Does Asian Humor Exist?

Large region desperately seeks sense of humour

By Nury Vittachi
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ASIANS HAVE NO sense of humour. Their idea of comedy is slapstick. Irony doesn’t exist in Asian discourse. There are no comedians in Asia.

   That’s a list of conventional beliefs about humour in Asia. I don’t think any of them are true. But I don’t blame anyone for thinking these things. The west is overflowing with stand-up comics and comedy movies and witty cartoons. But comedy—well, intentional comedy—is harder to find on the eastern side of the planet.

    You need to know where to look. There’s lots of wit in the Philippines. There, you’ll find a bakery called Bread Pitt; a pipe-laying firm called Christopher Plumbing; a boutique called The Way We Wear; a burger shop called Mang Donald’s; a hairdresser called Felix the Cut; a butcher called Meating Place; and so on.

     Other parts of Asia also generate jokes.
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Here’s one from South Asia:
     You Know You Are Asian If: (a) Your dad is an engineer or a doctor; (b) Everyone assumes you’re good at math; (c) You have a 25-kilo sack of rice in your pantry; (d) You have rocks, sticks, leaves and mysterious strange-smelling substances in your medicine cabinet. (e) You refer to all adults as Auntie and Uncle.
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Here’s a joke I love in Indian English:

     Manager: Raju! You was discharged from hospital yesterday only. Why you come office today itself?

     Raju: Doctor told me take rest for a month. That’s why I come to office!

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Why is Asian humour tough to find? The media in Asia tends to be run by government officials and business people looking after their own interests (sorry, is that tautology?). Individuals like that just ain’t funny. China once put out a government-approved pop song called When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Peasant. Without a trace of irony.

      So instead, look to the Internet, student publications, theatre groups and so on: that’s where the humour’s hiding. The fact that you are reading this column makes you part of a large group of people in Asia who like a laugh—so we are perfectly placed to “prove” Asia has a sense of humour. If you know any Asian jokes, send them in (no, don’t post Joseph Estrada to me).

*

An Asian man goes into a night market food-stall and orders three rice dinners.
     He eats all three by himself.
     “Hungry?” asks the food stall man.

     “I am one of three brothers,” the diner says. “One of my brothers has a restaurant in London and the other has one in New York. So we pledged to always eat like this, so we can remember each other at mealtimes.”

     Every day the diner comes to the food stall. And every day he eats three rice dinners.

     This goes on for more than a year. And then one day he comes into the restaurant looking very sad. He orders only two rice dinners.

     The food stall boss approaches with his head bowed. “I would like to offer my condolences on the sad passing of one of your brothers,” he says.

     “Oh, neither of my brothers are dead,” says the diner. “It’s just that I’m on the Atkins diet.”

Comments

[haro]

rakugo is a pretty-funny humourous art form

[Vince A]

Where Asians understand Western comedy in its original form, Westerners must have their Asian humor first translated into English.

Translation alone drains out 20% of the humor -- the best Asian humor do not translate well to English or German. In addition, Westerners have no understanding of the social context of the best Asian jokes.

[Sarah L.]

I think comedy actually has a long history in many places which we don't now associate with humor. For example, xian sheng, which is an old Chinese form of comedic banter: that's been around for centuries. Even the old Chinese sages with their sayings come across as witty on occasion, and old Asian tales such as the Zen Buddhist stories are very funny.

[The Prof]

Surely the Nasrudin tales and the old Sufi tales are proof that Asia has a very long history of comedy and rather a sophisticated one, too.

[The Prof]

By the way, Nasruddin stories come from the 13th century, while rakugo (Japanese comic monologues) performances are believed to be some 300 years old; so both are a good bit "longer in the tooth" than the American sitcom.

[Priyantha]

I'll never know about you without "The Island" in Sri Lanka.Keep going, I'm a regular reader of Island , more than 5 years, daily.

[Jan]

Nasrudin stories are still well-known, and very popular - storytellers [ both Asian and Western ] use them all the time and audiences are captivated all over again. One professional teller, a Brit based in Germany and fully bi-lingual, lists them as his top favourite. Long live the oral tradition!

[Nury]

Dear Priyantha, good to hear from you. I was born in Sri Lanka but haven't lived there for many years. Do you know any jokes which are specifically Sri Lankan? If so, I'd love to hear them.
Dear Jan, I agree, Nasrudin tales are brilliant. I love the anti-hero quality of them. Sometimes he is brilliant, sometimes he is stupid -- or seems to be, anyway. I can't think of many characters who cover both extremes like that.

[Jan]

Here's a bit of only-in-Hong-Kong humour for you:
Office worker complains his new, expensive shredder is broken.
Why is that? a colleague enquires.
Well, perhaps it's because I used it to make french fries..........

and this is a true story, folks!

[Jeevani Fernando]

I love your column in the Daily Star. I am a Sri Lankan living in Dhaka city for the last one month. Will be here for some time and I was starved for some humour and you came along at the right time Nury - and home-made too.

Your column is the onion in my grilled flat living in Dhaka.

In debt,
Jeevani

[Nury]

I'm the grilled onion in your flat? Jeevani, that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me! I think.

[willie goh]

5 Surgeons...
*Five Malaysian Surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to
operate on.

The first, a Penang surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."
The second, a Sabah surgeon responds, "Yeah, but you should try
electricians! Everything inside them is color coded."

The third a Kelantan surgeon says, "No, I really think librarians are the
best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order."
The fourth, an Selangor surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction
workers... those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over.

But the fifth, a KL surgeon shut them all up when he observed:
"You're all wrong. Politicians like Samy Vellue and Barisan robbers are the
easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable *

[Beth Loggins]

To Asians, Western humor can be quite lame. It can also go the other way.

[Scott]

hehe believe me, we know comedies, but we don't joke about stereo-types, because that's racism covered with honey.