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Behold These Delightfully Strange Japanese Butt-Poking Figures

You may have tried to catch all the Pokemon in the past, but now it’s time to catch a new group of figurines who get pokey, mon. They’re doing what is called kan-cho, which…well, let’s just let RocketNews24 describe the very Japanese pastime:

A kancho is when someone—typically a child—puts their hands together, sticks out their index fingers, then thrusts the pair of them them into some unsuspecting person’s butt. As a joke…Getting “kancho-ed” is typically a rite of passage among English teachers and other foreigners interacting with younger kids in Japan. Though the fingers usually don’t make it past the pants, it’s still not a pleasant experience, and most would rather not think about it.

So why do it? “Tricking is a way of communication which unite[s] the people more intimately,” says manufacturer Panda no Ana, the company that makes these keychain figures with finger linking mechanisms similar to the Monchhichi toys of my youth, which featured a thumb-sucking pop joint. And you know what? I can’t deny that fingers in the butt unite people intimately. I’m just not sure this is the intimacy for which people are looking.

Especially with a giant pink bear, which is of course one of the characters in this line, along with a businesswoman, schoolgirl, angry boss, Johnny Bravo-ish, and a brown bear. Because Japan.

Spider-Man even got kancho’d in an early version of Capcom’s Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter:

That “Underoos” nickname in Civil War takes on a new meaning now, right? Anyway, these kancho figures are gashapon in Japan, available from vending machines, but if you live in a city with a decent Little Tokyo, and you really want to poke around, you never know what you might find in the end.

Probe our gallery below for detailed images of the whole kan-cho krew. Which of your current toys would you have them poke first? Let me know in comments. I won’t judge.

Images: Panda no Ana

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