Western sense of humor vs. Japanese sense of humor

Hello. I'm interested in the way Japanese cultural issues can affect their view on "Occidental humor". I laughed a lot with Takeshi's Castle or Dragon Ball but sometimes Japanese humor can be atypical to a westerner. Although humor is something very personal, could someone tell me if the humor of Jim Carrey, Farrely brothers, Monty Python, Woody Allen or Quentin Tarantino among others can be excessively strange or anti-humorous to a considerable number of Japanese people?

Thanks

I think the "sense" of humor differs between everyone, but whether in general that they find those funny, I would not know.

Any verbal humor doesn't carry over at all, for hopefully obvious reasons. Physical humour does. For that reason, Mr. Bean is one of the most popular comedians in Japan and the world.
I've yet to laugh at any Japanese comedian's routine, no matter how much I understand. "Big Man Japan" was the closest I came to a Japanese movie I could laugh with as opposed to at.

My wife did find Big Man Japan pretty funny but I really couldn't get into it. Same for a lot of Japanese comedies, I just don't get why they are supposed to be funny. What takes the cake though are the "comedy" shows where they beat the guys with bats if they laugh at what some guy says. We get TV Japan so its mostly NHK that I see those on. On the other hand some of the "dramas" I find pretty funny. Maybe I just have a weird sense of humor?

Petaris said:

My wife did find Big Man Japan pretty funny but I really couldn't get into it. Same for a lot of Japanese comedies, I just don't get why they are supposed to be funny. What takes the cake though are the "comedy" shows where they beat the guys with bats if they laugh at what some guy says. We get TV Japan so its mostly NHK that I see those on. On the other hand some of the "dramas" I find pretty funny. Maybe I just have a weird sense of humor?

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I think your sense of humor is OK. I find a lot of so-called "comedy" and "comic acts" in Japan unfunny. And hitting somebody for saying something stupid is debasing and humiliating. I haven't laughed watching them.
I find wit only among very few comedians in Japan and in dramas written by very witty scripwriters.

I've actually been very interested in this issue lately. As I understand it, most Japanese people aren't really sarcastic to their friends and family members, right? Just as a side note, what sort of humor is usually the most normal in Japan?

Sadly, being that I'm just a cynical and sarcastic person, I'm a little afraid that I'll have to train myself to think a lot differently if I ever want to make a lot of friends in Japan without offending everyone.

Do they build their comic around clever, two-minded and easy to missunderstood words, like in nordic countries?
One, even small movment, can chance word meanig complety diffirens.
Is it like that?

And if we are going to deeper to find reasons and diffirens, i'm out.

Tamayo said:

I've actually been very interested in this issue lately. As I understand it, most Japanese people aren't really sarcastic to their friends and family members, right? Just as a side note, what sort of humor is usually the most normal in Japan?

Sadly, being that I'm just a cynical and sarcastic person, I'm a little afraid that I'll have to train myself to think a lot differently if I ever want to make a lot of friends in Japan without offending everyone.

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Irony is also an element of humor in Japanese. However, this requires quite a mastery of the language and culture, that simply translating a ironic comment into Japanese has never been funny, AFAIK. You are correct to be careful when making such comments. It needs a lot of exploration into the different meanings of each term and expression.

Kouhia said:

Do they build their comic around clever, two-minded and easy to missunderstood words, like in nordic countries?
One, even small movment, can chance word meanig complety diffirens.
Is it like that?

And if we are going to deeper to find reasons and diffirens, i'm out.

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I think double, even triple, meanings in language use is common. It is so in English and many other languages. It is a source of humor, drama, etc.

For a language learner, it is very difficult, but it can be acquired eventually when you achieve a firm grasp of the language and culture.

epigene said:

Irony is also an element of humor in Japanese. However, this requires quite a mastery of the language and culture, that simply translating a ironic comment into Japanese has never been funny, AFAIK. You are correct to be careful when making such comments. It needs a lot of exploration into the different meanings of each term and expression.

