On the October 25, 2026 episode of the Japanese comedy talk show Marco Polori!, the duo Nanamagari said their repeated prediction that Gerardon would win King of Conte was partly an attempt to pile pressure on a favourite. The prediction came true. Nanamagari finished last, and a separate backstage incident made their supposed psychological warfare look even more ridiculous.
The result you need to know first
King of Conte is Japan's annual televised competition for comedy sketches, not a royal title or a singing contest. The October 17 final on TBS had 11 acts, including one that advanced through a newly introduced second-chance round. Gerardon, now the duo Attack Nishimoto and Kamichii, won with 1,342 points across two routines. Nanamagari, made up of Naoto Morishita and Yuta Hatsuse, came eleventh. That outcome turns the earlier “prediction” into a punchline.
The September press conference: the man who declares answers
At the September 10 finalists' press conference, Hatsuse performed as his established comedy character “Iikiru Otoko,” roughly “the man who states things categorically.” The character loudly supplies a definitive answer even when nobody can know it. Asked who would win, he shouted “Gerardon!” He also declared Nanamagari would finish sixth. The winner prediction proved correct; the self-prediction did not.
On Marco Polori!, Morishita explained his logic: a favourite praised too much might buckle under the expectations, so whenever someone asked him to name the likely winner, he chose Gerardon. Hatsuse similarly joked that declaring them winners might help stop them winning. Gerardon said the attention had made them feel they had to win. This is the comic premise, not evidence that the comments influenced the judges.
How the dressing-room story turned the joke around
Yadan, another finalist, supplied the second half of the story. Their member Honma Kid recalled returning to the shared dressing room after practising outside. Nanamagari had already performed and were visibly deflated; Yadan had not yet taken the stage. When Gerardon's high score appeared, Morishita reportedly sprang up and loudly declared that Gerardon would take the title.
Then he noticed Yadan. Announcing that the competition is effectively over while a rival is still waiting to perform is an exquisitely bad piece of timing. Morishita apologised at the time and bowed again when the story was retold on television. The man who tried to make one competitor nervous had accidentally done something similar to another.
Why the studio laughed
The gag works in three beats: praise your rival so loudly that it becomes a burden; watch the rival win anyway while you place eleventh; then realise that your own victory proclamation has insulted a competitor who has not even performed. It is a story about misplaced confidence and social timing, not a genuine allegation of match-fixing or a claim that comedy scores were manipulated.
The Marco Polori! special aired on Kansai TV on October 25 from 12:59 to 2:34 p.m. Japan time, hosted by Koji Higashino. The sequence here is reconstructed from broadcaster-affiliated episode reporting and contemporaneous press coverage; it is not presented as a firsthand viewing of the entire programme. Coverage in Japan should not be confused with proof of an international viral trend.
Bottom line
Hatsuse's “Gerardon!” was a comic declaration; Morishita's repeated endorsement was, by his own telling, a deliberately overenthusiastic prediction. The prediction succeeded, the strategy did not, and the backstage apology supplied a much better ending than any elaborate plan.
