Japanese and Western humor from a Japanese perspective

Lots of commentary on Japanese and Western humor in this sub – “people from this country don’t get standup/manzai” “Do people from culture X even have a sense of humor” “that humor is really low brow” etc. Here is a podcast in Japanese with good Japanese perspective on humor, touching on the Will Smith /Chris Rock situation.

[https://open.spotify.com/episode/6kaZWpFmNuvwRzErEEasfy?si=c519d0031cfe486e](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6kaZWpFmNuvwRzErEEasfy?si=c519d0031cfe486e)
I liked how the narrators discuss how they would find some Western humor mean – a solid point, like, of course Will Smith didn’t like having his wife insulted when tens of millions of people watching, perhaps its a good question to anyone who found it funny, why is that funny? Isn’t that just mean?

As an American, I’ve occasionally perceived British sarcasm to be in poor taste, mean, and by the way not funny; perhaps this is the same as the Japanese perspective on American sarcasm?

The podcast also mentions that Japanese people are often likely not to tell someone if they are offended and laugh it off, but resent things later.

6 comments
  1. > As an American, I’ve occasionally perceived British sarcasm to be in poor taste, mean, and by the way not funny; perhaps this is the same as the Japanese perspective on American sarcasm?

    It says it can’t play the file for whatever reason, but people who use the word “western” as though there be some kind of “western culture” invariably simply speak of the U.S.A. and even that country seems to have a sharp cultural divide in it’s northern and southern parts.

    There is no such thing as “western humor” or “western culture” and Dutch humor would often be perceived as very offensive to people from the U.S.A. as well.

  2. Japanese humor is pretty bad. Back in the days I forced myself to watch it (heck, I even went down the rakugo rabbit hole…) and in hindsight, I didn’t enjoy a minute of it. It’s generally either:

    – obnoxious and full of predictable banter

    – quirky, idiosyncratic and completely pointless

    Unlike Western humor, J humor rarely offers you any food for thought. It’s cheerful, without much of the kind of wit and hidden depth Western humor occasionally delivers.

  3. Now, I’m not going to sit through a random 45 minute podcast just to get the context, but I did find your statement interesting.

    >As an American, I’ve occasionally perceived British sarcasm to be in poor taste, mean, and by the way not funny; perhaps this is the same as the Japanese perspective on American sarcasm?

    NGL, as a Brit, I’ve always found American humour to be no less mean, just more in-your-face and typically vulgar. See also the propensity for toilet humour, the mockery of developmental disorders a la ‘The Big Bang Theory’, and basically anything ever done by Seth Rogan.

    As for the Will Smith example, there’s two points here; firstly, Chris Rock’s humour was not sarcasm. It was ribbing. Ribbing is an incredibly mild form of humour. Second, as far as ‘western humour’ is concerned, The overreaction to it is a uniquely American affair, probably due to American exceptionalism. Americans take themselves way too seriously (though to be fair, it was his wife who took exception; Will Smith [can be seen](https://youtu.be/myjEoDypUD8?t=20) laughing at the joke at first).

    And yeah, the Japanese typically aren’t upfront with their offense, but this is something you see in island nations, and a point of comparison with the English.

  4. >perhaps its a good question to anyone who found it funny, why is that funny? Isn’t that just mean?

    It’s only mean if you know Will Smith’s wife suffers from alopecia, which Chris Rock claims he didn’t.

  5. I’m American. I don’t find Chris Rock’s joke to be mean. He compared Jada to GI Jane, a fictional character played by a very beautiful and famous actress. How is that mean? Some would take it as a compliment. Of course it’s mean if you know Jada was going bald and this wasn’t an intentional hairstyle choice but I doubt Chris Rock was aware of this.

    Chris Rock was literally hired to roast the audience. It’s his job. So in that context it’s not mean for him to comment on someone’s appearance.

    I also don’t find British humor to be mean or in poor taste.

    I feel there is plenty of Japanese humor that is mean or in poor taste as well, if anime is any indication.

  6. No, I don’t think that you have a point at all. Japanese comedians have no restraint making fun of celebrities, and what Chris Rock did was extremely tame. Even stuff like Shikujiri Sensei where the victim is on in the joke is mean. Forget about all the jokes that Jinnai Tomonori, Becky and Hatoyama Miyuki are absolutely made the butt of. People aren’t watching Matsuko Deluxe because they think she’s an inspirational icon. The most basic “unit” of Japanese comedy is literally slapping somebody in the head for (pretending to) being an idiot.

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