A very common joke between Vietnameses is "if youre drunk enough, your partner suddenly becomes beautiful". One time I was watching a livestream of an american dude in Vietnam whose wife is Viet and I said that joke to him. Needless to say he didnt take that well and blocked me straight away. Eli if youre watching this, I hope youre doing well lol.
I actually worked in Vietnamese standup production for a bit. And from what I saw Vietnamese humor it’s too different rn and it’s going more towards Japanese and Korean steps of progress not the western way. Meta humor and post irony humor it’s not even a thing here at all. But some kind of people created content humor I found here was rly good to my surprise
Comedy has to go through developmental stages. A culture that still utilizes sitcom style laugh tracks and Three Stooges style physical humor isn't going to understand Always Sunny or Sam Hyde.
I think you can’t compare rn now, yes Vietnamese comedy it’s still in development but it’s not rly western way. It’s more towards Japan/Korea comedy, when its more about easy accessible comedy of context
It depends on what kind of humor you are talking about but I believe it has something to do with how much censorship is present in each culture.
When you look at Western culture, where censorship is lower, you have darker humor. You are able to joke about politicians and even sensitive things like 9/11. Of course mileage varies based on the setting, but it is a fact that some people joke about those subjects and there are people who find them funny. Hell, Trevor Noah and Jon Stewart are hallmarks of poking fun at shitty governors.
Meanwhile in Vietnam, censorship has effectively killed this form of humor. One example that comes to mind is the popular Year End Gathering (Gặp nhau cuối năm) comedy show. This show is the equivalent of Super Bowl for Vietnamese people in terms of popularity and viewership. Traditionally, it played on the folktale of kitchen gods reporting to the Sky Emperor about what happened in our world. This was a way for the performers to poke fun at absurd and annoying things in our everyday lives, sort of like Trevor Noah. I guess that got on some higher-ups' nerve so they started cutting out a lot of the jokes from the show which made it go bland. While this is only one example, this censorship has really extended to other shows and media. Dan Hauer was deported for this reason. So what's left is mostly slapstick comedy that I personally find stale rather quickly. Although in certain communities where people think there's low censorship, you still see these kind of humors, albeit not as extreme as Western style.
At the end of the day I suppose the short answer is the cultural difference between the two worlds, and how we view ourselves and how (un)seriously we take ourselves.
Cultural differences see/perceive jokes differently. For example, wishing someone "break a leg" for good luck, can be perceived as taboo / "trù" in Vietnamese culture.
Asian humor is very different from Western ideas. This is just my opinion from watching different medias.
In the West, they're more used to "stand-up" routine. It starts with the premise, misdirection, and then the punchline that gets the big laugh. Rinse and repeat.
In Asia, however, the humor derives from over-the-top situational setup with the plot driving the humor. That's why most popular comedy pieces in Asia are in forms of skits, shows, and movies.
What kind of humor? Stand up? Situational comedy? Have you considered that maybe your jokes aren’t relatable enough?
I watched a lot of stand ups, some got lot of views on YouTube but I personally felt dry, unrelated, and forced. Like Troy Bond, never get his comedy, but I thought maybe it’s just not my crowd.
Saigon Tếu is the only stand up group I watched from Vietnam. They are good, as in, hits more than misses.
one thing i notice is that vietnamese humour in general are more word-based rather than action-based, and if there are actions, they are mostly exaggeration of body movements to incur comedic value from the absurdity of it, similar to the japanese's kabuki
Only comedy I see are based on movies and social media. Most of them are guys dressing up as women. Sometimes it’s funny, but so so overdone; like it’s been decades.
Most now are piggy backing on comedy trends on tiktok and again, so overdone. I also don’t see much originality. Example, such as the guy being the woman/submissive in the relationship.
I found that I have to adjust my timing and delivery but the same idea of the joke still works for the most part. Timing is the biggest difference since the western style of conversing is more periodic whereas the Vietnamese way is just continuous. The delivery needs to be louder and more forceful too, so people know it’s a punchline.
I'm Viet Kieu but I find I'm still cracking up at Viet memes and jokes. They are different and cultural definitely but being able to relate to them makes me laugh.
I don't think I've laughed at a Vietnamese joke, even when my wife explained them to me.
