Tunnels (owarai)

The Tunnels (とんねるず, Tonneruzu^?) are an owarai duo with a long history composed of Tokyo-born Takaaki Ishibashi (石橋 貴明, Ishibashi Takaaki^?) and Noritake Kinashi (木梨 憲武, Kinashi Noritake^?). Both of them attended Teikyō High School (帝京高等学校^?) where Ishibashi, the taller of the two, participated in baseball, and Kinashi participated in soccer.

They originated not as a manzai duo, so much as an ippatsu gag and monomane act. During the early 80's, they became immensely popular with young Japanese audiences, appearing in several television shows, but their popularity exploded with their show The Tunnels' Thanks to Everyone (とんねるずのみなさんのおかげでした, Tonneruzu no minasan no okage deshita^?). Many times they absorbed more than 30% of nationwide television viewers, a great feat for any television show. They then turned their attention to creating music, spawning a string of hit singles that also generated massive sales and attention.

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Wikipedia