[/floatl]Yomiuri: What's so funny about Japanese comedy?
Although it could be said that Till Weingaertner's interest in laughter is largely academic, this Berlin-born manzai comedian has also found success on the stage while studying the history and culture of Japanese comedy. While writing his doctoral thesis on Japanese comedy at Kansai University Graduate School of Sociology, Weingaertner frequents performances of manzai and rakugo storytelling at Namba Grand Kagetsu theater and other locations around Osaka. He also puts his studies into practice by performing as part of the manzai duo Altbayern with a fellow Kansai University student...His comprehensive survey of Japanese humor can be found in "Manzai--Eine japanische Form der Stand-up-Comedy", a book introducing his master thesis done at Free University of Berlin that was published in December...Weingaertner defines manzai by quoting Japanese researchers, introduces the history of the comedy genre and explains its relationship to Osaka...The book also focuses on veteran comedy duo Itoshi and Koishi and analyzes their famous routine "The Gulf War in My House" (Wagaya no Wangan Senso).
Itoshi: "The Gulf War began in my house last night."
Koishi: "That's impossible!"
Itoshi: "I had a big fight with my wife."
Koishi: "How did a fight with your wife start the Gulf War?"
Itoshi: "My wife threw a bowl (wan, in Japanese), which hit my head with a clunk (the Japanese onomatopoeic word 'gan')! And the Gulf War (wangan) started."
Weingaertner explained the routine's punch line by saying: "The audience laughs with the first incongruent gag mentioning the outbreak of the Gulf War because they obviously know the war can't start at home. Then they laugh again because they see it's possible when they know that 'Gulf War' derives from a wan bowl hitting his head with the clunk sound 'gan'"...more...
Weingaertner has a blog in English called "Laughing Japan".
