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Daisuke Inoue

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Inventor

The Resume

    (May 10, 1940- )
    Born in Osaka, Japan
    Birth name was Yusuke Inoue
    Drummer in a cover band in Kobe, Japan
    Invented the karaoke machine (1971)

Why he might be annoying:

    He cannot read music and said, 'Of 108 club musicians in Kobe, I was the worst.'
    He never realized he had a patentable invention and lost an estimated $150 million in potential royalties.
    His only karaoke-related income these days is from selling a repellent to keep cockroaches from building nests inside the machines.
    He first used a karaoke machine on his 59th birthday.
    He launched 8 billion drunken, off-key renditions of 'My Way.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He is remarkably sanguine about losing out on $150 million.
    He modestly declared, 'I'm no inventor. I simply put things that already exist together.'
    Karaoke became a $10 billion-a-year industry.
    He received a standing ovation after singing 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing' at the 2004 Ig-Nobel Prize ceremony.
    Time named him one of the 20th century's most influential Asians, writing 'As much as Mao Zedong or Mohandas Gandhi changed Asian days, Inoue transformed its nights.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 23 Votes: 39.13% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 31 Votes: 54.84% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 27 Votes: 59.26% Annoying