# Anime question - What's with the laugh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879 "2008-02-16T13:56:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/1 "2008-02-16T13:56:39Z")
If you’ve watched any, I suspect you’ll know what I mean. There’s a very specific laugh that female characters may do, often while contemplating some kind of victory. It’s sort of like, “Oh - ho - ho - ho - ho!”. Anyway, what’s the reason for this being so common? Is there a particular person who laughed like that or a series it’s referring to? Is it a homage? It’s such a specific type of laugh that there must be some common background. ---
**Author:** ![Montgomery0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Montgomery0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montgomery0)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/2 "2008-02-16T15:20:51Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] If you’ve watched any, I suspect you’ll know what I mean. There’s a very specific laugh that female characters may do, often while contemplating some kind of victory. It’s sort of like, “Oh - ho - ho - ho - ho!”. Anyway, what’s the reason for this being so common? Is there a particular person who laughed like that or a series it’s referring to? Is it a homage? It’s such a specific type of laugh that there must be some common background. [/QUOTE] Not sure about the reason, but is [this](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoblewomansLaugh) what you are thinking of? ETA: Did some more searching, apparently it’s called the [Ojousama Laugh](http://www.animenation.net/news/askjohn.php?id=1156) ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/3 "2008-02-16T15:49:04Z")
[QUOTE=Montgomery0] Not sure about the reason, but is [this](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoblewomansLaugh) what you are thinking of? [/quote] That’s the one. > [@](#): > > ETA: Did some more searching, apparently it’s called the [Ojousama Laugh](http://www.animenation.net/news/askjohn.php?id=1156) Ah, nice find. I was trying to look up an example of it on Youtube, but I couldn’t think what to search for. ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/4 "2008-02-16T18:20:09Z")
[QUOTE=Montgomery0] Not sure about the reason, but is [this](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoblewomansLaugh) what you are thinking of? [/QUOTE] Damn it, now I’m going to lose a couple _more_ days of productivity reading through that TV Tropes website. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/5 "2008-02-17T01:04:14Z")
Anime has several standardised sounds characters can make to indicate stuff, that you’ll probably never hear in real life. O-ho-ho-ho - Superiority complex laugh Mu-fu-fu-fu - Secretive/plotting laugh Kiiiiiiii! - Superior girl’s mad sound -zamasu - Ending a sentence with -zamasu indicates a sort of middle-aged annoying cow-like shopping woman -dawaaaaa - Superior girl sentence ending when she’s happy and/or showing off (Just as a sample) No real idea where a lot of them came from–though I presume that they were taken as riffs on someone annoying at some point and then adopted by actors or screenplay writers and then spread. Anime acting isn’t [Method Acting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_acting). Particular if a scene or character is meant to be humorous, they’re fine to use set gags and stereotypes, and subsequently there’s a whole swath of set jokes and characterizations. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/6 "2008-02-17T01:38:19Z")
There’s also an elongated Jiiiiii, which I _think_ is staring. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/7 "2008-02-17T01:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] There’s also an elongated Jiiiiii, which I _think_ is staring. [/QUOTE] Yes. o\_o ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/8 "2008-02-17T02:51:24Z")
Is this where “squeee!” comes from? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-question-whats-with-the-laugh/437879/9 "2008-02-17T02:56:43Z")
[QUOTE=Koxinga] Is this where “squeee!” comes from? [/QUOTE] No, that’s from English speaking countries, so far as I’m aware. (It’s short for squeek.)