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^ It could be a Fushigi Yuugi reference, but I think it's just as easily explainable as an obvious pun that predates Fushigi Yuugi.

The kind of shows that you like might make a difference.
I watch mostly slice of life, romantic comedy, harem comedy, school comedy, and action shows with very little graphic violence.
The only cultural issues that I have noticed are some pop culture references that I do not get.
Puns are not often used in the shows that I watch.

I am currently watching Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu for at least the fourth time and it is still hilarious. The hot springs episode almost had me rolling on the floor.
Other shows that I have watched several times because I find them to be very funny** are School Rumble, Ninja Nonsense, Paniponi Dash, Haruhi-chan, and Magikano. Also Fancy Lala, K-On!, and Kamichu!, but comedy is not the main reason why I like them.
The humor in the Koihime Musou series works very well for me.

I think that for me the universal subjectivity of humor is much more significant than any cultural differences.

**I am not including shows that are funny mostly because of the dub.

Kreion wrote:

Ninjajake12 wrote:

I think comparing South Park to anime comedy is a little...out there. South Park is edgy, rough, political, dark, and addresses current events and hot topics. Japan would never allow that type of comedy to exist on TV. It's simply a cultural difference. The edgiest anime I've ever seen (aside from Gintama) would probably be Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita...but there aren't too many of those genres of anime lying around.

I tend to like humor that can range from word puns to slapstick comedy. Gintama happens to be my favorite anime, whereas most of my friends really don't understand it.

I don't think that's necessarily true because shows like sayonara zetsubou sensei exist which is basically a commentary on modern Japan. A lot of humorous anime use an extremely ott world to make their messages and comments less obvious. I would agree that there are less satirical humour in Japan but it certainly exists and exists in anime too.

I mean there aren't that many 'edgy' cartoons beside south park, the ones that are tend to not run for too long.

Right. I didn't mean to say that they aren't impossible to air. Some anime really take current events to the utmost limit. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei definitely tackled a lot of current problems with an edgy degree. But from what I saw from SZS was more about life in Japan than specific people or groups. So while Itoshiki may complain about the fact that the internet is filled with angry cruel people, he'll never call out a specific person or group of people. At least not from what I saw.

On the other hand, American comics aren't afraid to parody politicians, presidents, pop stars, etc etc. I think there's a slight difference between the two, but I do understand what you're saying.

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CoreSignal wrote:

I'm not a huge South Park fan, but I do like the show and that type of dark, edgy humor. And true, there's not much anime out there that has kind of humor, which is probably why I don't find the majority of anime comedies funny. Same as Justin, part of why I like Welcome to the NHK is because it does have that type of edgy humor. I like sexual humor as well, which why I like GTO and also how GTO's humor mixes in a bit of social commentary as well. Ironically, I found JSS/Humanity has Declined to be just ok. The show seems to have that kind of humor I'm looking for, and while I'll think it's a clever show, I only found parts of the funny and not the whole thing, oh well. Interestingly enough, I think you get more of that edgy NHK/GTO type of humor in manga than in anime. Maybe there's more of an audience for it.

I actually totally agree with you. I also found JSS a little lackluster for my tastes. Maybe it was too edgy that it lost me on the story. It was outrageous, which caught my attention, but I slowly lost interest after episode 2-3. And I definitely agree about Welcome to the NHK and GTO. I love both of those shows and the comedy they produce (I'll never forget the Freud discussion Satou had with Misaki). On the other hand, I do like juvenile slapstick humor too. Comedy is simply something that isn't measurable. Because manga is a little less obtrusive than TV, I think manga can get away with more crude and dark humor than an anime. Of course, if it gets popular enough, it'll get an anime adaptation.

Purpadude wrote:

Personally, I like a lot of wit and repartee in my comedies, so I enjoy the heavily scripted jokes and pop culture references of Community, over the pseudo-real observation comedy of Parks and Rec or The Office.

