Thai Sense Of Humor

[coventry]

One sure thing to get Thais laughing at farangs is when the farang wai. I see many farang that wai children or wai people younger than themselves before they wai them. They even think it's funny to see farang wai farangs. In fact that even has me laughing.

[lazeeboy]

any kind of slap stick humour,but must have the drum roll after it

[seedoubleyou]

Context is everything

The Simpsons can appeal on many levels, Bart and Lisa say things beyond their years and experience. Kids will laugh at the fart jokes in the Lion King, the same characters reference Taxi Driver. How many 6 year olds have watched that?

One of the things I liked about living in Thailand was the other foreigners I met, it forces you to step out of your easy cultural assumptions, political, musical, and maybe it makes you question things you took for granted. It was rare for me to meet that many other North Americans, my circle of friends tended to be European. What I remember distinctly was when I met another North American they were speaking my language when they spoke my language. As perfectly fluent as my german friend is he won't understand me if I say "yoikes Raggy!", and a 20 year old from NA might not as well.

I find I can appreciate Thai films and TV more as I have been exposed more to the country and the language and I imagine the view gets larger as one's fluency increases. I watched Mah Nakorn (excuse the bad trans-lit) and want friends to see it but unless they have spent a good period of time in Thailand they won't come away with as much. Humour will skew to your sex, your age, your experience and it can change with time.

[medegen]

Are there anymore Thai comedy shows with English subtitles or does anyone know where I can get the Mum Show with English subtitles? TIA.

[Canadianvisitor]

After reading through this thread it astonishes me to see that what most people are not realising is that the Thai people have not had the exposure to comedy throughout their lives as many of non native people have. So therefore it stands to reason that the Thai (generally) tend to find simple humour funny because it is easier to understand and it is a simple humour that they have been exposed to. Take for instance the game shows the Thai people watch with keen interest, in our home countries that type of show would never make it past the idea stage. If you compare the Thai people to yourself (a tad self centred) then you are not going to ever figure it out. This is not to say that Thai people are not capable (generally) of recognising humour, it is more to say that we have been exposed to much much more tries at humour than the native Thai, therefore our sense of humour is different.

Just a guess really but that's the way I thought it might be.

Edited May 21, 2008 by Canadianvisitor

[onlooker]

Alan Partridge may go down well with Thai audiences if the "Knowing me, Knowing you, Ah Ha" is replaced with a simple "Oh Ho"

Fave ad - from a few years ago. A baby turtle is on the beach shouting out 'Mare' (Mum), you watch it going a long the beach trying to find it's Mum with a sad look on it's face. Then it's eyes light up and a smile comes across it's face. Cut to a happy baby turtle snuggling next to what you guess will be it's mother. Camera zooms out to show baby turtle nestling in the armpit of a fat girl.

( Joke is the Thai word for turtle = same word for armpit. turtle thinks the fat girl's armpit smells like it's Mum)

Cant remember what deodorant the ad was for though - so as an advert it fails, but succeeds as humour.

[tutsiwarrior]

This is actually an interesting thread............. Given the choice my wife would quite happily sit down and watch (and enjoy) childrens cartoons. Pingu being one of her faviorates. On first observation of this my reaction was to make a judgement on interlectual maturity. After all I would be rather disapointed if my 14 old daughter spent her time engrosed in childrens cartoons. Having said that my wife can speak three languages and and an IQ probably high than me. S maybe its all down to cultural diffenences in sense of humor............ maybe i will take the parental lock of the tv and let her watch the simpsons from now on.

what's wrong with Pingu? ...the way he jumps up an' down makes a trumpet outta his beak when annoyed is hilarious...

juvenile penguins are very affecting...what would happen if there was a cartoon where Pingu died?

Edited May 21, 2008 by tutsiwarrior