Dancing man wearing a horse mask cooks wild mushrooms (video)

The fellow who uploaded this to YouTube writes:

This is possibly the most disturbing thing I've seen on the Interweb. I'm sorry for inflicting this upon all of you. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: The mushroom in this video looks like Amanita muscaria, which are very poisonous! Don't ever try this at home, people. Picking and eating random wild mushrooms MIGHT KILL YOU. After a rigorous session of super-sleuthing, I was able to find out more about this guy. It seems that he is a performance artist from Japan that goes by the name of 'wotaken.' Here's his home page: http://katura.is.land.to/index.html.

YouTube Link (Thanks, Russ Gooberman!)

[#1 posted by leon_is_so_alone , February 8, 2008 2:39 PM]

Amanita muscaria are a great trip...if you know how to use them...

[#2 posted by Chocolatey Shatner , February 8, 2008 2:42 PM]

We need to introduce this guy to La Pequena Prohibida, stat!

[#3 posted by Takuan , February 8, 2008 2:46 PM]

I get it! These are being provided so everyone can have them start playing when TSA opens a laptop!

[#4 posted by Antinous , February 8, 2008 2:49 PM]

2Mushrooms1Horse

[#5 posted by raoulduke , February 8, 2008 3:10 PM]

mmmmmuscimol....

[#6 posted by jonathan_v , February 8, 2008 3:20 PM]

This is why I love the internet. Thank you.

[#7 posted by sorted , February 8, 2008 3:23 PM]

um, you just have to boil da heck out of em, right? Memory, Is that correct? Nice tea (right!)...heh.

[#8 posted by teflon , February 8, 2008 3:25 PM]

As soon as I saw that mushroom in his hand in the first frame I thought "Oh nos!!" - Looks like a deadly amanita to me (which by the way are quite common in North America kiddies - DO NOT play with mushrooms you don't know!)

[#9 posted by mrfitz , February 8, 2008 3:40 PM]

That was quite entertaining.

[#10 posted by DGHilton , February 8, 2008 3:58 PM]

I think I've met this guy in the wilds outside Kajimi city a few times. But as good as that was and on so many levels, this may be even...better:

http://www.hiltonjapan.com/2008/02/japanese-video-edits-insane-ronald-san.html

If you haven't seen it, you better sit down.

[#11 posted by Takuan , February 8, 2008 4:03 PM]

shuddderrr.. who needs waterboarding?

[#12 posted by Evalisa , February 8, 2008 4:08 PM]

Looks like one of the ox-headed, horse-headed demons of meifumado.

Has anyone read Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Okami)? The entire damn set-up seems right on for a depiction of a day in the life of a horse-headed demon.

Cultural enrichment ENGAGE!

[#13 posted by DGHilton , February 8, 2008 4:11 PM]

Better yet, here's where you can also buy the exact same horse head ask used in this video for only Y1570 (save Y509!!)

http://www.hiltonjapan.com/2008/02/japanese-performance-art-dancing-man.html
(Link at bottom)

[#14 posted by klg19 , February 8, 2008 4:37 PM]

I actually think that the gas mask over his John Thomas was the most disturbing part. That's a gas mask in a place where no gas mask was meant to be.

[#15 posted by Takuan , February 8, 2008 4:42 PM]

speak for yourself

[#16 posted by McKenzie , February 8, 2008 4:56 PM]

This is in either the Retard-O-Tron video mixtape or the Crazy Dave part 2 mixtape.

Saw em' both about a month or so ago.

[#17 posted by Tesseract , February 8, 2008 5:15 PM]

The second I saw a half naked guy wearing a horse's head holding a poisonous mushroom with an anime character plastered over his wall and the intro theme to Final Fantasy VI playing in the background... I knew I'd better put my headphones on and make sure no one was around.

And you even hear Kefka laughing... which is kind of appropriate...

[#18 posted by Shamdeo , February 8, 2008 6:23 PM]

The song is "Dancing Mad" by Nobuo Uematsu for the Square videogame Final Fantasy VI, known as Final Fantasy III in the United States. It was on the Super Nintendo, and was ported to the Sony PlayStation and Gameboy Advance

Odd choice.

[#19 posted by billstewart , February 8, 2008 6:46 PM]

Wouldn't take much to modify that horse mask into a Unicorn Chaser if you need one....

Amanita can either be fatal, poisonous, or merely psychedelic depending on how you prepare it and how much you can take. It also seems to be one of the many examples where there's an edible mushroom in Asia that looks a lot like a poisonous North American mushroom or vice versa, and immigrant families who go mushroom-picking need to get liver transplants for the survivors. If you don't really really know what you're doing, stick to mushrooms you get from the supermarket or your local growers.

[#20 posted by Tim , February 8, 2008 8:12 PM]

This is why I don't go to anime club anymore.

[#21 posted by cha0tic , February 8, 2008 9:48 PM]

The way he's behaving I just assumed he'd already eaten a load of mushrooms & they were kicking in.

[#22 posted by kiint , February 8, 2008 10:00 PM]

I think I saw this guy in Odaiba one time...photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/octalkhan/265195437/

[#23 posted by hecatomber , February 8, 2008 10:19 PM]

@DGHilton

and I thought that the one with the horse head was sick. I was almost throwing up while watching McDonald.

[#24 posted by Rick , February 8, 2008 10:46 PM]

The difference between inane and insane is little more than a typo

[#25 posted by okkoto , February 9, 2008 3:33 AM]

the Japanese continue to raise the strange bar higher and higher.

[#26 posted by Gilbert Wham , February 9, 2008 4:04 AM]

Hang on, I cry shenanigans. Wouldn't boiling the amanitas leech out most of the muscarine? What did he do with the lovely mushroom stock? Anyway, it's not that strange. Just a naked dude getting high on mushrooms. Who hasn't seen that at least once? Hell, I've BEEN that before...

[#27 posted by stevew , February 9, 2008 7:36 AM]

Not toxic as prepared. See http://www.williamrubel.com/mushrooms/amanita-muscaria

Xeni got a love note from Warren Ellis' blog for this post :)

[#28 posted by Anonymous , February 9, 2008 11:04 AM]

Don't forget! Someone was on the other side of the camcorder... That must have been something else.

[#29 posted by elNico , February 9, 2008 4:21 PM]

Great music, btw...thanks #18 Shamdeo for pointing it out...

[#30 posted by Coaster , February 9, 2008 9:16 PM]

It was the Thriller music at the end that creeped me out.

The rest was just strange. I'm sure his mother is very proud of this.

[#31 posted by ZzmeeY , February 10, 2008 6:04 AM]

Good pony, good...

[#32 posted by meagrebones , February 10, 2008 4:40 PM]

This make me nostalgic. I really miss the 70's.