpoo 15 years ago

Theyre also weapons in super smash brothers. Weird.

[–] poppydowns 13 years ago

according to the advid (kind of like VH1 pop-ups)notes, this is a commonly recurring slapstick device used in vaudville-like comedy routines from Osaka.