Smile, Interrupted

There comes a time for all gaijin bloggers, when our personal Engrish collections have become so prolific that there is nothing left to do but unload, paste, and publish.  But before I do, I`ve been wondering a lot about why Engrish is as funny as it is.  I mean, no matter how long you live here, why doesn`t this joke ever get old?  Why does Engrish.com such a staple of our subculture?  What do our unquenchable appetites for ridiculious English say about us as foreigners.

And why, I`d like to know, can`t I stop myself from covertly snapping a picture of this stranger on the train, just so I can proclaim on my blog that I`ve found Almighty God on the subway today?

According to one theory on the psychology of comedy, our laughter stems from an unconscious need to resurrect our sore gaijin egos. No really.  As it turns out, the Engrish phenomenon is a remarkably high testament to the so called “superiority theory” of humor.  Fitting with its name, this theory states that the essence of comedy derives ultimately from feelings of superiority. So when we laugh, we are laughing 'at' some failure, defect, deformity, misfortune, or accident of others.

Kind of a buzz kill, but I think there is a connection here.

The Superiority Theory of Humor dates back to Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle defined the ludicrous as "a failing or a piece of ugliness which causes no pain," and likens jokes to "a kind of abuse" which should ideally be undertaken without hurting anyone.  Similarly, Plato related comedy to "the malice of amusement" at the ignorant and ridiculous.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes developed these ideas into the most well known version of the Superiority theory. Hobbes wrote that "that the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly"

Within this context, laughing at Japanese attempts at English could be seen as an aggression based humor than maintains ego boundaries and restores self-esteem at the expense of others.

That said, do you really even want to scroll down and look at the rest of my Engrish collection??

Of course you do.

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Comments

[ThedaBara]

I'll be damned. I never thought I'd see a Smith's song title on a Japanase T-Shirt("Big Mouth Strikes Again")

[viola]

are you saying you like engrish cause it makes you feel superior?
lots of foreigners wonder why japan doesn't accept them wholly.
maybe it's because of your outright pettiness?

[Itadaki]

This type of humor is universal, and this is as thoughtful an analysis of it as I've ever read. Understanding why this humor works should make us more sensitive, such that we undertake it without hurting anyone.

I've always felt uncomfortable with columns like Traveler's Tales from the Far Eastern Economic Review for their regular exploitation of Engrish, but I still find it amusing nonetheless.

On the other hand, I get laughs from Japanese friends when I mistakenly say "Hana Mizuki" instead of "Hana Matsuri". The nature is the same, if not how widespread it is.

As they say in Avenue Q, "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist". So relax a bit.

[postpaleo]

Thought provoking post. Aristotle and Plato and then to Hobbes. I would love to know the sources for the quotes.

And then we have primitve Man with his sense of ego, Jung observed it as well as many others. But still I wonder if it would have chnaged the conclusions. I find it amusing that Hobbes is considered to be the father of Philosophical Anthropology.

I wonder... When the Japanese changed the word Wa, who laughed or did they fight a war with the Chinese.

[postpaleo]

Apparently there are 3 different schools of thought on humor.