The final round of "THE SECOND ~Manzai Tournament~ 2026," a comedy competition where veteran stand-up comedians with over 16 years of experience compete with their best material, was broadcast live on Fuji TV on May 16th at 6:30 p.m., with the comedy duo "Totto" defeating "Kinzo Bat" to become the 4th champion.
Tot is a comedy duo consisting of Masato Kuwahara and Tomoyuki Tada, formed in February 2009. Starting with the Special Jury Prize at the 32nd ABC Comedy Grand Prix in 2011, they went on to win the Total Coordination Award at the 1st Kamigata Manzai Association Awards in 2015, the Literary Arts Award at the 2nd Kamigata Manzai Association Awards, the Excellence Award at the 46th NHK Kamigata Manzai Contest, and the Grand Prize at the NHK Newcomer Comedy Awards in 2016.
This time, they defeated The Punch in the quarterfinals and Linear in the semifinals to advance to the final.
The eligibility requirements for "THE SECOND ~Manzai Tournament~" are: "Only professional comedians can participate, regardless of whether they belong to an agency," "Comedians must have been formed 16 years or more (formed before December 31, 2010)," and "Comedians must not have won a nationally televised manzai comedy competition program." Gallop won the first tournament, Gakutensoku won the second, and Two Tribe won the third.
This year saw a record-breaking 152 entries. Starting with the "selection rounds" in January and February, followed by the "knockout stage 32→16" in March and the "knockout stage 16→8" in April, the eight finalists who fought their way through a series of fierce battles gathered together for a tournament-style competition.