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Huh, that is definitely interesting. Thanks for that info! I'm not sure I've ever seen it mentioned directly, but after reading a couple different articles and books about Japanese culture, it seems to me that the Japanese entertain themselves with world play and riddles. Is there much truth to that? I've also noticed some short scenes in anime where they make mention of TV gameshows that are based on wordplay or trivia of that nature.

At least from the sound of it, I'll need to train myself at a very, very advanced level to understand that sort of humor, and even then, I can't be sure.

One more thing, if you'll bear with me! Could you explain sarcasm to me a bit? I know that old culture books and anime aren't fair places to try and learn about that sort of thing, but it seems to me that extremity and sarcasm do exist, but only among really really good friends. If that is so, then could you give me just a really rough idea as to how close you'd need to be with someone before talking to them sarcastically and such?

This has been a growing concern for me since I really don't want to offend anyone. The problem is, it sort of comes naturally to me, so here in the west, people think I'm hilarious when half the time I'm saying things without any intention of being funny.

Some japanese video games have humorous elements comparable to modern western comedy. Dragon Quest is one example.

Aside from that I have come across the playing with word type jokes also, like 鴨よカモン. It is funny if you imagine a duck slowly gliding across the water.
Bad jokes, that is jokes where the entire point of the joke is making it so bad it becomes funny, seems to be understood by japanese. I personally thought rewriting Aum Shinrikyo as アナル侵略 was funny, and my japanese friend laughed at it. He also laughed when I said about a woman with the surname 小野 that I imagine her spelling it 斧 and going out massacring people. So I guess my silly humor worked at least with one japanese person. I laughed when he described a pregnant woman as having "c,unt-germs" and when I used the english expression "c,unt-face" to describe a specific appearance he couldn't stop laughing. Of course, this required we both had understanding of english but imo there are some very funny japanese expressions of humor which definitely strikes home with "westerners".

Another joke we do is to post the picture of the australian soldier being decapitated by a japanese during WW2. We made it like an internal, recurring joke. This is also humor which works in both cultures. I also found it tremendously funny when he, after the earthquake and tsunami said that he was "sad because of all the japanese that died" but that he "laughed when the news posted a picture of a dead english teaching american woman smiling with her students".
When two people lack empathy (like probably many comedians do) those kinds of things like the decapitation and the dead american woman become funny on an intuitive level, something which truly transcends culture.
For the same reason, there is humor to be found in the wheelchair scene or the street execution scene from "The Pianist".

Tamayo said:

I've actually been very interested in this issue lately. As I understand it, most Japanese people aren't really sarcastic to their friends and family members, right? Just as a side note, what sort of humor is usually the most normal in Japan?

Sadly, being that I'm just a cynical and sarcastic person, I'm a little afraid that I'll have to train myself to think a lot differently if I ever want to make a lot of friends in Japan without offending everyone.

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My wife has told me that sarcasm isn't used in Japan but I don't know if that is just her family and friends or everyone. I could see how it may cause confusion as what you say may be taken literally/seriously.

I like both western and japanese sense of humor, different tastes and make me laugh to death...
while Japanese version uses body language the western version uses body language and language ( if you understand what i mean, sorry for my poor english )

Petaris said:

My wife has told me that sarcasm isn't used in Japan but I don't know if that is just her family and friends or everyone. I could see how it may cause confusion as what you say may be taken literally/seriously.

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Thanks for that! You know, I actually saw a video once where Gimmeaflakeman (Someone you may or may not know from Youtube) apparently had a small disagreement with his wife because she'd overhear his phonecalls with his friends, and they're very sarcastic with one another. I guess he's tried explaining their humor to her, but to no avail. He's mentioned that he has plenty of (Japanese) friends in Japan who have the same sense of humor as he does, but I don't think he elaborated on it much further.

I really can't complain if this is the case since I'd just be a foreigner, but boy, is it going to be hard to train myself to be so polite and indirect like most Japanese tend to be!

Hezam said:

I like both western and japanese sense of humor, different tastes and make me laugh to death...
while Japanese version uses body language the western version uses body language and language ( if you understand what i mean, sorry for my poor english )

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That's actually a pretty great observation -- Another thing I've noticed which seems to be somewhat exemplary of Japanese humor is embarrassment. Even with what little I know about Japanese culture, it seems to me that being embarrassed is a big fear among most Japanese people, so it makes for a great comedy subject.

