Virtually Hilarious: Chinese Internet Humor

Virtually Hilarious: Chinese Internet Humor
Dec 28, 2015 By Elaine Fisher , eChinacities.com

China may have perfected the poker face, but they still enjoy a joke or two, especially online. Explaining Chinese internet humor in words is hard. Just as your jokes usually fall flat on locals here, Chinese jokes do not lend themselves well to translation. One reason is that the Chinese language is tonal, so it's easy to make funny homophones and puns . Also, the Chinese have their own brand of dark humour and sarcasm that is different from that in English.

The Meme
You’ve probably been in situations where you think you understand exactly what was being said, yet you still don’t get what everyone else is laughing about. These are the kind of jokes that require some degree of local knowledge.

Jia Junpeng Jokes
By now an old joke, Jia Junpeng became a household name online when the message, “Jia Junpeng, your mum wants you to come home for dinner!” (贾君鹏你妈妈喊你回家吃饭!) captured the attention of netizens. Appearing on World of Warcraft message board in 2009, this phrase started the trend of netizens naming themselves after Jia Junpeng's mother, brother and other family members. Many variations followed, such that China Mobile had its own version, “Jia Junpeng, your mum asks you to come and buy a phone card”.

More than a joke, Jia Junpeng became a sign of the times as netizens questioned whether mothers had to go online to call children home for dinner. As Beijing recently ended the one-child policy, Mr Jia was resurrected again, “Jia Junpeng, your wife wants you to come home to make a second baby.”
     
The Pun
The Chinese language’s four tones have lent themselves well to puns since ancient times. At one time, the government banned the use of puns for the fear that they “corrupt” the Chinese language. However the lack of uniformity in application suggests that it the ban might really be politically motivated. Moreover, many foreign brand names in Chinese are really homophones with auspicious meanings, i.e. puns. For example, Pepsi Cola in China is Baishi Kele (百事可乐), which means rejoicing in everything.

“Grass Mud Horse”Jjokes
Taking three innocuous words with similar sounds, netizens managed to enable a popular expletive to escape Internet censors. The “grass mud horse” was eventually construed as a mythical creature resembling the alpaca but it everyone knew it was really a big middle finger pointed at the authorities. This phrase was later politicized by controversial artist, Ai Weiwei who featured it in his artwork, including a portrait of himself riding it.

The Netizen Comment
China’s sizable online community means that online discussion boards are particularly vibrant. Sometimes netizen comments are more funny than the news item itself. Netizen comments showcase Chinese dark humour ,or “cold jokes”, at their best.

For example, in response to a condom found in a school cafeteria lunch, one netizen asked, “Is a condom a vegetarian or a meat dish?”

A fellow netizen responded, “An unused one is vegetarian, a used one is a meat dish.”

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
If you’ve watch Chinese comedy competitions of late, you might notice that currently the Chinese are fond of physical comedy. The younger generation is also particularly enamored with visual humour. The accessibility of smartphones means there is no shortage of funny visuals circulating online. Thanks to online news channels and citizen journalism, the Chinese Internet has no shortage of funny news. Here’s one of a man on Chongqing’s metro snapped resting on his own beanbag in the middle of a carriage.

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Keywords: Chinese internet humor pander Chinese puns memes

1 Comments

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bill8899

Sorry sorry, I must ask. Does Echinacities think anyone would reprint their stories? Half of them are reprints already. Be calm nothing to worry about.

Jan 03, 2016 00:44 Report Abuse