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This reminds me of a question I once posted on reddit, but never received an answer to: Given that a many jokes are based on peculiarities of a language (puns,

This reminds me of a question I once posted on reddit, but never received an answer to: Given that a many jokes are based on peculiarities of a language (puns, but also unexpected uses of certain words), are there jokes that only funny in sign language? If so, what's an example?

windsurfer 12y ago
Two Deaf men are signing to each other. The first man asks, "What did your wife say when you got home late last night? The second man replies, "She swore a blue streak" And the first man asks, "What did you do then?" And the second man replies, "I turned out the light."
- jeroen94704 12y ago
  No, that's not what I mean :). Unless that is funny in a different way when signed of course.
lukev 12y ago
Yes. I'm not fluent in sign language myself so I can't explain them very well, but we got several examples of them in my linguistics classes in college. The most memorable one was a story in which a giant is talking to a small person sitting on his hand and the narrator acts it out. The final word of the joke is a pun... it makes sense in the story, but the sign for it is to clap the hands together (thus, in the story, squishing the small person).
- jeroen94704 12y ago
  Cool, thanks for that! Another one of life's great mysteries resolved.
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
There are probably puns of a kind, with similar hand movements.
manifestsilence 12y ago
Finally got around to creating an account in order to weigh in on this. My wife took sign language in college and told me that most signs can be repeated back and forth for emphasis. However, the sign for hungry is sort of a vertical cupped hand, like holding a banana in front of your throat, with a downward motion. Repeating this up and down means horny, for reasons that should be clear from the gesture. There is a lot of the visual equivalent of onomatopoeia...

windsurfer 12y ago

Two Deaf men are signing to each other. The first man asks, "What did your wife say when you got home late last night? The second man replies, "She swore a blue streak" And the first man asks, "What did you do then?" And the second man replies, "I turned out the light."

jeroen94704 12y ago
No, that's not what I mean :). Unless that is funny in a different way when signed of course.

lukev 12y ago

Yes. I'm not fluent in sign language myself so I can't explain them very well, but we got several examples of them in my linguistics classes in college. The most memorable one was a story in which a giant is talking to a small person sitting on his hand and the narrator acts it out. The final word of the joke is a pun... it makes sense in the story, but the sign for it is to clap the hands together (thus, in the story, squishing the small person).

jeroen94704 12y ago
Cool, thanks for that! Another one of life's great mysteries resolved.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago

There are probably puns of a kind, with similar hand movements.

manifestsilence 12y ago

Finally got around to creating an account in order to weigh in on this. My wife took sign language in college and told me that most signs can be repeated back and forth for emphasis. However, the sign for hungry is sort of a vertical cupped hand, like holding a banana in front of your throat, with a downward motion. Repeating this up and down means horny, for reasons that should be clear from the gesture. There is a lot of the visual equivalent of onomatopoeia...