Neptune (owarai)
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Neptune (ネプチューン) is a three-man Japanese conte group consisting of two boke, Taizo Harada (原田泰造), and Ken Horiuchi (堀内健) - usually referred to as Horiken (ホリケン), and one tsukkomi, Jun Nagura (名倉潤).
Taizo, born March 24th, 1970, is most famous for his physical comedy and his tendency in television shows to be masochistic and raw. He was born in Hiroshima and raised in Tokyo. A few of his memorable conte were during Neptune's late night comedy show, "O-Nep!" which featured Taizo dressed in wrestling gear usually in a public location with a lot of young, female spectators. He would run into the crowd, grab a mini-skirt wearing female, and perform a tomoe-nage, flipping the girl over his head and onto a wrestling mat, exposing her underwear. He also had a character called "Mr. Hip," where he would "compete" with a bikini wearing female, bumping them into a pool and then mocking them. This tough-guy degradation of women became somewhat of a symbol of Neptune in the early 2000's.
Horiken, born November 23rd, 1969 in Shinagawa Prefecture, tends to balance Taizo's macho, mysoginistic demeanor with childish behavior and pranks. He is often known for his meaningless ippatsu gags, such as "Flying to the sky, Paraglider!" (空まで飛んでけパラグライダー！), while leaping into some physical contortion.
Nagura, many times left to simply observe the other two's antics, is the only member with Kansai heritage, being born on November 4th, 1968 in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. He was originally a member of the manzai duo, "JunKattsu" (ジュンカッツ), until his partner left him and he grouped together with Taizo and Horiken, which were then known as the group "Florence" (フローレンス). He is continually mocked for his huge protruding jaw, and is many times compared to the skeleton of a Thai man (because of his emaciated, dark skin).
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