posted by Echo on March 22, 2010 | 10 comments
I always think one of the biggest cultural differences between Chinese people and foreigners is the sense of humor. Sometimes I feel really difficult to understand why some jokes are so funny to my foreign friends ,but not to me at all.
However, I found some jokes are actually international the other day. Here is one:
A bear and a rabbit are taking a crap in the woods.
The bear turns to the rabbit and asks conversationally: "You ever have a problem with crap sticking to your fur?"
The rabbit, smugly, replies: "Nope, never."
The bear says "Good to hear it," picks up the rabbit and wipes his ass with the bunny.
The Chinese version is:
兔子上厕所方便，看见熊也在，吓得不敢出声。熊看了兔子一眼说：“你掉不掉毛？”兔子哆嗦了一下，没说话。熊又问：“掉不掉毛啊，你？”兔子很害怕地小声说：“不掉~~”熊一把抓住兔子，擦了擦屁股走了。
I personally prefer the Chinese version :)
What do you guys think? What's your favorite joke? Any jokes you want to share with us here?
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
Oddly enough, the only Chinese jokes I know are dirty ones about Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng. Mostly told to me by some former students. So I think people share the same sense of humor. Chinese people are just a lot more reserved around foreigners. You pretty much have to be eating and drinking with them before the stories start flowing.
This is my worst joke:
Chinese version:
两个包子在烤箱里。第一包子看了其他的包子一眼说：＂天啊！我们会死把！＂第二包子吃惊地说：＂天啊！一个包子会说话！＂
English version:
Two muffins are in the oven. The first muffin looks at the second muffin and says, "Oh my God. We're going to die!" The second muffin looks back at the first muffin and says, "Oh my God. It's a talking muffin!"
miami_meiguoren on March 23, 2010 | reply
Echo you translated your joke incorrectly,
the bear asked the rabbit if he sheds or not.
and the rabbit said nope i dont.
in that case the bear wiped his butt with him.
hehe
good one :)
Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. There are 5
people in my family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum or my
dad. Or my older brother Colin. Or my younger brother Ho-Cha-Chu. But I
think it's Colin.
@miami_meiguoren,
Hey, thank you :)
Actually I just found the English one on Google. It is another version of this joke, not the translation. However, I like your translation a lot. I think asking the rabbit if he sheds or not is more interesting :)
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
我在麦当劳工作。
那天我们店来了一位中年男顾客：“给我来个肯德基，快，我要带走！” 声音很大，我愣了一下说：“我们这是麦当劳不是肯德基。”
那个顾客大声说：“我就要肯德基，来一整只。”我又大声重复了一遍“对不起，先生，我们这是麦当劳！”
那个男顾客很无奈的说：“哎，好吧，那就来个麦当劳吧。”
@xiaoxin,
这是我们的一篇HSK阅读理解，相信你一定会喜欢：
从前，有位画家很喜欢开玩笑。一天，画家的朋友对他说：“我很喜欢你的画，你能不能画一张送给我？”画家答应了，但是一回到家就忘了这件事。一个月以后，朋友来要画儿，画家这才想起来。怎么办呢，画家很不好意思，想了想，决定跟这位朋友开个小玩笑。他对朋友说：“请到里面来看看画儿吧。”朋友走进去一看，桌上只有一张很大的白纸。“你画的是什么啊？”画家回答：“我画的是牛吃草。”“草在哪儿呢？”“草让牛吃了。”“牛呢？”“草都没了，牛当然走了啊！”过了几天，画家的朋友给画家寄来一封信。画家打开一看，里面有一张黑色的纸，还有一张便条。便条上写着：“老兄，我的画儿获了大奖，我也是画家啦！”画家去看那张黑色的纸，背面写着“画”的题目：《黑衣人在黑夜里捉乌鸦》。
Sometimes I wonder if there are any word-play jokes that actually translate from one language to another. For example, George Carlin has a famous airplane joke:
"At the airport, when somebody says to me 'let's get on the plane,' I reply '**** you, I'm getting IN the plane.'"
My best attempt at translating it to Chinese would be:
在机场的时候,如果一个人对我说'我们进去飞机上面'我回答'他妈的,我进去飞机里面.'
I'm not even sure if the Chinese version makes sense, because I don't know if Chinese has the peculiar idiosyncrasy of getting ON things where it would make much more sense to get IN them.