Thai Humour

[Harcourt]

Having a multicultural background, I am very aware of the fact that humour does not always translate to other languages. Not so much in the literal translation, but the actual sense of humour does not always match.

I'm interested in the Thai sense of humour.

Does anyone have a joke that Thais like to tell, and how does it "translate" to English...does it remain funny to us Westerners?

Has anyone tried a Western joke on Thais? Did it fall flat?

[sbk]

The Thai people I know are very fond of playing on words, punning, but given the tonal nature of the language it is not as blunt as western puns. Often subtle and very funny.

[Harcourt]

The Thai people I know are very fond of playing on words, punning, but given the tonal nature of the language it is not as blunt as western puns. Often subtle and very funny.

Ok. I saw a documentary on humour that went worldwide (but didn't reach Thailand). Apparently the Japanese like pun also.... the old English pun, "why is your nose in the middle of your face? Because it is the scenter." went over quite well with English speaking Japanese.

[Harcourt]

My GF tells the story of a Thai girl whose last name was ฟักมี . She was in London and had approached an official on some business. The English official asked her her name and when she replied, "ฟักมี", the official said, "That is not polite! Please tell me your name, and be polite". So she said, "Sorry for being impolite, I meant to say ฟักมี please".

I find this does translate to western humour, albeit it's risque!

Apparently, this is a real Thai surname.

[bkkmick]

My wife told me this joke (apologies):

A man walking through a cemetery and sees three ghosts. He asks how they died. The one on the left said "I was shot by a bad man", the one on the right said "I was knocked over by a car" and the one in the middle said "I'm not a ghost, I just stopped here for a shit".

Made me chuckle anyway.

[junki3korean]

there very different.....I dont get most of the jokes on Thai comedy as My girlfriend has no clue when watching Dave Chappelle!

[dale8]

Hello, it is my experience that Thai people like sarcasm and self-effacing humor if it is not abusive to them. It is easy for me to put myself down, and it puts people at ease more. Cheers.

[teatree]

Boing.

[oldsparrow]

Many western jokes have been translated into Thai. You see in magazine like แพรว etc.

When I was young there was a book translated from "Kid says a thousand things" collection of funny script from US TV programme in the late 50s.

[ianwuk]

I am not sure if this is relevant but I do not understand why Thai people laugh at Thai movies when a son beats his father to a near bloody pulp.

I do not find it funny.

Ian

[Harcourt]

Many western jokes have been translated into Thai. You see in magazine like แพรว etc.

When I was young there was a book translated from "Kid says a thousand things" collection of funny script from US TV programme in the late 50s.

I guess that's something like Art Linklater (sp?) "Kids Say The Darndest Things". So that was found to be funny to Thais? Or "fashionably funny" because it came from America (late 50's early 60's pop-culture)?

[Harcourt]

I am not sure if this is relevant but I do not understand why Thai people laugh at Thai movies when a son beats his father to a near bloody pulp.

I do not find it funny.

Ian

Pacific Island cultures find injuries (in real life not just movies), funny. They can be quite caring afterwards, but your actual trip, fall, coconut falling on the head... is funny. The Three Stooges would have appealed to them. A broad generalisation of course and not as prevalent amongst urbanized Polynesians.

This is the essence of this thread.....How different is Thai humour to our own, wherever "we" come from.

Many years ago I philosophised that to pick the perfect girlfriend, I would want to know how she laughed, and what she laughed at, and I could make some sort of call from that. At the time I surmised that I could tell intelligence, temperament, personality, sense of humour etc, all the important things, just from the laugh, and what caused the laugh.

The huge flaw to this idea is apparent now: cultural differences in humour.

But if I can understand, if not empathise, with Thai humour, then perhaps my theory can hold true.

[SMEEERE]

It seems to me that most things thais laugh at on tv are suitable for 5-10 year olds, and those soaps ! ugh,

[Harcourt]

It seems to me that most things thais laugh at on tv are suitable for 5-10 year olds, and those soaps ! ugh,

I think it was Tuky that said it: boooiiIING. Or was it BOOOIiiing?

[bkkjames]

I am not sure if this is relevant but I do not understand why Thai people laugh at Thai movies when a son beats his father to a near bloody pulp.

