How does the perception of comedy vary across different cultures around the world? Any studies?
Is comedy influenced much by language?
What types of comedy are prevalent in different cultures (including TV and movies).
For example, and not restricted to:
wordplay
satire
parody
slapstick
situational
hyperbole
bawdy
irony
Talking to a Japanese friend about this it seems that slapstick is predominant. I must add that she did not know quite how to answer, because she had nothing to compare it with.
It’s a stereotype that Germans are without humour - I doubt if this is true, but is there a prevalant comedy types there?
“…French audiences took to Lewis in part because he exemplified the French notion of the auteur–the individual, typically the director, who imposes his artistic vision on the production, which Lewis definitely did. But it’s probably equally true that the French, despite or maybe because of their devotion to art (you know, pushing the envelope and all that), were also suckers for low comedy.”
There was a report somewhere or other (I think someone posted a thread about it) that said that the British were fans of self-deprecating humour, and Americans were… something else (I forget). Canadians were supposed to have a mix of the two.
I have come accross 3 forms of humor in Arabic that seemed to just knock out the natives.
Egypt has a series of quips about “Little Joha (Goha)” which basically make fun of the idiot. "One day L.J. was talking to his neighbor when his clothesline, which stretched between top floors of adjacent buildings, fell to the ground taking his laundry with it. At this, L.J starts crying and generally freaking out so his neighbor says, “What’s the big deal, it’s just some laundry?” to which L.J. replies, “Yeah, but what if I had been wearing them?!” There are others…
Another is the pun (which is my favorite in ANY language). As exemplified by: "An airplane full of children suddenly, and quite loudly, lost an engine. The airplane became difficult to control and the children on board became frightened and started screaming and crying. As it was all he could do to keep the airplane from crashing to the ground, the pilot commands his copilot to “Oskutihum (Quiet them down)”. The copilot disappears for a few minutes, the noise subsides, and the copilot returns to the cockpit. The Pilot asks “How did you get them to calm down so quickly?” To which the copilot says, “OH, I thought you said, ‘Osqutihum (drop them out)’” …you had to be there.
The last is a naughty joke: “What Moroccan dish is best when you eat only half as much? Cous Cous” Cousa is an Arabic slang for a certain anotomical feature.
I’ve heard the same about the Japanese penchant for slapstick–ever check out some of their wackier game shows? But then, slapstick is just plain funny.
That sentence should be in the past tense. You’ll hardly find young people in Paris who are fans of JL these days.
One of the great difference between French monologue comedy and American stand-up comedy is that in general French comdedians generally try to write extremely well-crafted texts that will endure rather than having new jokes every week. Some of the greater comics, like Raymond Devos aren’t so much funny as witty. Wordplay is considered an artform and vaguely absurd humour is quite popular.
Quebec is interesting because on one hand, there are artists in the French tradition of witty humour, like Sol, and on the other hand there are true American-style stand-up comedians.
In Japan, slapstick is pretty big indeed. There is also kinds of absurd, or random comedy. Irony and sarcasm do not fly, though satire does. “Stupid” humour is not only popular, it’s traditional.
Manzai is a traditional form of stand-up comedy that involves two comedians. One is the “idiot” and the other, the “straight man”. The straight man tries to have a serious conversation, but he is continuously interrupted by stupid one-liners from his partner. His response is to slap his partner behind the head. At the end of the sketch, though, it is obvious that under the apparences the straight man is as stupid as the idiot. It’s a lot like Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello comedy.
Ender - Yeah thats a point. It seems british and australian humour are similar, just that british do it much, much better. Both contain quite a bit of self-deprecating satire.
matchka - i was expecting the last line of your second joke to be something else.
jovan - do you know if the Japaneese humour is surreal Pythonesque, like Palin being slapped with fish, or more stupid stupid (closer to Laurel and Hardy).
You get everything in between, though frankly it doesn’t go quite as far as the fish dance. Almost, but not quite.
One example, from a popular tv show, was a parody of standard tv dramas. It was acted very seriously and if you didn’t recognise the actors as famous comedians you might almost be fooled… except for the fact that large cooking pots kept falling on people’s head- the actors being completely oblivious to large metallic objects raining on them of course.
If watching anime has tought me anything, its that Japanese love puns. (Well, that and catgirls in school uniforms piloting giant robots against mult-tentacled aliens/demons) The entire language apparently has lots of homonymes(sp?) and is well suited for punning.
Also, watch Excel Saga or its spin-off Puni Puni Poemi for some truly bizarre parody type humor.
Here is a direct link to the LaughLab–the folks who did the “World’s Funniest Joke” research.
Since the research is done on the Web, that skews the results quite a bit. Even though they got ratings from dozens of countries, there is no information about any Oriental countries at all. Everything is done in English, so I guess that’s not surprising.
In China there’s a whole branch of wordplay humor about measure words. We use measure words, (four head of cattle, a cup of water) but in Chinese you always use them. Using the wrong measure word, apparently, is quite a giggle.
Chinese is also a language with many words that sound alike, and puns are a favorite there as well.
We use a lot of incrougruity in our humour in the UK, which is why Spike Milligan had such a lot of success.
Its a tradition carried on by Vic Reeves, though he is somewhat more ‘normal’.
Thanks for the links Jovan and NCUN. This is just the sort of thing I was after. Thanks.
NCUN - a friend who is studying mandarin has related the same - that wordplay is very big in chinese.
BwanaBob - Tommy Cooper was into wordplay and visual puns. Perhaps that type of humour is not as popular these days. The special thing about TC though was the timing and delivery.
What about TV? Where I live, the comedys we get from overseas are strongly satire/parody from the UK and mainly sitcom from the US. The only satires I can think of now are Southpark and The Simpsons. There was also a satirical mock-sitcom on about the Bushes a few years ago.
Is this the case in the UK and US? - are UK more satire and US more sitcom? What about the mainland europe?
I was informed by an Italian once that they tell the exact same jokes known generally here as “Polish” jokes, only they call them “carabinieri” (military policemen) jokes.
Although, these things change over time (who tells “Polish” jokes here anymore, anyway? And good riddance.) For all I know, the Italians may be calling them “Berlusconi” jokes these days…
If you go to Google and search for “toilet seats”, all the vendors are in the UK. And they sell seats embedded with plastic fish, coins, barbed wire, chili peppers, etc. I wonder why that is?
