I’ve been living here a while and i still dont quite understand Japanese peoples sense of humour. I learned very fast that irony and sarcasm/satire is not something they like or find funny(at least in the context a British person uses it), but the way they enjoy absurdity in comedy is also very different to me as well.
Sometimes it seems as if Japanese humour must be connected to real life in some aspect but it must be in a way that does not induce anything too close to home otherwise(from what i have noticed) it triggers more of an embarrassment than laugh.
For example Japanese humour may be something like: the urinal is for peeing. Dont poop in the urinal, but the entire thing has to be extremely exaggerated with crazy facial expressions. There will not be context behind why this event is even unfolding which i feel is required for this gag to work in Britain for example.
Would love help in putting my finger on this.
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What you are calling Japanese humour is just one of the ways people use to communicate.
I would recommend going either broader or more specific.
i. e. you may want to either talk about Dragon Ball or you talk about manga in general, but right now i feel like you are talking about just Dragon Ball but maybe you think there is no other manga work in the whole country.
And as it’s been pointed out, language is a gateway to a place’s culture.
Laugh when everyone else laughs
Let me smack you over the head with a giant paper fan, then you’ll get it.
Check out the films of Juzo Itami.
I’ve always felt that Japanese humor is embedded into the culture, which to be fair is how humor works in the west as well. My wife doesn’t get the jokes made from American or British comedians.
The best I can tell is that it’s more silly faces and slapstick comedy mixed with quite a bit of self-deprecation humor, if you’re a man. If you’re a woman, you can’t just be funny, you have to have a physical shtick to make you funny, (i.e. overweight with tight and loud clothing, bushy eyebrows, etc.). A lot of comedians will stick the same joke/routine for years once they “make it” big. And then there is manzai, which, I don’t know, I personally don’t enjoy, but I can see the appeal it would have for people who enjoy that kind of physical (?) comedy. Black face and transphobia are still used in Japan to sell comedy (excluding Matsuko Deluxe), so a lot of the time, personally speaking, Japanese comedy feels very juvenile to me.
This probably isn’t the answer you’re looking for, but it’s the best I can come up with as to why Japanese comedy is hard for a lot of foreigners to understand.
Watch “The World of Golden Eggs”, only two seasons available, but thats the only Japanese humor that made me laugh to tears
Bottom-tier slapstick and potty humor. I don’t think there’s much **to** get.
Japanese humour is often riddled with hidden cultural references, and as learners of Japanese, I think we might be prone to overanalyzing a joke, instead of just going along with it.
For example, if you really really look closely at a joke that made you laugh from your own country, you might think ‘oh, actually… That’s not so funny’. Then try to explain that joke to someone who isn’t a native speaker.
But you aren’t alone in your opinion. Many Japanese think manzai is terrible.
You might wanna look up ツッコミandボケ。My japanese friends LOVE to gatekeep that foreigners would never get their stand up comedy because they’ll never understand the two concepts. It’s also a huge part in being funny in normal conversation.
A slight aside, why have only a few countries taken up stand-up comedy while most of the world still has an Abbott and Costello type setup?
I grew up right next to Mexico, and Mexican daytime TV is pretty similar to Japanese. Except instead of a man with freckles and a giant lollipop, Japanese humor is usually one normal guy and another guy that doesn’t quite get it. Or a normal guy and a guy who’s yelling.
The ridiculousness is such a contrast to everyone being so serious all of the time. It’s like an outlet to do what’s not normally allowed. They live physical comedy especially inflicting pain on each other. I don’t find that funny but I can appreciate it as an art form.
Go forth and watch bdsm in a comedic aspect
Give “Last One Standing” on Netflix a shot, top comedians from Japan get together and compete while following a dramatic storyline
Tldr;
If you like dad jokes, puns, and gags, you’ll love Japanese humor.
Not really a fan of it either but it has it’s moments.
I despise British sarcastic humor a lot more tbh. And I’m a Brit. I guess professional comedians are pretty decent but I’ve met a lot of Brits (in japan) who try so hard to be sarcastic but come across slow or as an asshole. Makes me concerned if these are the guys explaining British humor to Japanese people
I can’t explain the humor but I find Downtown really funny, in a kind of absurdist but relatable way, like Big Train / Smack the Pony / Catherine Tate Show
I miss shimura ken
Step one, become a near native speaker of Japanese.
