Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Don't I Find Anime Comedies Funny?
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Lili-Hime
 Posts: 569 |
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Yep, humor super subjective. Most recent anime I don't laugh much at but I prefer either random humor or character humor. For anime I prefer really whacky, over the top stuff; hopefully enhanced by a bad dub. Most series that aim at comedy fall flat with me, unless it's Ranma, Urusei Yatsura or Cromartie. Other shows that include it incidentially like Sailor Moon, Utena or Princess Tutu are great too. UY I think makes me laugh more than any other show because it's a great blend of normal, everday 'Seinfeld' moments with crazy randomness. The first episode Ataru accidently hitches a ride on a space taxi with his friends and can't pay... so the aliens begin stealing the world's oil supply to collect on the bill. Great stuff, especially his parents reactions of his mother crying "I wish I never had him!" and his father escaping reality behind the newspaper.
Also justin and others are right for hating Rob Schneider and/or SNL and its actors. Adam Sandler, the Wayans Brothers... *Shudder* I can't believe people STILL see their movies. |
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Thatguy3331
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I read a blog article once from Flawfinder saying most anime humor comes from the viewer not expecting the big wacky event coming and that it has little re-watch value for later because you'll know it's coming. I agree with this to an extent, but for me I can enjoy the over the top act that causes the straight man to react, and ignore the straight man entirely for the sheer bizarreness of the scene, which if anything else can put a smile on my face and keep me from getting bored. It's why something like Nichijo is something I consider 'pure candy entertainment" because it's nothing but a bunch of greatly animated weirdness. If I know anything about myself I can laugh at something unexpected and get laugh at trying to figure out how said thing could have possibly happened. Anime can work for me on that level.
I also think that some people don't necessarily watch some anime 'comedies' because they honestly find them funny but rather as a possible calming agent or something of the like. I also was never won over by Azumanga Daioh (but my first instance of trying it was weird so I'm willing to give it one more chance) but the Author's other work, Yotsuba is something I find to be a pure joy to read. I'm not necessarily sure about the re-readability of it but I do know that I like the characters in the manga and enjoy seeing them go about their lives. Other examples I can think of it's it's juxtaposed to a more serious plot or if it's used to help flesh out characters (which I think is more common in battle manga than anything else) then I'm fine with that. Now that said, this obviously means there's something seriously wrong if you're watching a comedy and don't GET a comedy. I don't mind watching a show for characters but other people actually want something and I can understand that. I definitely don't think the issue is really with you the viewer or even necessarily the creators who made said product (though there ARE anime I find unfunny even with MY standards, like D-Frag.) From every anime and manga I've seen the humor seems to have a very specific set up that gets used for every joke as apposed to American humor which will maybe use that set up once or twice in any given season and that's it. When I look at something like One Punch Man though (and I'm specifically talking about the manga) something about it's humor seems slightly off. Usually the set up is build up -> Defy expectation -> Straight man yells/reacts. With One Punch Man it seems like the straight man is either never there and the weird thing is the joke in of itself, or the straight man reacts in very fast quip and it's done with, and maybe that's why the show seems to work better for people who have said that they never laugh more than once in an anime. I don't think it can really compare to something like Rick and Morty but I definitely think it's noticeable and out of the norm. Humor in general is a weird thing for me because I hear ALL THE DAMN TIME people discussing it as if it's a thing anyone should be able to understand, but discussion is always halted at "it's funny/not funny" because explaining the joke is forbidden. Well how the hell am I supposed to understand anything? I'm usually told that's just a thing you have to feel out and hope for the best, which I do try but I get so little feedback it hurts. I'm sorry that was off topic. So anytime I read an anime review about an anime 'comedy' I always have to see if it's being done by a person who 'gets it' than someone known for not finding anime funny and so on. It's all very weird. |
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EricJ2
