Why do Japanese comedians hit each other in the head?

Question

Why does that continue to be funny to them and their Japanese audiences?

Answer 1

Im sure every culture has a difference sense of humour. Besides... maybe you can't understand what their jokes are about?

Answer 2

Elwin's probably got a point there. I'll just add that I think that every culture does have its physical comedians and its low-brow comedians. Sometimes people don't necessarily appreciate them as much as their higher-brow cohorts. Maybe it's because it might not seem to take as much effort to watch someone get hit in the groin with a baseball bat or fart during church. But those types of things are still funny to Western culture. Think about the popularity of TV shows like Jackass and movies like Dumb and Dumber. Many of those shows contained completely low-brow comedy routines. It might be a throw back to watching the old silent movie comedians slipping on a banana peel.

As sad and twisted as it might be, there's just something a little funny about somebody else getting hurt (but not permanently disfigured--that would fall into dark humor).

Answer 3

I think you're referring to slapstick...

Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. (E.g., A character being hit in the face with a frying pan or pie, getting matches lit between the toes, or running full-speed into a wall.) The style is common to those genres of entertainment in which the audience is supposed to understand the very hyperbolic nature of such violence to exceed the boundaries of common sense and thus license non-cruel laughter. Its greatest modern representations thus lie in cartoons and the simple, amplified film comedies aimed at younger audiences. Though the term is often used pejoratively, the performance of slapstick comedy, based on exquisite timing and unerring calculation of execution, character reaction and audience laughter, is considered among the more difficult tasks facing a live performer.

There lots of coemedians who use it... not only japanese people...

Answer 4

I think what you are refering to is Manzai, a form of comedy popular in Japan's Kansai region. It's a little closer to the "straightman/dumb guy" comedy that Abbot and Costello done. Here's a link about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzai

Answer 5

The Japanese have a very strange sense of humour...they find physical abuse funny...

Answer 6

wc