Stories that land

A Night Out With Rocky

Ueda of Hi-Hi recalls going out for drinks with Rocky Hirao, a fellow comic he’d only recently met.

Getting to know Rocky

The storyteller is Ueda of the Japanese comedy act Hi-Hi. He recalls a night out with fellow comic Rocky Hirao, back when the two were just getting to know each other.

We’d barely met

Hey, I’m Ueda from Hi-Hi.

I’ve got this comedian friend who goes by Rocky Hirao. He’s got a flattop, really thick eyebrows, and big ears. You see his face once, you don’t forget it.

This happened when we went out drinking, not long after we first met. Rocky could get pretty out of hand when he drank.

He got carried away and drank so much that he ended up with alcohol poisoning. He was foaming at the mouth and collapsed.

We called an ambulance and rode along with him.

One of the paramedics said, “This is serious. Everyone, keep calling his name.”

But we barely knew him. We didn’t know his real name… So we had to use his stage name, right?

“Rocky, wake up!”

“Get up, Rocky!”

And while we were calling out to him, the paramedic got mad at us: “Stop fooling around!”

Side-view illustration of a Japanese ambulance—a white, high-roof van with a red stripe and red lights at all four corners of the roof—against a background that fades from yellow-green to yellow.

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