is a Japanese comedy duo (kombi) formed in 1992, consisting of and . They are best known for making up the cast of the popular and long-running variety show, Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!. Members Shōzō Endō (born July, 13, 1971), the tsukkomi. Naoki Tanaka (born April, 26, 1971), the boke and leader of the duo who writes all of their material. History Both were born and raised in Toyonaka, Osaka. They were classmates during elementary and middle school and were members of their school's baseball club, with Endo a pitcher and Tanaka a catcher. After their graduation, Endō was a salesman of office equipment in Takamatsu, Kagawa until he resigned. Aspiring to become a comedian, he moved to Tokyo and invited Tanaka, who was a design student in Osaka, to form a comedy duo. Different from most Japanese comedians, who studied at comedy schools before debuting, Endō and Tanaka had not had any mentoring and were looking for another way to debut. Watching an announcement on TV, they auditioned for Yoshimoto Kōgyō Batamon Club and passed on their first attempt. Originally known as Cocorico Bombers, they were later advised by Kōji Kato (Gokuraku Tonbo) to shorten their name to their current one. In 1994 Cocorico had their first movie appearance as the main characters of Yankee Gurentai Nanbo no Monjai! 2 and started to appear on such popular variety shows as Waratte Itomo!! and Vocabula Tengoku. Cocorico also worked many times since their early days with the veteran comedy duo Utchan Nanchan. In 1995 Cocorico appeared for the first time on Gaki no Tsukai as contestants on a comedy competition. The duo would further appear on the show and open for the manzai shows of Downtown until February 9, 1997, when Endō and Tanaka became part of the regular cast. In 1996 the duo started to work on a radio program, Cocorico no Kairaku Shawā Okoku, which aired on CBC Radio until 1999 and was revived on September 2, 2021 as a special program to celebrate CBC Radio's 70th anniversary. In 1998 they started to break. Their TV appearances started to increase considerably and Cocorico would also appear on entertainment magazine covers and make commercials for famous brands like Glico, Hitachi and Coco Store. This year also saw the premiere of their own highly-rated show, Cocorico Ogon Densetsu, broadcast by TV Asahi and successfully airing until 2016.