I do not find it funny.

Ian

Pacific Island cultures find injuries (in real life not just movies), funny. They can be quite caring afterwards, but your actual trip, fall, coconut falling on the head... is funny. The Three Stooges would have appealed to them. A broad generalisation of course and not as prevalent amongst urbanized Polynesians.

This is the essence of this thread.....How different is Thai humour to our own, wherever "we" come from.

Many years ago I philosophised that to pick the perfect girlfriend, I would want to know how she laughed, and what she laughed at, and I could make some sort of call from that. At the time I surmised that I could tell intelligence, temperament, personality, sense of humour etc, all the important things, just from the laugh, and what caused the laugh.

The huge flaw to this idea is apparent now: cultural differences in humour.

But if I can understand, if not empathise, with Thai humour, then perhaps my theory can hold true.

But you are setting yourself up for a fall or a bad case of post marital conditioning.

Once you learn why she thinks certains things are funny - and yet they still remain unfunny to you - will that make your relationship better or worse?

Will you find yourself chuckling along when some fat katoey comedian regurges the same slap stick on channels 3,5,7, 9 and 11, just to make her happy?

And I disagree with the poster who said something about Thai humour being more subtle than western. If by subtle you mean boing boing. That's not being punny, that's being immature. But in general when you see so 30 yr olds still reading comics books, perhaps aiming beyond boing is thinking just a bit too far out of the jack in the box.

Just my opinion.

[Harcourt]

I am not sure if this is relevant but I do not understand why Thai people laugh at Thai movies when a son beats his father to a near bloody pulp.

I do not find it funny.

Ian

Pacific Island cultures find injuries (in real life not just movies), funny. They can be quite caring afterwards, but your actual trip, fall, coconut falling on the head... is funny. The Three Stooges would have appealed to them. A broad generalisation of course and not as prevalent amongst urbanized Polynesians.

This is the essence of this thread.....How different is Thai humour to our own, wherever "we" come from.

Many years ago I philosophised that to pick the perfect girlfriend, I would want to know how she laughed, and what she laughed at, and I could make some sort of call from that. At the time I surmised that I could tell intelligence, temperament, personality, sense of humour etc, all the important things, just from the laugh, and what caused the laugh.

The huge flaw to this idea is apparent now: cultural differences in humour.

But if I can understand, if not empathise, with Thai humour, then perhaps my theory can hold true.

But you are setting yourself up for a fall or a bad case of post marital conditioning.

Once you learn why she thinks certains things are funny - and yet they still remain unfunny to you - will that make your relationship better or worse?

Will you find yourself chuckling along when some fat katoey comedian regurges the same slap stick on channels 3,5,7, 9 and 11, just to make her happy?

And I disagree with the poster who said something about Thai humour being more subtle than western. If by subtle you mean boing boing. That's not being punny, that's being immature. But in general when you see so 30 yr olds still reading comics books, perhaps aiming beyond boing is thinking just a bit too far out of the jack in the box.

Just my opinion.

James, do you mind if we discuss my philosophy in another thread? I know I brought it up....it's the reason I posted, but the idea itself is another thing again

[oldsparrow]

Oh yes the Art guy ! The Thai name is ลูกฝรั่งช่างพูด (Talkative Farang's kid) you can google and see the cover.

Fashionably funny? ha ha I don't know you need temporary survey to answer this. It was funny to me. Anyway, my parents went to colleges in the US and I was familier with Farang media and Disney stuffs.

In general I think American pop culture had been popular among the 50s - early 80s TL. Right into early 80s American series/sit-com were still common in free Thai TV. Those generation kids had cowboy outfit. (This remind me of the book, the Last Executioner, story of the last shooter of the Thai prison, there is a photo of the writer as a kid in cowboy outfit also and he was not from the very well off family who really travel to the west)

In early 80s it was the boom of Japanese cartoon culture along with the Japanese economic boom. The kids became Samurai and Ninja instead of Cowboy.

In the early 90s the American popuparity became limited to the rock/pop music. The last wave was Rap oversized cloth fashion, the color Levi 501 and the music band T-shirt boom. The western style decorated restaurants were disappeared. American series were completely replaced by the Japanese game shows.

