Got Japanese Humor?

October 25, 2021•334 words

I like comedy because laughter makes me feel better, and the heavy stuff comes for free. What about in Japan?

Japan has some interesting comedy or "owarai" styles that are good to know for learners of Japanese. It might be really, really esoteric to those who don't speak any Japanese, but if you're trying to get from intermediate to advanced any language, you could do worse than to listen to and learn some comedy in that language.

Japan has some types of humor such as the performed styles manzai, rakugo, or konto, and written styles like senryu.

Manzai (漫才) acts are almost always a "double act" pair like Abbott and Costello, and it's characterized by rapid fire talk, back and forth between a "tsukkomi" straight man, and a "boke" funny man. The M-1 Grand Prix is a great Manzai act competition. Manzai acts I like are Waraimeshi ("double boke" style switching the boke role between them), Tutorial (delusional "wild idea" style) and Slim Club (extra slow delivery).

Rakugo (落語) is traditionally a lone seated comic, performed with a fan as a prop, with an emphasis on a story. After the success of M-1 Grand Prix for manzai acts, single-performer acts got features on the "R-1 Grand Prix". The R comes from Rakugo, even though these acts are usually pretty far removed from traditional rakugo.

Konto (コント) are skit performances, sometimes quite elaborate and funny. They remind me of the ones Carol Burnett and her troupe used to do on her show. God, I'm old.

Senryu (川柳) especially "Salaryman Senryu" are haiku-like poems which riff on daily life.

If you're a learner of Japanese and interested in this, just search online for the above words.

Waraimeshi wins M-1 - https://www.japan-zone.com/news/2010/12/27/waraimeshi-finally-win-m1/
Kaishi Katsura rakugo in English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jb69FP4RxQ
Senryu on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senry%C5%AB
A post of mine from 2015 on Salaryman Senryu winners - https://rick.cogley.info/post/salaryman-senryu-sarasen-2015/

Social Photo by Michel Grolet on Unsplash

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