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The one bit of comedy we don't understand, and the Japanese don't understand why we don't understand it, is the Comedy Duo, where the straight guy gets impatient at the crazy funny guy, and keeps hitting him with a paper fan and telling him not to act like such an idiot. We've had straight-men in duos before--Bud Abbott, Dan Rowan, Oliver Hardy--but they're either part of the silliness of the comedy routine, or again, they're foiled with the silly guy getting the last laugh. I remember seeing a guide for Japanese to understanding American sensibilities for travel, and one thing they had to explain was irony: The Japanese might not actually understand if we Westerners say "Oh, that's going to work", or "Sounds like a brilliant idea to me...  " in a sarcastic tone that's not quite supposed to mean what it says. Even in anime comedies, when the "normal" character hears a crazy idea from the silly character, all he can do is politely sweatdrop and say, with euphemistic and culturally-approved tact, "Uh, somehow I don't think that idea's quite going to work....  "
I also remember seeing the clip of Monty Python & the Holy Grail dubbed into Japanese: In the scene where King Arthur fights the Black Knight, while the BK hops about on one leg saying "I'm invincible!", the line "What are you going to do, bleed on me?" was cut down to simply "Nan da to?? (What??)" Clearly this was much easier to understand than a complicated bit of sarcasm. In a country where the hierarchy constantly tells you what you're doing wrong and not to do it if you don't want to make an unsuccessful fool of yourself, it seems to be funnier to them to state the obvious, and to sympathize with the normal guy who has to put up with the frustration of shouting it back. This can be funnier for big humor-of-frustration reactions ("When did I ever say we were engaged???"), in a country that knows how not to let things otherwise get out of control, but may not always leave room for understanding other subtleties of humor. Last edited by EricJ2 on Fri Nov 06, 2015 7:19 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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maoyen
 Posts: 170 |
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Ginatama makes me laugh my ass off, and I hate Japanese humor. They have a way of making set ups that are just hilarious.
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zawa113
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Yeah, can't say I'm big into comedy either. The only anime comedy I still really love is actually Cromartie High School, which I think works in part due to the amazing dub and localization. I think it also comes off a lot more like a British comedy to me, and I enjoy British comedies. I have a few comedy anime I plan to see in the pipeline though. Hoping that Princess Jellyfish, Good Luck Girl, and My Bride is a Mermaid are watchable.
Oh, but I do adore several US comedy animated series, I currently have a Rick & Morty avatar, man! And I adore South Park too, of course! But I could also see those not translating outside the US very well either. South Park in particular relies too much on American trends, cultures, and politics to translate well to another language imo (which is weird, I know it airs in other countries). While that very thing would normally annoy me to no end, it's kind of South Park's thing, and it just does it so perfectly that no one else needs to bother as it just isn't as good. It's weird, as a kid (like, tween to young teen), when it came to American movies I would only watch comedies, refused to watch anything else. Obviously, I didn't know what I was missing. These days, I'll pretty much only watch British comedies, and only the really good ones. So I'm all over Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but anything else? I'm unlikely to try unless way too many people adore it and it can't be ignored forever. Of course, part of why I love Simon Pegg and Nick Frost so much is that, with their signature Cornetto Trilogy movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End), there's more than just humor to them. They're also parodying a specific genre of movie subtly while making an enjoyable entry into said genre. And they're typically also devoting time to at least Simon and Nick's main characters. I pretty much just need those three comedy movies and very few other ones. I thought it was a shame how hard Nick Frost's awesomeness was wasted on that Doctor Who Xmas special 
Now, Adam Sandler movies, noooooo thank you. I remember seeing the trailer for Pixels, and, being a gamer, going "oh, that looks pretty cool" and then, Adam Sandler shows up and I can only go "well, there goes any hope there". And pretty much any actor who shows up in his "I'm friends with Adam Sandler" movies? I ignore those people a lot too (so yeah, Rob Schenider, Kevin James, etc). Seriously, Peter Dinklage, you can do pretty much any movies you want, you don't have to be in an Adam Sandler movie! Just remember: Rob Schneider is.... a carrot! |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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I enjoy Anime comedy, the cultural differences have never been much of an issue. I started watching British comedy in the late 1970's and never had any trouble with that either. The early SNL, Flip Wilson, Laugh-In from the 60's, and the classic comedies from the 30's, 40's & 50's.