Step two…. there is no step two, because that’s what’s necessary to “get” the language and culture of a people directly, including humor.
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Everyone refers to the mainstream slapstick as “Japanese” humor, mostly because in order to even understand any form of humor that isn’t nearly 100% physical, you actually have to speak the language to a very high degree of fluency and cultural competency. Any other form of comedy is gonna get passed over or will not even register as comedy to people that are not dead fluent, which only a small percentage of foreign residents are.
They have no since of humor
(Please forgive me. This was an “アメリカンジョック”)
Nah, but seriously speaking first there is the cultural difference and then on top of that a lot of the television programs are extremely high context. And given most foreigners haven’t had years upon years to follow the local entertainment scene (ie the context) and also don’t have the cultural background to aid with understanding, they usually find the お笑い芸人 jokes incredibly difficult to follow. And then even after you do understand the context (once you have a full understanding of life in japan, all the characters in the entertainment scene, and the local inside jokes), the next question is whether your cultural background allows you to find it funny at a more emotional level
Lets say you turn on the telly and decide to watch a sport you had never seen before. But you can tell its a sport.
You dont know who they are or why they are playing.
You watch the whole game and realized it ended because the crowd started cheering and applauding. The players stopped doing what they were doing. And they moved on to grab the trophy. Take pictures and talk about the game.
Do you know why they are celebrated? Or what they did well? No.
Why?
You dont have a horse in the race. In other words you dont have the knowledge or experience or perspective.
So you dont get it. There isnt much to explain unless you share the whole act with us and have redditors(the true connoiseurs of humor) tell you why we found it or didnt find it funny.
Ps: If you need someone to explain their style of humor you just wont get it. Never heard this conversation
”…and that is why it’s funny to some people of this ethnicity.”
” HAHAHAhaha OMFG thats hilarious HAhaha I dint know thats why it was funny and I thought it wasnt. HAHAHA!”
Japanese do like irony and sarcasm, it’s just that it’s used in a different way and in different situations compared to the west. Seriously, Japanese comedy shows and japanese internet memes are full of irony and sarcasm, I don’t know where people got this idea from.
It’s basically ボケ and ツッコミformula. Straight man and the fool. The fool (ボケ) makes a joke usually something absurd depending on the scenario they set up and the straight man (ツッコミ) comes in and “corrects” it. Popularized by manzai.
Then there’s simpler forms of comedy like ドッキリ which is pranks, 顔芸 making people laugh with facial expressions, and others.
There are levels to comedy in any culture, and Japan is no different.
The most accessible is physical comedy, like slapstick. A lot of Japanese people know and like Mr. Bean because it’s easy to understand. I think what was described in the original post falls into this category.
The next level is situational humour, like sketch comedy. Kids in the Hall or many sitcoms fall into this category. If you understand the situation you can probably get some of the jokes.
I think standup comedy is at another level more difficult. Most people who don’t have a high degree of understanding of the language and culture won’t get the jokes. Ricky Gervais or Dave Chappelle would be incomprehensible if you didn’t understand English.
When I first came to Japan there was no YouTube so I watched a lot of Japanese TV. I wanted to understand more so I kept watching.
I like manzai more now that I can understand more than I miss. I like “Non-style” and “Knights” (ナイツ) as they’re about my level …
In my previous work, when I go drinking (before COVID), co-workers used to play a game like this. Person A gives his kouhai a bowl, the kouhai has to come up with something funny/stupid with it.
I think the essence of Japanese humor is to twist the ordinary into something unexpected. It’s a bit like a version of r/dadjokes word puns, except not just words, but also situations, people’s reaction, common sense and what not.
It’s why manzai is very popular, one person is the “ordinary” guy, the other is the guy that twist the ordinary guy’s assumptions, intentions, perceptions, etc.
For example:
* Person A: Hey, yesterday, I went to that ramen shop we visited together last year.
* Person B: Oh yeah ? What did you order this time ?
* Person A: Nah, I just remembered I left my wallet there last year.
* Person B: AFTER THAT LONG!?! ARE YOU KIDDING !?! GET OUT!!!
* Person A: Yeah, I didn’t get my wallet in the end!
* Person B: ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!? WHY DO YOU EXPECT THAT !??! YOU SHOULD WENT TO THE KOUBAN!!
* Person A: There was a kouban nearby, so I stopped by there.
