An anime adaptation of Sensha Yoshida's Utsurun Desu. four-panel "nonsensical" gag comedy manga. The manga used a stable of off-the-wall characters to tell jokes that defied logic or reasoning. The original manga ran in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine from 1989 to 1994. 
Source:ANN

This manga is deemed to be one of the works that initiated the "irrational" or "unreasonable" gag comic genre where the reason of its funniness cannot be explained by logic and traditional sense of humor, which made this title very popular among teens and early twenties at that time. One of the most popular characters that appeared in Uturun Desu was "the otter", Kawauso-kun. 
Utsurun Desu. roughly means "it infects you" and also is the synonym for a disposable camera produced by Fujifilm (where it means "it can take photos"). 
(Source: Wikipedia)

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