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Vietnamese humour is remarkably focused around puns and other word-play, much more so than American humour. The reason is presumably because Vietnamese has a t
by simplicio 9y ago
Vietnamese humour is remarkably focused around puns and other word-play, much more so than American humour. The reason is presumably because Vietnamese has a ton of homophones, and even more words that differ by only one vowel or tone.
(this makes learning Vietnamese a kind of trying experience, as every mispronunciation is a source of hilarity for native speakers :) )
- japanforever 9y agoNot only Vietnamese but a lot of languages all over the world, if not most or all. Puns and wordplay exist in any language, and people who say "why English/German/Swahili/whatever is so great for Y" merely have no deeper understanding of linguistics aside folk etymologies and lists of "untranslated words" (which are a joke to people actually into linguistics) and things like that. Japanese comedians can't go 10 minutes without making a pun, and a lay person could strongly agree that it is the language that uses them the most due to all common similar-sounding words, frequent games with kanji and their different meanings etc. It's common for even business names to be puns in Japan.
- samstave 9y agoExamples please. I love puns.
- mattchamb 9y agoThere is a sushi shop near me called "Sushi Yah!" the japanese for "sushi shop" is "すし屋" pronounced "sushi ya"
- Rumudiez 9y agoThere's a sushi restaurant near me called "SushiMe," a pun of "sashimi" I've always assumed.
- jpatokal 9y agoJapanese humor consists almost entirely of puns. I still remember the first joke I understood on a comedy show on Japanese TV: Tired salaryman comes from after a long day at work, strips off clothes. His wife has prepared a hot bath, so he enters, pulls out a tub of kimchi (Jp. kimuchi) and blissfully exhales aah, kimochi ii ("feels good"). Lots more here: https://everything2.com/title/Japanese+puns+that+are+not+funny+but+at+least+are+puns https://everything2.com/title/Japanese+puns+that+are+not+fun...
- yborg 9y agoI don't know if I would generalize based on the prevalence of any particular style of humor on popular TV. Or I might think that English humor consists almost entirely of absurdist satire.
- yongjik 9y agoNot a typical Japanese pun, I suppose, but a pun story I heard: There was a Korean guy working in a Japanese company. One day, his coworker went out to the roof for a quick cigarette break. Another person came in and asked where he was, so the Korean guy would reply (in Japanese), "Oh, Mr. Tanaka is taking a break, on top of the roof." The person blushes, and leaves wordlessly. The Korean guy is confused, and then realizes he used the Korean word for the roof: "oksang". (Japanese okusan = wife)
- jim-jim-jim 9y agoI have a real groaner that I heard from a friend. You have a carrot, and put it in a pot. You have a tomato, and put it in a pot. You have a potato, and put it in a pot. What's in the pot? 三つ野菜だ。"Three vegetables." It sounds like "Mitsuya Cider," a brand of soda.
- bitwize 9y agoI recall a joke that went something like this: マイケル・ジャクソンの好きな色は何ですか? 青！ Michael Jackson no sukina iro wa nan desu ka? AO! It means: What's Michael Jackson's favorite color? BLUE! (You are supposed to shout the "ao!" in a Jackson-like falsetto.) Anime and manga are LOADED with puns. For example the Saiyans in Dragon Ball are called such because saiya is a reversal of yasai (野菜, "vegetable"). Which explains why they have names like Kakarott, Raditz, Vegeta, and so forth.