* Person B: Ah good, that means you get your wallet back ?
* Person A: Yeah, but not the one I lost at that ramen shop, it was the other wallet I lost two years ago.
* Person B: TOO LONG!!! WHY YOU WAIT THAT LONG!?!?
Humour is not universal, but mostly a learned cultural trait. Japanese won’t understand your sarcasm just as you don’t understand Japanese humour. And the Germanic side of my genes, well, yawns at most standup comedy just as much as at Japanese humour, while I find German humour very entertaining, even though everyone seems to agree that Germans don’t have any.
So learn to laugh when you’re expected to laugh. They will do the same for you if they get that you’re making a joke.
I was watching a program where a comedian (Kasuga of Odori) went to LA and had to say “YES” to everything that was asked of him. It was probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV here. He ended up having dinner with some taxi driver’s family in a really bad neighborhood, walked around town in a Tupac “Thug Life” t-shirt, and he managed to get a date with a cute girl he met on the beach but he tanked it when she asked if he has a girlfriend and he had to answer “yes.”
There are some hidden camera/Punk’d kind of shows that are funny.
I think certain people like Gackt, Matsuko, and Imoto are really funny. I laugh at the commentary while watching the Bachelor Japan.
I dunno, I guess the more I watched TV the funnier it got for me. I hardly watch TV anymore but I think my spouse is funny.
Have you watched Sandwichman? They’re a pretty funny duo. You have to have a certain degree of Japanese language comprehension, but not that high.
There was a TV show ages ago called One Night Rock ‘n Roll. That was pretty funny too, and didn’t require Japanese skills too high.
I don’t really get the bonking on the head thing, but I guess that’s funny for some reason to a lot of Japanese.
Just laugh like [this](https://c.tenor.com/6TcA9vRym4MAAAAM/laugh-mock.gif) everytime someone makes a tsukomi
ITT: Japanese people think their comedy is soooo unique to and special to Japan and foreigners totally can’t get it. total BS, I understand everything.
Also ITT: The only comedy that exists here is obvious, mostly language independant physical comedy. Absolutely nothing else makes Japanese people laugh, especially not my countries unique ~~4 seasons~~ storytelling, misdirection, or sarcasm.
I’ll say this, my japanese co-worker loves the dogen videos where he makes fun of Japanese culture. Milk was shooting out of my man’s nose when I showed him the “Trains in Inaka” and the video explaining how absurd banks are in Japan.
I think it’s similar to British humour, stuff like Monty Python, Mitchel and Webb, Bruiser, Mighty Boosh, dunno if its cos we’re both weird lil islands haha
Do you speak fluent Japanese?
Before I talk about Japanese humor, let me talk about opera. I hate opera. I don’t get it. Does that mean that opera is crap? No, it means that I never learned about opera. I have no grasp of classical music or any of the clever tricks or techniques used by the musicians involved in opera. I only think opera sucks because I haven’t put in 10 years of study. Maybe if I put in the work, I would appreciate, even enjoy opera.
Now, about Japanese humor:
Until you actually have a near-native understanding of Japanese, you will miss 90% of Japanese humor. You will still be able to get slapstick and really crude humor, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only humor there is. You just won’t be able to perceive Japanese adult humor.
Incidentally, there are lots of people who are NOT in a foreign country, but live in such culturally impoverished circumstances that they are blind to the best parts of their own language and their own culture. Like opera, which I still hate.
I mean try explaining most comedians jokes to a Japanese person. They probably wouldn’t find it funny. For example, an American joke about race might have to have an explanation on racial dynamics in the US, and a quick 200 year history lesson behind it as the bare minimum.
But also we generally only get what’s on the surface. The slapstick and exaggerated which is easily identifiable as a joke.
Ironically, I dont get British humor at all. It sounds either overly earnest or they say the opposite obvious thing intended to come across as “dry humor” but it just hits me as dry
As for Japanese humor, it either falls into over explaining a joke or the surprise of the spectacle is over in 10 seconds. This explains why their commercials are better than their television shows.
This is like someone saying they don’t understand British humor because Mr Bean just flails around.
Yes, a lot of Japanese humor is slapstick, but not all of it is. Being able to understand more subtle humor requires a very strong language skill level, so it’s very possible that you’re only seeing the humor you understand.
This sub skews pretty pessimistic (and honestly pretty anti-japanese) so mostly what you’re going to hear is being agreeing with you, but I think you need to branch out a bit.