The anime I find funniest tend to have priorities above or alongside their humour. A pure comedy show usually doesn't interest me. I enjoyed the uncomfortable edge of Welcome to the N.H.K., the character banter of Steins;Gate or OreGairu, and the dramatic suspense-horror of Prison School. Those could get some pretty serious laughs out of me, on a regular basis.

Me too, it's tough for me to just watch a straight comedy show, I also prefer humor as part of show rather than the main thing. I also like witty writing in my humor as well. Zetsubo Sensei sounds like my kind of humor so I'll probably give it a shot. In any case, I hope we get more anime comedies that emphasizes witty banter.[/quote]

I cannot agree with you more about liking comedies such as Community over ones like Parks and Recreation. I tend to like a lot of dialogue-based humor and clever banter between characters. OreGairu, even though it isn't trying to be, is incredibly funny when Hachiman and Yukinoshita (or Iroha) talk to him back and forth...not to mention his monologues and thoughts on the situation are always classic (because it's basically explaining how the viewers feel about the situation).

{Combined serial posts. ~nobahn}

I think the reason that pure anime comedies have never clicked with me is that I tend to very greatly prefer comedy that's based on sharp, witty back-and-forth dialog, coupled with clever parody. Things like early seasons of The Office, or Parks and Rec, or classic Simpsons, or just about all of South Park are what do it for me. A lot of anime comedy seems to be founded on either random zany hijinks, inscrutable kanji puns, or the straight man shouting "HEY GUYS THIS PERSON'S DOING SOMETHING WEIRD AND ME YELLING ABOUT IT SOMEHOW MAKES IT HUMOROUS!!!" and I just get nothing out of it. I will agree that shows which don't primarily focus on the humor tend to be the ones I laugh at the most. I was also a huge fan of Welcome to the NHK's twisted so-honest-it-hurts sense of humor, and One Piece always makes me crack up because Oda seems to draw a lot of inspiration from classic Looney Tunes slapstick, which is pretty timeless.

mewpudding101 wrote:

On another note, I cannot stand things like Rick and Morty and Aqua Team Hunger Force and things like that. It feels like they focus on potty humor and sex and gore, which I don't find funny at all. I actually think it's really lazy.

Clearly someone who hasn't actually seen Rick and Morty. Given that it was co-created by Dan Harmon, there's much, much, MUCH more than just "potty humor and sex and gore."

As for all the Adam Sandler bashing in the beginning of this thread, I'll readily admit that the man more or less ceased to be funny after the early 2000s (though You Don't Mess with the Zohan from 2008 was actually decent). I still maintain that Happy Gilmore is his best film ever. Surprisingly, he is a fairly good dramatic actor (see: Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish, Reign Over Me, Funny People), but he doesn't do enough in that regard.

Ninjajake12 wrote:

OreGairu, even though it isn't trying to be, is incredibly funny when Hachiman and Yukinoshita (or Iroha) talk to him back and forth...not to mention his monologues and thoughts on the situation are always classic (because it's basically explaining how the viewers feel about the situation).

"I took my dark and dastardly emotions and slung them at the wall."

"Walls are a part of youth."

Purpadude wrote:

Ninjajake12 wrote:

OreGairu, even though it isn't trying to be, is incredibly funny when Hachiman and Yukinoshita (or Iroha) talk to him back and forth...not to mention his monologues and thoughts on the situation are always classic (because it's basically explaining how the viewers feel about the situation).

"I took my dark and dastardly emotions and slung them at the wall."

"Walls are a part of youth."

Perfect scene to represent Hachiman lol

I can only fathom that this person may not click with comedy in anime. I may depend of the person. But there will always be some that may not find some of the jokes funny. But most of their jokes are from a cultural standpoint. But then there are just the kind of crazy that only they understand and find funny. I mean look at those that grew up watching 'Monty Python'.

