2005-04-17

Explaining jokes makes them funnier

Walking through Omiya today, I came across these two posters advertising some preparatory school called Yoyogi Seminar. (Sorry about the glare, and the angle on the first one.)

The first one is the word 受験, "(entrance) exam", minus the 又 at the bottom of the first kanji. 又 is, in turn, one way to write the Japanese word mata*, one meaning of which is "again". So the message is, with their help, there'll be no "again" when it comes to your exam/s (because you'll pass first time).

The second one looks like a real kanji, and is indeed constructed from real radicals, but it's not a real kanji at all**.

First, note that it's made of the squished, radicalised versions of 力, chikara or "power", plus 身, mi or... let's say "self"? Then check out the sentence at the bottom: "力が身につく", "power [i.e. ability] will stick to [your] self", which is (a) a common Japanese metaphor (idiom?) for mastering skills or comprehensively learning things, and (b) how that fake kanji was made... see? 力 sticks to 身?

I told you explaining jokes made them funnier.

* But 亦 is a much cooler way to write it.

** I think. This is your cue to dig it up from the depths of Unicode, readers who know more Chinese characters than me!

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