No
Avoid social criticism, sarcasm, dark humor, or taboo.
Embrace self-deprecation, slapstick, wordplay and puns, visual or situational irony, and improv.
That’s kind of the TV version in a nutshell, but movies and theater can take it farther than the highly sanitized elements that you see on network TV here (keeping in mind TV programs exist now in Japan to sell as much advertising space as possible for the cheapest, most banal programming possible due to the loss of TV viewership over the last 25 years). Battle Royale, Dai Nippon Jin, Takashi Miike, and Koreeda’s films, for example, have sarcasm, black humour, and social commentary.
TL;DR: TV comedy exists to distract and avoid offending anyone. Some movies and theater can offer some if what some of us Westerners consider closer to our vein of humour.
I think the easier to get stuff tends to be slapstick, or reliant on catchphrases. You can think of it as funny in the same way Mr. Bean is funny maybe. The harder to get stuff tends to be kind of opaque wordplay. Japan does have sarcasm or ironic humour though. Plenty of satirical writing both historical and modern. People don’t tend to use “皮肉” sarcasm so much in daily life though – people are usually sarcastic (嫌味) to be mean, not to be funny. One example of sarcasm is being overly polite in a situation that doesn’t call for it as a way of subtly mocking the person. Or saying a compliment in an insincere way (both of these exist in English to some extent I think).
I guess one difference is sarcasm in English is sometimes used like as a way to lightheartedly compliment someone, or as a way to lighten the mood in a bad situation, but Japanese sarcasm is almost always mean-spirited.
Anyway, you’ll have more success with making sarcasm land if you say a positive thing that’s meant to be negative than if you say a negative thing that’s meant to be positive – that one most Japanese people don’t do. But if you comment to your coworker that the client is “偉い人” after you’ve just had a meeting where they were idiotic and hard to deal with, most people would get it and find it funny I think.
Search YouTube for ボケて videos or get the phone app by the same name.
Wordplay, non sequiturs, misreading situations, assigning invalid motivations to actions,
Most humored basically is about violating norms and expectations.
“I was at Akihabara the other day and I needed to take a shit, so I walked into a combini and went to the back. When I walked up to the toilets there was a sign on the door which said that the toilets were locked and that customers need to ask a staff member to unlock them. At this point I was starting to really feel uneasy in my stomach, so I hurried to the front of the store. There was a small line but a few registers open. Naturally, I grabbed a bottle of water so I would at least buy something and not look too stingy, and I waited a few minutes. Finally when I got to the front of the line, I heard 次の客様どうぞ, and I walked over to the counter to see this really cute girl with a smile that could light up a room. I handed her the water and said ‘also could I use the toilet please?’ She replied ‘certainly which one?’. I was a little confused for a second, but then my heart sunk as I realized, at this conbini, the urinal and the toilet bowl were in separate rooms. At this point, I needed to shit so bad my bowels felt like they were about to split apart, but seeing this beautiful woman in front of me had me lost for words. I collected myself, mustered up my courage, looked into her beautiful glimmering eyes and said ‘the .. ..urinal please’.”
~a joke my Japanese friend told me.
I found 人志松本のすべらない話 really funny and on-par with standup. It’s just a bunch of comedians at a table who have to tell a funny story. I think it avoids the slapstick/physical humor and really test’s the comedians’ skill as there is no manzai partner to lean onto as well
I’m not a fan of their slapstick humour and their tendencies to run the same joke repeatedly to the ground. However I do like Japanese late night talk shows, some of them are genuinely funny because they will go all out to make fun of each other.
One of my favourites is London Hearts which is an iconic game/prank show. For one segment they will ask pedestrians to rank famous people on a certain spicy topic like who would you least want to marry and then invite all the people being ranked and reveal the results in front of live audience. Anything with Arioshi is pretty funny he plays a mean critic kinda like Triumph the Insult Dog from the Conan show without all the swearing. There is a Netflix show called Last One Standing which is a comedian joke gauntlet kinda show which is pretty popular. The fake drama section is intentionally cringey but the rest is pretty solid imo.
I think Japanese TV get a bad rep among foreigners because it’s mostly just food and fake reaction noises but I think the late night ones are honestly pretty good. They do require a higher level of Japanese understanding and some references could be really hard to get that’s why I watch them subbed.