March 31 "Waratte Iitomo!" aired their grand finale special, "Waratte Iitomo! Grand Finale Kansha no Chotokudaigo (笑っていいとも！グランドフィナーレ 感謝の超特大号)" whit a lot of guests. Of course Nakai Masahiro, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, Katori Shingo and noon boyz, who are regulars in the show, also participated in this special program. The other 2 members of SMAP also came to perform a gratitude song. During the last part of the show the "Waratte Iitomo!" members, including Nakai, Kusanagi and Katori, each gave a gratitude speech. During this part, many members started to shed tears, saying good bye to the program.
The show began with noon boyz' Sanada Yuma and Nozawa Yuki singing the usual short opening song while performing. After the host, Kazuyoshi Morita (better known as Tamori-san), came in, they sing a special Waratte Iitomo! song. Later they are joined by the other regular members of the show.
Past members and a lot of comedians came as guests and also watched this last show. All members fo "Waratte Iitomo!" took a picture together while it is being filmed.
Kimura Takuya and Inagaki Goro came as special guests to perform with the other 3 members as SMAP. Both of them thanked Tamori-san for this 32 years of "Waratte Iitomo!" and than they sang "Arigatou" as gratitude to Tamori-san. All of them wore black suits with red boutonniere attached to them. The eyes of some guests started to get wet during this performance.
In the last part of the show, each past and current member of the program gave a speech of gratitude to Tamori-san, while video cuts of their appearances is shown behind them. Some of the members, started to shed tears as they realized, that the 32 years running "Waratte Iitomo!" is going to come to its end.
In his speech Katori Shingo mentioned, that he joined this program when he was about 17 years old, which makes it about 20 years ago. Remembering those pasts makes him want to shed tears. He also remebered being in the toilet together with Tamori-san at one point. Tamori-san didn't teach him anything in particular, but he was always able to learn by watching Tamori-san. Katori also said that during this 20 years Tamori-san never got mad at him, even if he made mistakes. He also said, that he was actually quite jealous of Nakai and Kusanagi being close to Tamori-san. During this time he couldn't hold his tears back and he needed to wipe them. He always enjoyed watching "Waratte Iitomo!", when he isn't in it. For this he thanked Tamori-san and asked: "Even now, though feeling sad and depressed, waratte temo ii kana (is smiling okey)?" To wich Tamori-san replied: "Iitomo! (It's okay!)"
Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, who was with this program for 18 years, is amazed by the amount of comedians that came for this show. Through this show and through Tamori-san he was able to see a different world than the idol world he knew. Just like how the audiences feel, seeing Tamori-san's smile makes his own probleme fade away and gives him energy to continue. He himself hopes to be able to bring laughter to people just like Tamori-san. He hopes that Tamori-san will continue to be a cool and a little weird Oji-san (old man).
Nakai Masahiro was 20 years with this program and remebered that when he joined "Waratte Iitomo!", they wasn't famous yet and didn't even had a manager. He learned a lot about variety shows through this program. He said that variety program is actually somehow lonely, it doesn't really have a goal like dramas, it can't be without laughter. He remembers going drinking together with Tamori-san a view years ago. Tamori-san hugged him kindly and said, that he was really thankful to Nakai. It made him really happy. Though now it has become normal for a Johnny's to do variety shows, when he and Katori were given the oppurtunity to do "Waratte Iitomo!" they really didn't know anything. He thanked Tamori-san for still being given that oppurtunity.
After their speech, Tamori-san also gave a speech of gratitude to this show, the members, staffs and audiences. After he thanked them all for this 32 years, someone asked him what he wanted the most right now. He answered, "To hurry and drink sake." But the show still had a view minutes. Kusanagi suggested to sing the Waratte Iitomo! song toghether for the last time, which they all did.
Outside the studio in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, where the show was being filmed, fans and passers-by watched the live broadcast as it aired on the giant monitor above Studio Alta.
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