Year 2000, the introduction of KaraOK the Japanese got strengthen.

Now you see it's the Korean one.

[oldsparrow]

Harcourt, where is another thread?

Your study is interesting. It reminds me of one Japanese comedy my J friend told me.

[Harcourt]

Harcourt, where is another thread?

Your study is interesting. It reminds me of one Japanese comedy my J friend told me.

Hahaha...my philosophising reminds you of a comedy. Great! I may have to work on it . Hahahaha.

There is no other thread......but the subject and people's opinions would be interesting, but not pertinant to this thread.

[oldsparrow]

Oh, the comedy actually conforms with your Phil. on "Pacific Island cultures find injuries (in real life not just movies), funny."

During the drinking he told me of one Japanese comedy set on the WWII era Japan. You see, there was a type of Japanese throwing grenade that they had to unscrew the safety slug and slam it hard on something to activate the fuse.

In the comedy, a soldier grab one grenade, unscrew the slug and hit it hard on his man's head who went down unconscious. He laugh his head off telling this comedy. It can be a goodjoke in TL too. And you can guess that Asian nature dictate that it must be superior hitting the lower rank one.

[longstebe]

Chubby Brown didn't go down too well with the wife.

[oldsparrow]

bkkjames:

But in general when you see so 30 yr olds still reading comics books, perhaps aiming beyond boing is thinking just a bit too far out of the jack in the box.

***

The comic book is just a fantasy or novel with picture. There is intensive study on the Japanese comic. Most Japanese adult read it. There is a good netwrk among the J diplomat wives in BKK to exchange the latest comic books for their folks. Some stories have substance, what I still follow are:

1. A school in Japan suffer financial problem. It was taken over and a lawyer came to direct the reform. His strategy is to push student to enter the Tokyo University. In Japan where the Tokyo U. graduate got enormous priviledge in any career this would bring instant fame and popularity to the school. So it goes story of how he analyse the Tokyo U. exam, way of tutoring and some drama of the fight between existed and newly introduced teachers, menatlity of the selected students etc.

2. A doctor was push back by through time by un ID God-like will to the Edo era at the begining of the Meiji Restroration. The story goes on with the real event of that time. The doctor adapt his practice into the period people, sample of many kinds of operation, conflict with other medical schools etc. The writer has a real MD and Japanese medical historian as an assistant. This one is made into TV series and will be on TV in Japan this year.

[Soutpeel]

bkkjames:

But in general when you see so 30 yr olds still reading comics books, perhaps aiming beyond boing is thinking just a bit too far out of the jack in the box.

***

The comic book is just a fantasy or novel with picture. There is intensive study on the Japanese comic. Most Japanese adult read it. There is a good netwrk among the J diplomat wives in BKK to exchange the latest comic books for their folks. Some stories have substance, what I still follow are:

1. A school in Japan suffer financial problem. It was taken over and a lawyer came to direct the reform. His strategy is to push student to enter the Tokyo University. In Japan where the Tokyo U. graduate got enormous priviledge in any career this would bring instant fame and popularity to the school. So it goes story of how he analyse the Tokyo U. exam, way of tutoring and some drama of the fight between existed and newly introduced teachers, menatlity of the selected students etc.

2. A doctor was push back by through time by un ID God-like will to the Edo era at the begining of the Meiji Restroration. The story goes on with the real event of that time. The doctor adapt his practice into the period people, sample of many kinds of operation, conflict with other medical schools etc. The writer has a real MD and Japanese medical historian as an assistant. This one is made into TV series and will be on TV in Japan this year.

Boing.........

[G54]

Tom & Jerry.

Every Thai I know loves Tom & Jerry cartoons. While watching T&J DVDs it is a long time since I have seen people laughing so much.

Good humour transcends boundaries.

[sunholidaysun1]

Nest time you say hello to a Thai , just say Sawadee Kwai , they laugh for sure .

[Birdman]

People here can laugh about everything banal and simple. That's very refreshing to see, but not contagious all the time.

I can make my wife laugh almost daily and have a good time by doing that. But sometimes, if I see/read/hear something rather bizarre I can laugh heartily, while she looks at me astonished, because she does not know where's the funny part.

But that could happen also everywhere. There is German humour, British humour, French....

Is that funny?