In the uk it was Craig Charles of red dwarf fame, renowned funk and soul DJ and robot wars host. It was brilliant.

We had this in the 80s/90s in Italy within a show called "mai dire banzai", they mixed up clips of Takeshi's Castle and Za Gaman[0], and the commentary was three guys of which two acted as faux Japanese experts and the third acted surprised at the completely made up bits of Japanese culture.

It was incredibly popular back then.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za_Gaman

US had Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boww2fJUEHc

strange Poland didn't have one...

The dubs for the Spanish version did it too. There were two dubs, one in 1990 and another one for a 2006 re-run. Both completely made up.

I actually watched it as a kid on Eurosport. It also had the dubbed over commentary. The original has lots of comedy bits between the games, most of them were cut in the German version.

Yes, it was a deliberate strategy to add localized commentary, as the original context would not apply in foreign markets. An example of Transcreation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcreation

Right you are, Kenny.

My ncpa team would just say "fuckem up!". They did not like that at nationals.

Kenny Blankenship and Vic Romano! The names so discordant with the visuals...

I don't know about spiketv but yes @ microsoft execution container post

You're forgetting the one.

You know the one.

Dies Irae plays softly in the distance

I watched Hana bi and Sonatine recently. I thought "this sounds like Joe Hisaishi" - turns out it was, he scored basically all of Takeshi's films

Getting Any, a total Takeshi movie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Any%3F

if you're into yakuza campyness try the outrage series. he's great in them.

absolutely blowing my mind to realize vic romano and detective nishi are the same actor

Sinkers and floaters. Lots of jokes about remedial dental work that would be required.