As Forrest Gump said, stupid is as stupid does. And in Japan, these days, it does pretty well.
The latest pop outfit to take the nation by storm is Shuchishin, a male trio with a unique selling point: their ignorance.
The group's three members, Takeshi Tsuruno, Yusuke Kamiji and Naoki Nokubo, began life as occasional panelists on Fuji Television's popular comedy quiz show "Hexagon II." Each of the three photogenic men became known for their extreme lack of knowledge and consequent ability to provoke laughter unintentionally. When the program's producers decided to cast the trio together in one episode, the seeds of Shuchishin were sown. The episode was a success, and the three became regular panelists.