マジで道草食ってるやつ

Context

The idea behind this animation skit centers around three Japanese idiomatic expressions :

• 道草を食う, which literally means "to eat roadside grass" and metaphorically "to loiter around (while on the way to going somewhere)"

• 油を売る, which literally means "to sell oil" and metaphorically "to slack off"

• 時間を潰す, which literally means "to smash/flatten time" and metaphorically "to kill some time"

The skit makes a joke out of these idioms by depicting a student skipping (what seems like) baseball practice by literally eating roadside grass and literally selling oil, such that another student describing this incident to the coach on the phone has to specify multiple times that "道草を食う" and "油を売る" are to be meant in a literal sense. At one point the student says "無駄話してなくて、めっちゃ繁盛してます" (He's not just gossiping around, his business is actually booming). This is a reference to the fact that the idiom "油を売る" originates from hair oil sellers during the Edo period who were often known to engage in idle chatter or gossip with women while doing business, and thus were often seen as slacking off instead of doing work.

Later, the student says "時間潰してます" which would normally be interpreted as "He's just killing some time / loafing around now", but of course the fabric of space-time is literally being compressed, speeding up the flow of time as he speaks. Again, he has to relay to the coach to take his words literally and that space-time is actually falling apart.

Relevant Vocabulary

• START :

  監督

• boss, supervisor, coach, etc..
• -suru verb (to supervise)

  部活