"...What "The Two Beats" made was not really manzai. Kitano had never studied it, nor been a fan of it. The traditional form of manzai requires two people: the tsukkomi (the joke teller) and the boke (the victim, fall guy). The tsukkomi introduces the subject and the boke creates "punch lines" by answering in north when asked in south, the tsukkomi then picks up the lead again, often hitting the boke over the head. The manzai of "The Two Beats" was completely different. Kitano simply went off into a monologue and Kiyoshi, having a hard time following Takeshi and making up snappy relies on the spot, would comment with things like, "what are you talking about?". It was soon labelled "New Wave Manzai" and created a boom in comedy...." [http://www.kitanotakeshi.com]