Seinfeld, on the other hand, was just never funny to me. Mark Gosdin |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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And that was just the first season that fans largely considered shrill, loud, hideously-animated and un-funny compared to the hipper (but even crazier) later seasons/cours when Oshii & co. started deviating from Takahashi's slapstick manga to give the humor more of a parody-ref "style" and the characters more idiosyncratically crazy. (Like Megane's speechmaking uber-geekdom of nearly everything geekable, just how much defense technology the Mendou estate did own, or Lum transferring to the school, now with a cute sympathetic Jeannie-like inability to take Ataru's no for an answer.) If you liked the "oil" episode, get ready for the school and summer episodes after the late Ep. 20's or so...
Mark Twain once joked "I became a humorist, and haven't worked a day in my life since." When that idea starts becoming too literal in the case of ex-SNL washups who are using Comedy as an excuse to keep themselves from getting a real job, the audience starts smelling a Big Fat Fraud who can't understand Comedy outside of his own attempts to amuse himself and hang on to his Jersey-boy high-school years into his 40's. And nothing brings out the primal homicidal urges in an audience like a Big Fat Fraud, who's spending of their money comes off as acts of embezzlement. (Literally, in the case of all those danged product plugs in Sandler's movies--"Hey, when was the last time Nike gave you free sneakers or Dick's Sporting Goods paid for an African vacation with your kids?") Last edited by EricJ2 on Sat Nov 07, 2015 2:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ryboom
Posts: 17 |
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The only funny thing in any anime ever was Takamura from Hajime no Ippo
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Keichitsu0305
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Same, I like Azumanga Daioh but, Yotsuba! feels fresh every time I re-read my manga copies. The panel layout and timing are wonderful with such small moments landing me in fits. Like, the time they went to an electronics store, Yotsuba puts on a pair of headphones and starts freaking out because its loud. That's manga, however, which tells humor way differently than an animated show. Gintama remains one of my favorite comedies but, it's humor largely depends on three things: how much I care about the characters, repeating gags or parodies or shout outs, and characters going on and on about how a situation makes them feel. In anime with voice actors changing their tones or attitudes its more entertaining than reading it in a manga. Black/gallows humor feels the most subjective since not everyone finds it tactful. Couldn't watch Inferno Cop because so many people consider it a Adult Swim type humor which I hate. But, any random joke about a guy commit suicide makes me burst out laughing. Hence, why Another remains one of the greatest comedies of all time. (NSFW and Spoilers) 
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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Comedy is so subjective that I don't even know why one would bother asking or answering this question.
In most of the anime I have watched the humor is too juvenile and blunt to be funny. It's basic slapstick with no finesse or cleverness and I tend to avoid series that try for too much humor. This is also the same reason why I stopped watching Family Guy. |
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Merxamers
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Good Luck Girl is one of my favorite anime, and i found it hilarious 
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JaggedAuthor
 Posts: 981 |
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This is essentially the basis for all tsukkomi humor. And while Gintama owns and frequently subverts this routine, it can be found - to an extent - in almost any anime comedy. I don't think most viewers need the jokes spelled out for them - rather, they're supposed to derive amusement from the straight-man's overblown reaction. Gintama actually provided me with a whole new appreciation for tsukkomi/boke gags. Still, I can totally appreciate why this type of humor isn't for everyone. I think you feel the same way about tsukkomi humor as I do about laugh tracks. Last edited by JaggedAuthor on Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:05 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MarshalBanana
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Just like how he doesn't find most Anime funny, I don't find a lot of American animated shows funny, the few that I do find really funny are the older Simpsons(my favourite American comedy) and Futurama. I did used to find Family Guy funny, but went off of it. It must just be a cultural thing.
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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Ever hear of a thing called cultural relativism? I find your statement outright insulting. Just because their culture and by extension, their average sense of humor is different, does not make it "primitive" or "outdated." Try not measuring everyone by your own cultural standards for a change. |
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purplepolecat
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A weird side-effect of culturally alien humour is that if you understand it, it seems even funnier because of the increased "difficulty level". The humour is intensified by the satisfaction of being in on a joke that not everyone would get, and also an element of smug nerdiness. I'm sure that a lot of the anime jokes that Western anime fans think are clever and original seem a little obvious and on-the-nose to the Japanese audience.
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