I grew up watching The 3 Stooges and Little Rascals for years. The idea of 3 grown men getting smacked on a daily basic was amusing to me. When I'd toss this around to other people I found not everyone liked The Stooges. To them it was just asinine.

The very first exposure to comedy in an anime for me was Prefectural Earth Defense Force. For some reason I just got it without anyone explaining to to me. I take comedy in an anime seriously to the point that if it can make me laugh then it's a winner. Akitaro Daichi became someone that I looked to for comedic relief when I first got exposed to Jubei-chan. Then it was the silly Dragon Half, then Azumanga Daioh that had me so much in stitches that I ended up buying the entire series the next day.

But I can understand that there are some jokes that kind of run and they can fall flat. But expecting them take cues from Western society? That's silly. Well some of them have. Akitaro Daichi stated that he was often inspired by shows like Tom & Jerry. Many of them have grown upon Western cartoons and comedies. But how many Japanese do you think are going to get Western jokes?

I always felt that you have to grow up around the comedy to really enjoy it. All comedy involves about a mutual understanding of information between the comedian and the audience, and without that background, nothing is really that funny. In the case of anime, the key missing part, I believe, is manzai. Manzai is largely about wordplay and about characters commenting on silly things another character does rather than the silly thing itself.

There's, of course, also the way people take politeness and respect very seriously in Japan, so truly subversive and/or offensive humor doesn't exist in quite the quantity as in America, Europe, or Oceania.

classicalzawa wrote:

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.

That's because you "get" the humor, living in a culture of or close enough to the one depicted in South Park to have a reference point. South Park's humor, and even its plots, are very tied to the United States: Its people, its culture, and its history. Episodes like "The Red Badge of Gayness" or "Go God Go XII" would likely be incomprehensible to a lot of countries because the former concerns knowledge of an event in U.S. history taught in U.S. schools while the latter satires the conflict between atheism and religiousness unique to the country.

The humor in Rick & Morty also depends on familiarity with classic narrative tropes; the show's favorite thing to do is to bring something familiar to most Americans, then have Rick come in and stomp all over it. If you're not that familiar with that thing in the first place, it wouldn't be that funny. (And Adult Swim's Rick & Morty commercials tend to conceal plot and focus entirely on random, offbeat humor.)

There was that episode where Rick invents and sells devices that remove or negate curses from objects the devil gives to people, for instance. To really find this episode funny, you have to have seen a lot of deal-with-the-devil type stories and understand how overwhelming his power can be and how the devil would theoretically not be used to some ordinary human, albeit a scientific genius, can subvert him so easily, helping the people the devil curses, AND making money off of it all in one action.

MajorZero wrote:

In other words satire pretty much niche thing over there? Draconian laws can't explain lack of variety though, at least it seems to be superficial conclusion. Plenty of countries experienced totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, how many of them degraded culturally?

The reason Japan doesn't have as big a sature scene as countries like the Soviet Union or Iraq is that, while people do feel their grievances with authority figures, Japanese culture strongly encourages people to keep negative thoughts to themselves. That is, where those dictatorships and totalitarianist regimes do their enforcement directly, the Japanese populace enforce and censor themselves. Where someone publishing something in Krokodil in the Soviet Union is seen as, "Thank you for proclaiming to the world something I don't have the power to do," try doing that in Japan and people will see you as, "You're incredibly rude and disrespectful."

It says something that Mr. Osomatsu, Shimoneta, and Gin Tama, all of them satirical series, have all fallen under societal pressure to be censored. That being said, all three of them are also successful in viewership numbers, so it indicates to me that there IS a good deal of cultural frustration in Japan, just that, unlike most other places, there are also a lot of people who cannot stand seeing any politician get mocked.

Paiprince wrote:

Anyways, the guy that asked outed himself out. A casual.

Every hardcore fan was once a casual fan.

mangamuscle wrote:

So yeah, I get my chuckles out of anime and I have the theory that the more fan someone is of Adam Sandler, the less likely s/he likes anime (and vice versa).

