If you’ve ever watched just about any Japanese show or television channel, you may have noticed something unique about the programming, aside from the obvious difference in language. It’s not just the content, but the way in which the content is presented. Many of the shows appear exactly the same to the untrained foreign eye, and the jokes sound completely strange and unfunny to the untrained foreign ear.
Ah, Japanese comedy. You either love it or you hate it. But what is it about Japanese comedy that nearly every other country finds so unusual? How is it that a group of people so famously noted for their seriousness and hardcore work ethic could be so easily brought to tears by ridiculous displays of nonsense, yet barely be swayed by our “intelligent” sarcastic humor? It seems not only the TV shows, but the Japanese sense of humor in general, play a huge role in supplying foreigners with the stereotypical image of “weird Japan.”
A Different Sense of Humor
Japan has a unique sense of humor that can be seen through more than just its comedy-specific TV shows, but also in variety shows, dramas, movies, and live events including traditional performances. In fact, Japanese comedy can be said to be a widely performative act, characterized by its use of pranks, games, slapstick, and gags, all of which to us may seem borderline absurd and nonsensical to those accustomed to Western humor and irony.
As mentioned above, this is quite different from what we tend to view as comical abroad. Westerners tend to prefer a more “intellectual” style of humor that is dialogue-heavy, such as satire, sarcasm, irony, and dark humor. Many of our popular comedy shows cannot easily translate into other languages, and it can be confusing to know exactly when to laugh. Because of this, comedy shows and movies that prove to be a big hit on their home turf often end up becoming a flop overseas, criticized as just being “not funny.” In fact, Japan even has a colloquial slang term that they so lovingly use to refer to something unfunny: an “American joke.”
Conversely, the Japanese sense of humor tends to be regarded as silly and childish by their American counterparts, with comedic acts heavily centered on physical gestures, exaggerated expressions, and what we might consider immature pranks and puns. Quite different from the otherwise serious, work-driven façade the Western world is so used to seeing from the Japanese. Why is that?
To better understand this apparent cultural divide, we should first seek to understand the history of comedy in Japan, and the evolution of laughter.
Not A Laughing Matter
Outside of the unique world of Japanese comedy, Japan has often been regarded as a rather serious and humorless culture. Some have faulted this to the Japanese trend of separating humor from daily life. A culture so strongly built upon business, politics, tradition and power, public displays of humor have often been criticized as unserious and unprofessional, leading to this apparent separation of life and laughter.
This resulted in a tradition of “curated laughter” in the form of live comedy performances, in which the Japanese could escape from their daily lives and laugh freely and boisterously in a space in which it was considered socially acceptable. A primarily group-minded culture, public opinion is often prioritized over individual satisfaction, so even if one wanted to laugh, one would most likely hold back unless it was publicly acknowledged as okay to do so.
And thus began the development and evolution of Japanese comedy performances, originally in the form of manzai and rakugo, which would eventually become the cornerstones for Japanese comedy as we know it today.