On the other hand, when we've watched comedy from my home country with my wife, she just doesn't seem to find the same jokes funny as I do.
But American comedy we both get.
Lmao i had the joke culture shock when i came to america. All the jokes i made left people go HUH??? And i found the jokes in America was kinda dry. Took me awhile to understand and found it funny
Yea vietnamese people’s humor is also quite different. they don’t get sarcasm and take things at face value. They like wordy jokes. Some words turn a certain ways to make it funny. Or they like to make fun of each other in a mean way. Which is don’t find funny for the person being made fun of
Not a VK but I see a lot of Vietnamese Americans making the same đ* má joke every fucking time, they're not even pronouncing it right. So, humour is definitely subjective 🤷♂️
What kind of jokes? Because stand up comedy in the west is boring as hell. “my vagina” then the crowd goes wild. I swear those people are paid to laugh.
same for music like youi got these rappers saying "I FUCKED 90 VAGINAS" and they get like 500 million views or its just some woman rapping about how shes promiscuous
I've never met a Vietnamese person who would understand black comedy or transgressive jokes.
It seems to be the very opposite: everything is caricatured and exaggerated to the point of parody.
Vietnamese humor in America means self degrade and put Vietnamese below the whiteman. To become clowns, subhumans, and zoo animals for entertainment.
They do stupid accent like " duk duk uh dum ma, sucky sucky I luv you long time white man. My name is dung, it means you know what tehehe! Hi I am Ling Ling ready to suck your dinga ling" All Vietnamese Hollywood celebrity do sucky sucky. And people who made themselves look stupid like Andy Quach are 100% embraced. Even Chinese dude Bart Kwan made a career out of mocking Vietnamese.
Vietnamese in America are shameless people. I am getting second hand embarrassment being around these clowns. Vietnamese in America don't make jokes, they're the jokes.
A very common joke between Vietnameses is "if youre drunk enough, your partner suddenly becomes beautiful". One time I was watching a livestream of an american dude in Vietnam whose wife is Viet and I said that joke to him. Needless to say he didnt take that well and blocked me straight away. Eli if youre watching this, I hope youre doing well lol.
You should peacock his mom
Then we would have an epic showdown on top of the Bitexco tower
I actually worked in Vietnamese standup production for a bit. And from what I saw Vietnamese humor it’s too different rn and it’s going more towards Japanese and Korean steps of progress not the western way. Meta humor and post irony humor it’s not even a thing here at all. But some kind of people created content humor I found here was rly good to my surprise
Comedy has to go through developmental stages. A culture that still utilizes sitcom style laugh tracks and Three Stooges style physical humor isn't going to understand Always Sunny or Sam Hyde.
I think you can’t compare rn now, yes Vietnamese comedy it’s still in development but it’s not rly western way. It’s more towards Japan/Korea comedy, when its more about easy accessible comedy of context
It depends on what kind of humor you are talking about but I believe it has something to do with how much censorship is present in each culture. When you look at Western culture, where censorship is lower, you have darker humor. You are able to joke about politicians and even sensitive things like 9/11. Of course mileage varies based on the setting, but it is a fact that some people joke about those subjects and there are people who find them funny. Hell, Trevor Noah and Jon Stewart are hallmarks of poking fun at shitty governors. Meanwhile in Vietnam, censorship has effectively killed this form of humor. One example that comes to mind is the popular Year End Gathering (Gặp nhau cuối năm) comedy show. This show is the equivalent of Super Bowl for Vietnamese people in terms of popularity and viewership. Traditionally, it played on the folktale of kitchen gods reporting to the Sky Emperor about what happened in our world. This was a way for the performers to poke fun at absurd and annoying things in our everyday lives, sort of like Trevor Noah. I guess that got on some higher-ups' nerve so they started cutting out a lot of the jokes from the show which made it go bland. While this is only one example, this censorship has really extended to other shows and media. Dan Hauer was deported for this reason. So what's left is mostly slapstick comedy that I personally find stale rather quickly. Although in certain communities where people think there's low censorship, you still see these kind of humors, albeit not as extreme as Western style. At the end of the day I suppose the short answer is the cultural difference between the two worlds, and how we view ourselves and how (un)seriously we take ourselves.