Tamayo said:

Sadly, being that I'm just a cynical and sarcastic person, I'm a little afraid that I'll have to train myself to think a lot differently if I ever want to make a lot of friends in Japan without offending everyone.

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I am a sarcastic person and do so quite often quip a sarcastic comment here and there. You just need to know how follow up after a comment if it goes over the persons head or they give a funny look, b/c sometimes someone will not let on that they may have been offended by a comment made in jest. So reading body language is very important IMO.

FrustratedDave said:

I am a sarcastic person and do so quite often quip a sarcastic comment here and there. You just need to know how follow up after a comment if it goes over the persons head or they give a funny look, b/c sometimes someone will not let on that they may have been offended by a comment made in jest. So reading body language is very important IMO.

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Can Japanese be sarcastic with their friends, or is it somewhat of an "across the board" thing? Also, do you think that a foreigner has a good chance of getting close enough to Japanese for it to happen, or would that be difficult?

Tamayo said:

Can Japanese be sarcastic with their friends, or is it somewhat of an "across the board" thing?

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Absolutely! It is something that is certainly present in situations between good friends or colleges.

Tamayo said:

Also, do you think that a foreigner has a good chance of getting close enough to Japanese for it to happen, or would that be difficult?

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Like I said, I use sarcasm quite a bit to relieve tensions at work, so certainly it is possible to be on both the receiving and giving end.

I recently watched a youtube vid of Bush and bin Laden talking on the phone. Bin Laden congratulates Bush that by that point in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush got more Americans killed than bin Laden, thus the congratulations. That sort of irony I would not expect the Japanese to get. That one literally put me on the floor. Of course its not funny now that I explained it. But it was deadly hilarious in the vid.

But I think there might also be a poignancy to it that only us westerners could feel. Japanese are not paying much attention to American deaths in America's wars. Its off their radars.

I use a lot of plays on words, what the Japanese would call "oyaji gyagu" or "old man jokes (gags)". They work splendidly on children, but the adults usually don't even smirk most of the time. They seem to have had some of that beaten out them through life, although, I admit, some of my jokes do suck. A few have made my wife laugh though.

But the whole pound on people thing on Japanese TV pretty much kills all the humor for me. All the new ways to create pain and suffering they make up do not humor me one wit and destroy anything else that might actually be funny.

The comedy group Tunnels used to make me laugh with their silliness. They were genuinely funny (if such a term can be fairly used) Beat Takeshi....great first name there..
..its half his attempts at humor, beating people!


For me, I would put Monty Python up there with the top level humor. But as far as my experience shows, the Japanese in general just don't see the humor in hardly any of it. This is not helped by the piss poor translations of course, but event things that don't require much don't seem to make Japanese laugh.

Even the "Mr. So and so cannot be seen.....but he has chosen a rather poor hiding place...BOOM!" I would guess would not make the Japanese laugh.

I suppose that something I appreciate about my wife is that she does seem to get so much more of western humor than other women here I have considered dateable.

I don't have that much experience with the humour of the Japanese other than some anime, and a few youtube videos. Sometimes I end up seeing something that's supposed without reacting at all. For example, that boke-tsukkomi stuff. Depending on the delivery, it can be funny, but when it ends in simply describing what's happening on the screen while screaming... it's strange. As is hitting people... in anime it can be funny in a tom-and-jerry kind of way.
I'm moving to Osaka in 3 weeks, so we'll see how I do there... I'm interested in this sarcasm thing as well, since although I usually keep my cynical side to myself, I use indirect sarcasm (I think that's what you call it) a lot... and it's really really common around here
Usually Japanese humour seems to be on the wacky and silly side, a bit crazy sometimes. At least from what I've seen but an interesting exception is this group:
[video=youtube;bDL8yu34fz0] I believe they are called Rahmens / ﾆ停?ｰﾂーﾆ陳?停?愴炭, and have been active for quite a few years now. Personally I really liked this series, at least the ones I could find on youtube.