I only know the German version from RTL2 which had funny commentary dubbed over it with made-up names and stuff. Curious, did the dubs in other countries do the same? Were there languages with the original commentary translated?
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.
Remember watching this as a kid after school eating my bag of chips I'd been given for lunch which I'd save up so I can eat it later while watching this. In Canada, it was aired as MXC.
It was incredibly popular back then.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za_Gaman
(From MXC, based on footage from Takeshi’s Castle)
Still remember that phrase from years ago.
Should do a rewatch again, it's been a while...
https://archive.org/details/takeshis-castle-with-english-sub...
The other archive link shared here, it's to another set of rips that appear to lack subtitles.
Remember watching this as a kid after school eating my bag of chips I'd been given for lunch which I'd save up so I can eat it later while watching this. In Canada, it was aired as MXC.