Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [puns]

ダジャレ. A form of wordplay which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. Although puns are usually immediately recognizable by a native speaker, they can be very difficult for a learner to understand.

48 questions
27
votes
2 answers

Why is this funny?

A forum says that most Japanese will find this funny but I don't get it. Can anyone explain? (source) おもさを たいせきで わるんだなあ みつど
will
  • 514
  • 5
  • 10
23
votes
3 answers

Rules for slang of Japanese numbers

I often hear Japanese using a different method for saying a number like "248" as によんぱ — especially for highways and license plates. While this one is easy to understand, there are others that I don't quite understand. Could someone provide a list…
Mark Hosang
  • 6,951
  • 2
  • 34
  • 56
21
votes
2 answers

Why is ふとんがふとんだ a pun?

I was reading an article about how the humour in the Yakuza games gets translated into English, and in the original Japanese a pun is made. ふとんがふとんだ The article says it is a play on words. But I cannot find any explanation online but I do see a…
VictorySaber
  • 1,829
  • 1
  • 21
  • 28
18
votes
2 answers

Is Japanese particularly good for punning/spoonerisms? If so, why?

Today I was laughing my heads off reading puns at 言いまつがい, which is a collection of user-contributed accidental puns and other mistakes. It struck me that I never experienced this kind of uncontrollable laughter with puns in English. Is it possible…
ento
  • 6,642
  • 24
  • 45
13
votes
1 answer

What is the meaning of putting あれ at the end of these statements?

I saw an ad for Indeed today that had a couple tag lines with an あれ at the end, and I don't understand their use: 求人募集【きゅうじんぼしゅう】にサーチあれ。 仕事【しごと】、バイトさがしにサーチあれ。 Normally I'd assume that あれ would be something like して, since サーチ is a n-する verb, but…
bcloutier
  • 1,130
  • 8
  • 18
11
votes
1 answer

What are the origins of 掘った芋いじるな (hotta imo ijiru na)?

The gag expression 掘った芋いじるな (hotta imo ijiruna) sounds to japanese ears uncannily like "What time is it now?" I'm guessing this is Showa era humour, since English probably sounded more foreign then than now. Does anyone know the origin of this…
crunchyt
  • 4,355
  • 1
  • 27
  • 47
9
votes
4 answers

Was the name for the Shōwa era a voluntary pun?

According to dictionaries, the WA 和 in 昭和 has both the meaning of peace, harmonious and Japan, japanese (although mostly as the first kanji of a compound, such as in 和語). So I wonder how Japanese of those times perceived the announcement and the…
ogerard
  • 1,077
  • 10
  • 23
7
votes
1 answer

Are snowclones common in Japanese?

Are snowclones common in Japanese? A snowclone is a neologism for a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be…
Andrew Grimm
  • 16,067
  • 14
  • 70
  • 179
7
votes
1 answer

孫悟飯 - Songohan, why non-Japanese say it comes from "gohan = meal/cooked rice"?

As a French I've always heard that Songohan's name comes from gohan meaning meal/cooked rice. The English Wiki says the same and even mentions ご飯. But I don't understand why, since the names in the family are like this: 孫悟空 Songokū 孫悟飯 Songohan 孫悟天…
Destal
  • 297
  • 2
  • 7
7
votes
1 answer

How Could One Read 4649?

In the Japanese version of Smash 4 for the Wii U, if you let the game come up with a name for you, one of the names it pops out is 4649. I'm assuming this is some joke based on the readings of the numbers being read as a name, but I can't quite…
Kurausukun
  • 2,359
  • 1
  • 8
  • 19
7
votes
1 answer

How do jokes with "だけに" work?

There's a particular style of joke/pun in Japanese that I'm not sure how to describe, so let me provide some examples: カミングスーン、神だけに。 (said by someone who has recently become a 神) バスケットだけに助っ人募集中。 (said by someone who is looking for people to…
senshin
  • 5,615
  • 28
  • 69
6
votes
1 answer

Is 貝獣 an actual pun?

貝獣 Does this work out of context? Do these kanji even go together? Would it need furigana to make the pun apparent? Does it have any unfortunate implications?
ギドラ
  • 61
  • 1
6
votes
2 answers

Mnemonic phrases for memorizing a word or number sequence

What generally accepted mnemonic phrases are there in Japanese that are used for memorizing a sequence of numbers or words?
user458
6
votes
2 answers

What is the pun in 猥シャツ?

Could someone explain why 猥シャツ is defined as "obscene shirt (pun)"? I don't understand how this is a pun. 猥シャツ 【わいシャツ】 (n) (See Ｙシャツ) obscene shirt (pun) Source: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1MUEワイシャツ
Pacerier
  • 11,722
  • 3
  • 48
  • 121
6
votes
1 answer

What's the meaning of this pastry pun?

I saw a sticker set being used on a popular social platform the other day that I found very interesting. They were pictures of food items, sweets mostly, and had words next to them that seemed to be portmanteaus mixing Japanese phrases with the…
waldrumpus
  • 1,009
  • 11
  • 20
1
2 3 4