One of the advantages we've found to operating out of Beijing is our ability to engage in the sort of scientific research frowned upon in much of the civilized world. Far from the oversight of university ethics committees, we carve our own way through pressing moral dilemmas, such as whether to unleash the results of our research into what is unquestionably the worst joke in all China.

When we tested this on our crew in Beijing, the results were pretty bad. "That's the worst joke I've ever heard," Echo groaned before losing consciousness. Apple was knocked to the floor and later hospitalized with minor intestinal discomfort. So consider yourself warned. This podcast is dangerous. On the other hand, if you're starting to learn mandarin it is exactly the sort of risk you need to run if you want to get fluent. And how bad can a joke be anyway?
 said on
August 18, 2009
Hello,

What a brilliant site! I am currently working on a multi language promotion and would really like to promote your site as part of my Chinese language section. Is it possible to become an affiliate, or alternatively could I use your free material (will clearly highlight the source of course), as a 'taster' for your paid training. Thank-you very much and look forward to hearing from you. Great work!

Best wishes

Robert
 said on
August 18, 2009
@Brandon/echo,

it's not a strong joke but it's not that "biejiao". a play of words is interesting and useful to a beginner. i will from now on remember "guǎn" on its own to mean in charge of

and in combination to mean restaurant- establisment. as in kāfēiguǎn

is it also the same guǎn for buguan(no matter what..) which i have not use yet.

your humorous style made the lesson fun.

 said on
August 18, 2009
Thanks for the ping Robert, and we're all glad you like Popup Chinese. I'll be in touch about sharing by email shortly. :)
 said on
August 18, 2009
管 features in an earlier podcast about the guy ordering a bunch of whisky, I think it's called carslberg something. He says 别管我 to mean "leave me alone" or "keep out of my business" that sort of thing.

Great testament to the power of the podcasts that 管 was my big takeaway from that and I actually used it and recognised it from then on.

It's interesting that these kind of puns would be amusing in Chinese. They're very common in English of course but then it's much harder to make them so much so that we need to resort to rhymes to do it. Chinese, it seems to me, you could just about re-write any gag that has ever been as a case of alternative definitions of the same word :)

 said on
August 19, 2009
I love your Popup Plug-in for Firefox. Firefox sent me a message that a new version of Firefox is available though the message gave me a list of plug-ins that would stop working with the new version. Popup Chinese was on the list. Is a new version planned or is there something I can do to get it to work with the new Firefox version?

Thanks!
 said on
August 19, 2009
Hi travel,

Thanks for the ping (and compliment). : ) We'll update the software and upload a revised version later today.

--dave

 said on
August 19, 2009
@Richard,

Haha, maybe the joke is not "biejiao",but it is definitely a 冷笑话 :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 20, 2009
@travel - revised version uploaded this afternoon. Should be a lot more stable too - worked out some kinks that were plaguing the process of toggling it on/off.
 said on
August 22, 2009
That's great about the revision! I downloaded it without logging in, it said version 1.5 and then read that the premium version is available if I log in, so I logged in and downloaded it again, this time it said it was version 1.4. Which version should I use?

Thanks and keep up the great work!!

Bob
 said on
August 22, 2009
@travel - I'd go with the logged-in one, if only to be able to highlight missing words to add them and click on popups to edit them. I use that a decent amount when translating. They should be the same code base too.

--dave

 said on
August 25, 2009
I tried downloading the logged in version, it showed that it would be a 543MB download, is that what it's supposed to be? Thanks!

Bob
 said on
August 25, 2009
Hey Bob,

Update - fixed. Both versions are now updated to version 1.5. The plugin should be between six and seven megabytes of data. Faster to generate and faster to download.

--dave
 said on
August 26, 2009
Hey Dave,

Thanks for all that, it all worked fine, fantastic plug-in! Love your site.

Bob
 said on
September 2, 2009
Dear Pop Up Chinese Crew

Fantastic site to learn Chinese with.... Fun and enjoyable learning!

All the best and success!

Colin

Shanghai, China
 said on
September 3, 2009
@Colin,

Hi, welcome to the site! 欢迎你!

谢谢你的夸奖 :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
September 3, 2009
Thanks a lot Colin. We're constantly shuffling around things and working to improve the site, so feedback is very welcome. Lesson requests are welcome too if you have them. Cheers, --dave
 said on
September 12, 2009
Hey Dave,

I have a lesson request, how about one on romance with phrases like 我会永远爱你,

I don‘t mean to you of course ;o)

See’ya

Ian
 said on
September 13, 2009
Good idea Ian. We did a newbie lesson on saying I love you, but nothing at at the more advanced levels. Cheers

--dave
 said on
April 16, 2010
第一句子里,为什么用‘呢’?谢谢你。
 said on
November 10, 2011
I went through some of our lessons today, and I have to say I still like this one a lot after such a long time. I love 冷笑话! Haha~

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
November 10, 2011
@Echo,

Ha ha...he...he...OK...我承认了,我不懂这个笑话。

:(
 said on
November 10, 2011
@Xiao Hu,

哈哈哈,反正我觉得好玩儿!

你有没有做我新发布的quiz?那个更好玩儿,哈哈~

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
November 11, 2011
@Echo,

反正我觉得很迷惑呗!

对了,我刚刚考完了,我肯定考了一百分!小菜一碟!

呼噜噜。。。啊!(打哈欠)哦。。。我刚刚梦见到我考了一百分!哼,谁都知道那是我永远做不到的事情嘛!没门儿!!!
 said on
November 14, 2011
wo zhen de hen gaoxin zhao dao zhe ge website danshi meiyou ren bang wo zhe shi wo de QQ haoma (2264530097 ) wo shi waiguo ren wo xiang you ren bang wo . xiexie ta jia
 said on
November 15, 2011
@saidjanaga1986,

Hi, welcome to the site! Huan1ying2 ni3! If you have any questions, please also feel free to leave a comment on the site. We will help you, and other users will help you too. Jia1you2!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 8, 2014
First, good lesson, thanks. The one thing you didn't mention is how to say joke in Chinese. And while we're at it, how do you say "That was a cold joke"? 谢谢!
 said on
July 30, 2017
In my humble opinion ,it`s a very good joke.