Anyone can edit Wikipedia, but I was wondering if this was true:

Miscellanea

‘Cooked On Phonics’ managed to climb its way to number three in the Japanese charts. Because of that success, the album was never commercially available outside Japan for many years, with fears that fans of Townsend’s work wouldn’t understand the joke.

Did it really get that famous in Japan?

Why would people in Japan "get the joke" and not us?

Why would people in Japan "get the joke" and not us?

I guess that part means the music style, not the humour. When PB was done we didnt have 2006 but 1996, and Dev had only released the SYL debut, even oceanmachine wasnt on the market back then. So maybe it was because dev didnt want to become known as 'comedy punk rock artist' in the first place. just guessin...

[Tracy]

PB was/is actually a Century Media album. They own it but decided not to release it. Only Sony Japan was willing to license it from them. CM were kind enough to let us sell it by mail order though.