From what I see reading everyone's posts, it's not just Adam Sandler, it's Hollywood in general. I seem to be the rare fan of both anime and Hollywood.

Kreion wrote:

I mean there aren't that many 'edgy' cartoons beside south park, the ones that are tend to not run for too long.

Western animation fan here. These are the long-running western animated shows with "edgy" humor I can think of that's run for a long amount of time (the mark here is 3 or more seasons): The Simpsons, The Venture Bros., Moral Orel, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, Family Guy, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers, The Boondocks, Tripping the Rift, Futurama, Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill, and Archer. Presently, Rick & Morty, Brickleberry, and The Awesomes have caught on with the general public and will likely run for as long as they want.

_Faust wrote:

Quote:

"How about we STICK together, eh?"

There is no good solution that will both make the viewer laugh AND be an accurate translation.

Personally, I would've gone with:
"Look at this stick I found! It's stick-tacular!"

Then, of course, there's Ranma 1/2's infamous Viz-stumping pun where Genma-panda picks up a curry-bread, and Dr. Tofu notes, "Oh, pan da! (It's bread)"
Viz often spoke on their inability to come up with an English equivalent worth Genma's eyeroll. Rolling Eyes

@leafy sea dragon
The Flintstones and Rocky and Bullwinkle were also edgy for their time, as was Hanna Barbera's almost-completely-forgotten Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, a politically-oriented animated sitcom which ran in first-run syndication for three seasons from 1972 to 1974.

That's true, and same goes for The Jetsons' 80's run. I didn't know Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home ran for that long though. It always came off as a short-lived show to me.

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home ran for 48 episodes altough the third "season" was really only 4 episodes.

Cromartie and Azumanga are a given, even a decade later.

whitesox123 wrote:

Gintama over all.

YES!

I think you can find enough comedy that appeals to an older (not much more mature, let's be honest with ourselves) crowd. I think Humanity has Declined was a recent anime that is not about crude humor. My Love Story! is not only a good rom-com, but just a good comedy. Same for Monthyly Girls Nozaki-kun.

A show from this season, Mr. Osomatsu, is also a show that's not a typical high school panty-fest.

Then there's Detroit Metal City. I've read more of the manga than watched the anime, but I can't imagine that the anime loses the laughs of the manga.

Now if we're talking a show that takes its cue from Adult Swim shows, you would have to watch Inferno Cop.

classicalzawa wrote:

Hoping that Princess Jellyfish, Good Luck Girl, and My Bride is a Mermaid are watchable.

I can't speak to the other two, but I love Princess Jellyfish. If you dig female-centric anime, the chances are good that you'll like it.

leafy sea dragon wrote:

That's because you "get" the humor, living in a culture of or close enough to the one depicted in South Park to have a reference point. South Park's humor, and even its plots, are very tied to the United States: Its people, its culture, and its history. Episodes like "The Red Badge of Gayness" or "Go God Go XII" would likely be incomprehensible to a lot of countries because the former concerns knowledge of an event in U.S. history taught in U.S. schools while the latter satires the conflict between atheism and religiousness unique to the country.

I live in the United States, but South Park mostly is hit or miss for me because I don't follow celebrity trash news or politics much. Really, I only just recently got back into South Park with the latest at the bequest of a friend who simply said "Trust me". I assume she meant all the stuff about PC Principal and social justice which is something I do know about since it's everywhere on the internet, but aside from that something I liked was the show started being written with a continuity narrative. I don't mean simple things like recurring characters or references to past episodes, but each episode picks up where the last left off. That's part of the reason I like anime comedies because they tend to blend narrative with comedy, so it's nice to see South Park doing something similar. I still have to look up some things though, like a few celebrity references here or there, but overall I'm actually enjoying this season. I'm looking forward to the breaking point of Cartman.

-Stuart Smith

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