Cocorico (comedy duo)

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Cocorico (ココリコ, Kokoriko) is a Japanese comedy duo (kombi) formed in 1992, consisting of Shōzō Endō (遠藤章造, Endō Shōzō) and Naoki Tanaka (田中直樹, Tanaka Naoki). They are best known for making up the cast of the popular and long-running variety show, Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!.

Members[]

• Shōzō Endō: Born in 1971, July, 13, plays the tsukkomi

• Naoki Tanaka: Born in 1971, April, 26, plays the boke, the leader of the duo and who writes all of their material

History[]

Both were born and raised in 1971 in Toyonaka, Osaka. They were classmates during elementary and middle school. They were part of their school’s baseball club. Endo was a pitcher and Tanaka a catcher.

After their graduation, Endō was a salesman of office equipment in Takamatsu, Kagawa, but he quit. Aspiring to become a comedian, he moved to Tokyo and invited Tanaka, who was a design student in Osaka, to make a comedy duo.

Endō and Tanaka had not had any mentoring, so they were looking for a way to debut. Watching an announcement on TV, they participated in the audition for Yoshimoto Kōgyō Batamon Club, passed and formed "Cocorico Bombers". Later, they were advised by Kōji Kato (Gokuraku Tonbo) to shorten their name to their current one.

From 1995 Cocorico started to appear on TV shows and movies. Their TV appearances started to increase considerably since 1997.

The duo was then discovered by Hitoshi Matsumoto who liked their subtle humor and hired them to be show openers for his own duo Downtown. They have since become fixed cast members of Gaki No Tsukai and have been involved in the show since 1997, February, 9. During one segment of the "Enthusiastic Teachers" batsu game, Matsumoto called them by their original name "Cocorico Bombers"

From 1998, they started to present their own shows like Cocorico Ogon Densetsu, and Cocorico Miracle Type. Cocorico started to do solo activities from around 2000 and from 2005 it has begun to increase. Actually their most representative solo works are ZIP! for Tanaka and Viking MORE! for Endo.

Personal life[]

Endo married japanese tarento Chiaki Fujimoto on July 2002. 6 years later, they divorced on December 2007. They have a daughter, Iroha, born on May 2003. In 2015, he later remarried a woman who was an ex-manager of Tsutomu Sekine. Their first son was born in the summer of 2016.

Naoki married japanese model Shie Kohinata in 2003. They later divorced on May 2017. They have two sons, born on 2004 and 2008.

Hosted shows[]

Present[]

• Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! (ダウンタウンのガキの使いやあらへんで!!) (Nippon TV, since 1989)

Past[]

• Cocorico Miracle Type (ココリコミラクルタイプ) (Fuji Television, 2001–2007)
• Fujiriko (フジリコ) (Nippon Television, 1999–2002)
• Cocorico Million Kazoku (ココリコミリオン家族) (TV Tokyo, 2006–2008)
• Otoriko! (音リコ!) (Nippon Television, 2007–2008)
• Ikinari! Ōgon Densetsu (いきなり!黄金伝説。) (TV Asahi, 1998-2016)

Awards[]

• 39th Golden Arrow Award: Performing Arts Award

External links[]

• (in Japanese)Fandango profile on Cocorico
• (in Japanese)Cocorico Million Family official site
• (in Japanese)Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! official site