Bogus Godzilla Beer

A truly wonderful story is floating around on the Internet about a craze for hydrogen-”carbonated” beer in Tokyo karaoke bars. The attraction of this beer, the story explains, is twofold: It raises the pitch of your voice so you can finally sing those Bee Gees songs, and if you hold a lit cigarette in front of your mouth as you belch, you’ll emit a ball of blue flame, Godzilla-fashion.

The story has a certain Toshira Otama flying into a rage when he loses a karaoke contest (having drunk too much hydrogen beer to sing accurately) and expressing his resentment by belching forth a ball of flame which singes the contest judge’s eyebrows off. After keeping the bouncers at bay with volleys of fireballs, Otama finally gets tackled; as he falls, he swallows his cigarette, setting off an internal explosion which causes third-degree burns to his esophagus and vocal cords. In the end, Otama sues the beer company and the bar, and the bar countersues Otama for driving customers away.

A marvelous story it is, complete with an Associated Press credit (but no writer’s byline), but it’s actually an urban myth from Internet City that’s been circulating since 1994. The lawsuit part of the story was added late last year.

There might be a clue in the fact that the story’s karaoke bar is named Tike-Take, which is impossible in Japanese; it would be pronounced Chike-Take. The author of the lawsuit part of the myth could have had the American expression “ticky-tacky” in mind.