Humour vs Humor

I had fun looking through some of the online comics from sonic's blog. I have never figured him much as a computer gamer though, to have enough association to enjoy Penny Ardace.

Humour comic creation is basically the linking of two objects/events that are supposedly totally unrelated, in the most funny way possible. Some people may object to one, or both, or even all the events, and some people may object to the associations. But events, objects and associations can only come through experience. For example, it it really hard to explain a joke about sushi, to someone who does not know what on earth a sushi is, or the parody of budweiser's "WAzzzzuuuuppp!" to "WAzaaaaabiiiii!" to a person who knows nothing about the beer, or sushi, or both.

And sometimes, even really common words could result in a faux pas. (Saying "I am coming!" in the wrong crowd would earn you sniggers... for safety, use "Be right there!") Unless of course it was intentional (an innuendo). Banana -> Peel -> Slip could be associated in various different ways, (you with the dirty minds out there, stop sniggering!)

Just like when I was playing my MMO last night.　Someting said by one of my party members had me laughing. It was: "たしかに" (確かに) -> "I think you're right"
Background: Our party was about to go out and hunt some monsters, and worms were the best for our level range. Then one person in the party suggested we try crabs (蟹). I said that we were probably too low a level to fight those yet, and I pointed out that one member of our party is 2 levels below the rest of us. Then he said: "たし蟹" (たしかに) -> "Definitely Crab".

This is a 駄洒落 (だじゃれ), which is a form of wordplay, where the same pronounciation can be written in different ways - hence has different meanings. What we call '像声' in Chinese, and 'Puns' should be the closest in English. Unfortunately, this genre of humour is viewed as more for the older generation in Japan, for reasons unknown to me (maybe you need more experience to appreciate the characters?). Which is interesting as it seems that people who enjoy English puns are usually of the younger generation (do correct me if I am wrong).

I consider it an accomplishment in language learning when you can begin to understand humour in that that language. Not everyone is a poet, but everyone sure can appreciate a good laugh. Until then, for those learning Chinese, be careful when saying "May I ask you something?" in Chinese. (我要问你，可以吗？Versus 我要吻你，可以吗？)