Humor in America, The U.K., Japan
Humor is a very cultural thing, and it’s fun to analyze the things people from different countries consider amusing — jokes about the lack of education or hygiene among people in a certain region, visual or slapstick forms of humor, orifice-related jokes and so on.
Often, we can’t comprehend the things that people in one culture find funny — Canadian stand-up comedians telling jokes about Nova Scotians go way over my head, for example. Then again, there are times when the cultural difference can make something all that much more hilarious, which I believe is why Monty Python and the Holy Grail is such a cult favorite in the U.S. — the gap between the two countries magnifies all the jokes, and our unfamiliarity with British understatement (”There are some who call me…Tim?”) make it a ridiculously funny film.
Humor in Japan often seems to be situationally-based, putting a character in an impossibly bizarre position and drawing laughter from his embarrassment, for example.
One important category of humor in Japan comes from manzai, two-person stand-up comedy that involves a dumb comedian (boke) who makes erroneous observations and his sharp-tongued partner (tsukkomi), who berates him at every turn. The interplay of R2-D2 and C-3P0 in the Star Wars films is largely a reflection of this comic tradition, of course filtered through the films of Akira Kurosawa.
The old adage that if you have to explain it, it isn’t funny holds up pretty well in my experience, and back when I was a teacher I tried using American humor as teaching tool, bringing in Far Side comics or funny song lyrics for my students to discuss. I remember once trying to explain the concepts of irony, sarcasm and cynicism, all three of which are represented by the exact same word in Japanese (hiniku). It was, ahem, not my most inspired of lessons, and I think my students were more confused when I was finished.
US/UK humor and Japanese humor are founded on totally different principles. The basic American and British concepts of satire and irony are totally lost on nihonjin. I have researched this extensively and tested it repeatedly. I’ve worked with hundreds of Japanese exchange students coming to my University, many of them were English Literature majors and fairly fluent in English, and had read the fundamental satirists like Mark Twain. But they don’t understand it at all.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:23 amI have found that sarcasm is perceived as bullying, even the most hyperbolic satire is taken as mere exaggeration of truth, and irony is totally missed. They didn’t grow up in a culture that reveres these forms as a fundamental principle of their national literary heritage.
I know a Scottish comedian, I discussed this issue with him and he agreed, and told me there is only ONE joke he knows that always gets a laugh from a nihonjin, “Pull My Finger.” Japanese humor tends to be based on scatology or humiliation. There is a Japanese literary tradition behind this, going back to classics like “Shank’s Mare.”
Manzai is basically vaudeville. Think: Abbot and Costello, who came from the vaudeville tradition. Laurel and Hardy, like that.
What I find amazing is how a style of comedy born in the Victorian Age still manages to survive in modern Japan. It’s a bit like the “variety show” that went the way of the dodo bird in the late 1970s in the States. Who actually enjoys a parade of singers aged 55 and above singing hits from 30 or more years ago?
And as I’m writing this the phrase “koureika-shakai” (高齢化社会: aging society）comes to mind…
August 19th, 2008 at 9:39 amSanma uses some sarcasm. I used to work with a couple Japanese who used wicked sarcasm when the occasion called for it. It’s not as common, but some people do use it.
I grew up watching my dad’s collection of Laurel and Hardy video tapes. Maybe that’s why I enjoy Japanese comedy so much.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:51 amI’ve kind of gotten my family into using American sarcasm but in Japanese. We’ll make reverse statements all the time, e.g. if something tastes really bad we’ll go on about how delicious it is with each other, like, this cake is so good I’m about to have a heart attack and die from it. I’m sure we sound like idiots to anyone from the outside.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:54 amAnd then there are times when an attempt at sarcasm or satire is met with a serious explanation of what you just said would not work.
I have found two jokes that can be translated as-is into Japanese that elicit the desired effect. One is a golf joke.
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Jack, who is in his early seventies, comes home from his regular round of golf in a bad mood, muttering something about giving up the game.
His wife asks, “What’s the matter dear. Are you becoming frustrated with your distance?”
Jack replies, “No, it’s not that. I can hit the ball OK, but my eyes are shot. I can’t see where the damn thing is going.”
“Why don’t you take my brother George along? He’s over ninety and can’t play, but his eyesight is perfect,” his wife suggested.
“Hey, maybe I might try that. Anyway, George will be able to enjoy the fresh air.”
