JOKES: The Linguistic Competence Behind Humor

Ayush Saraswat
Professor Audrey Li
Arts and Letters 100
September 29, 2014
JOKES: The Linguistic Competence Behind Humor No one laughed. The jovial audience had suddenly turned quite, turning to each other in hopes of clearing the fog of confusion. Surprised by the audience’s reaction, American comedian Peter Chao questioned the humor in his stand-up routine. Should he continue with the same set of jokes for which he had received praise throughout America or should he adapt to his oriental audience, transitioning from rehearsed to improvised stand-up comedy? Performing in China had introduced Peter Chao to a new set of challenges he was not ready for, most notably an audience that did not appreciate the dark humor in his jokes. Although humor is …show more content…
Due to the homogenization of race and incredibly harsh border restrictions against foreigners, the Middle Kingdom never developed the same kind of racial diversity as the greatly more accepting policies of the United States. These policies caused the focal aspect of Chinese humor to be its own language, deriving from within its own borders. Mandarin, the most popular of Chinese languages is unique since it has many homonyms and homophones, and can be written and read in various directions. One common example of this linguistic humor is of a young woman on the bus. Upon pushing a button on the bus to let the driver know that someone wants off at the next bus stop, a sign lights up which reads “Stopping at the next bus stop.” Instead, the young Chinese woman reads the sign from right to left (“When the bus stops, stand up”) and stands up every time the bus comes to a stop (Sui, “The Lady Stands”). Another basic example of this linguistic humor is found in the word for mother, mā. With just a slight change in tone (mǎ instead of mā), the word for mother becomes the word for horse (Sui, ”The Four Tones of

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