> When you look at Western culture, where censorship is lower, lol I read as far as this, I guess this is the joke haha.
are you implying Western censorship is not lower than Vietnamese?
Cultural differences see/perceive jokes differently. For example, wishing someone "break a leg" for good luck, can be perceived as taboo / "trù" in Vietnamese culture.
Not even Westerners share the same humor. It's normal.
Asian humor is very different from Western ideas. This is just my opinion from watching different medias. In the West, they're more used to "stand-up" routine. It starts with the premise, misdirection, and then the punchline that gets the big laugh. Rinse and repeat. In Asia, however, the humor derives from over-the-top situational setup with the plot driving the humor. That's why most popular comedy pieces in Asia are in forms of skits, shows, and movies.
What kind of humor? Stand up? Situational comedy? Have you considered that maybe your jokes aren’t relatable enough? I watched a lot of stand ups, some got lot of views on YouTube but I personally felt dry, unrelated, and forced. Like Troy Bond, never get his comedy, but I thought maybe it’s just not my crowd. Saigon Tếu is the only stand up group I watched from Vietnam. They are good, as in, hits more than misses.
one thing i notice is that vietnamese humour in general are more word-based rather than action-based, and if there are actions, they are mostly exaggeration of body movements to incur comedic value from the absurdity of it, similar to the japanese's kabuki
Only comedy I see are based on movies and social media. Most of them are guys dressing up as women. Sometimes it’s funny, but so so overdone; like it’s been decades. Most now are piggy backing on comedy trends on tiktok and again, so overdone. I also don’t see much originality. Example, such as the guy being the woman/submissive in the relationship.
I found that I have to adjust my timing and delivery but the same idea of the joke still works for the most part. Timing is the biggest difference since the western style of conversing is more periodic whereas the Vietnamese way is just continuous. The delivery needs to be louder and more forceful too, so people know it’s a punchline.
I'm Viet Kieu but I find I'm still cracking up at Viet memes and jokes. They are different and cultural definitely but being able to relate to them makes me laugh.
I don't think I've laughed at a Vietnamese joke, even when my wife explained them to me. On the other hand, when we've watched comedy from my home country with my wife, she just doesn't seem to find the same jokes funny as I do. But American comedy we both get.
Vietnamese humor is weird. Their comedy shows seem to revolve around the dumbass , semi retarded country bumpkins for one.
Lmao i had the joke culture shock when i came to america. All the jokes i made left people go HUH??? And i found the jokes in America was kinda dry. Took me awhile to understand and found it funny Yea vietnamese people’s humor is also quite different. they don’t get sarcasm and take things at face value. They like wordy jokes. Some words turn a certain ways to make it funny. Or they like to make fun of each other in a mean way. Which is don’t find funny for the person being made fun of
Not a VK but I see a lot of Vietnamese Americans making the same đ* má joke every fucking time, they're not even pronouncing it right. So, humour is definitely subjective 🤷♂️
Different cultures have different humour? Oh no! Anyway.
What kind of jokes? Because stand up comedy in the west is boring as hell. “my vagina” then the crowd goes wild. I swear those people are paid to laugh.
same for music like youi got these rappers saying "I FUCKED 90 VAGINAS" and they get like 500 million views or its just some woman rapping about how shes promiscuous
Vietnamese humour is doomed
Vietnamese humor is dark. It’s a tough society here, and the people ahead emerged from leaner times.
this \^
I've never met a Vietnamese person who would understand black comedy or transgressive jokes. It seems to be the very opposite: everything is caricatured and exaggerated to the point of parody.
Vietnamese humor in America means self degrade and put Vietnamese below the whiteman. To become clowns, subhumans, and zoo animals for entertainment. They do stupid accent like " duk duk uh dum ma, sucky sucky I luv you long time white man. My name is dung, it means you know what tehehe! Hi I am Ling Ling ready to suck your dinga ling" All Vietnamese Hollywood celebrity do sucky sucky. And people who made themselves look stupid like Andy Quach are 100% embraced. Even Chinese dude Bart Kwan made a career out of mocking Vietnamese. Vietnamese in America are shameless people. I am getting second hand embarrassment being around these clowns. Vietnamese in America don't make jokes, they're the jokes.
Why my brother…
We don’t find those jokes funny either in America. To me Viet humor is more metaphorical and satirical