So the next time Jack goes out to play golf, he takes old George along. He tells George to stand behind him as he tees the ball and then hits it with his driver. Jack loses sight of the ball almost as soon as it leaves his driver.
He turns around to his brother-in-law and says, “George, did you see it?”
“Yup!”
“Where’d it go?”
“I forgot.”
Japanese golfers in particular love this joke.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:28 pmThe golf joke seems like a variant of humiliation. There’s an old comedy saying about this, “Tragedy is when I slip and fall on a banana peel. Comedy is when YOU slip and fall on a banana peel.”
August 19th, 2008 at 1:48 pmActually, I thought the same thing as I was typing it. But the fact is that the joke does translate into Japanese, which is quite a feat in itself.
Here is the other joke, an old standard, that translates.
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A guy is about to get married when he suddenly realizes that he knows nothing about sex. He calls his buddy, a renowned woman’s man, the night before the nuptials are to take place, and asks for advice.
Needless to day, his friend is at a loss at what to tell his innocent pal, so he tries to make it a simple as possible. He tells the groom-to-be: “The first night of your honeymoon, lay down with your new bride on the bed. Rub her stomach slowly and gently with your hand as you look lovingly into her eyes and say softly, ‘I love you. I love you.’”
Armed with this new knowledge, the caller when off to be married.
The first night of his honeymoon he did exactly at directed. He laid down next to his new bride, looked lovingly into her eyes, rubber her stomach, and whispered softly, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
He new bride soon started to become aroused by the foreplay up to this point. Writhing on the bed she implored her new husband, “Lower, lower.”
At which time the man dropped his voice to a baritone as he said, “I love you, I love you.”
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Of course, the punchline is much better if it is spoken instead of read. In fact it may be all of the additional drama (voice intonation, hand movements) you can add to this joke when delivering it that makes it work.
The Japanese term that works for “lower” is “hikuku shite.”
August 19th, 2008 at 2:38 pmDon’t forget, when someone asks you, なんで日本に来たの？ you tell them 飛行機で.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:12 pmThe banana peel thing reminds me of what Groucho Marx used to say on the nature of comedy: “Anyone can dress up as an old lady and fall downstairs. For real comedy you need the real old lady.”
Erm, which doesn’t reall add anything to the discussion here.
Fundamental? Mark Twain?
August 28th, 2008 at 6:18 pmI’ve been trying to write something on “irony” for my blog and this post and its comments have been helpful to figure out what I’m thinking.
‘Hiniku’ may be translated as ‘irony,’ ’sarcasm,’ and ‘cynicism’ in Japanese, but meanwhile the English word ‘irony’ is itself is ambiguous: 1. the use of words to convey a meaning which is opposite to its literal meaning as in “Geeze, that sure was helpful! Hmpff,” 2. result of behavior that is the opposite of what was intended, “He set a trap and got caught in it himself,” 3. behavior contrary to the nature of the behaver, “The doctor murdered her patient,” (though this could be reduced to #2, for it was not the intention of the patient.)
What interests me would be these latter examples. I’m told that slipping on a banana peel is one of the classic themes of Japanese humor (one’s intention in walking is pleasure or business: see #2). And the Buddhist priest’s luxurious car & interest in money in “The Funeral” are quite delightful (we think the same way in my Church see #3 above).
Does this mean that the axiom that “Most Japanese don’t get irony” refers only to #1?
Ah, but then what of satire, which is just a biting way of pointing out ironies (see the comment by Chas above)? I don’t suppose many Japanese folks ‘get’ Jonathan Swift’s 17th century “Modest Proposal” that the British Government in line with the rest of its Irish policy license the raising of Irish children for the British meat market (complete with comparison of estimated cost of feeding, etc., with the anticipated cost per pound of the meat).
Can anyone help me with what goes?
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 amI think it’s more like sarcasm, satire, and irony are somewhat different in Japanese humor — not to mention that irony, where I do remember seeing it, is apparently taken more as a ‘drama’ than a ‘humor’ point.
Sarcasm, especially, tends to be culturally based on an ‘internal’ level. The US and UK still have enough common culture that we know when, for example, when somebody is being polite instead of sarcastic. Consider how somebody who isn’t used to our rules might interpret hearing somebody inform their grandmother that the positively horrid sweater she just gave them is, in fact, absolutely wonderful…
As for satire: I’m sure there’s some, somewhere, in Japanese literature. I’m also inclined to bet that it’s going to not make very much sense to us if it ever gets translated.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:07 pm