Funny or Not Funny-That is the Question: Exploring and Grasping a Sense of Humor through the U.S. Movies

Yokomitsu, Hiroshi

Article

Journal of English Teaching through Movies and Media 2004;5(1):103-112.
Published online June 30, 2004.

Funny or Not Funny-That is the Question: Exploring and Grasping a Sense of Humor through the U.S. Movies

Abstract

It is not an easy task to understand cultural differences in cross-cultural settings. As is often with the case, but acquiring foreign languages do not always guarantee completely understanding the culture in which the languages are used. In Japan nowadays, when we learn/teach foreign languages, especially English, we often utilize films of the languages, the majority of which are from the U.S. However, there are many cases that we miss the laughing points in which the native speakers of the languages find funny, due to the difference of sense of humor. In this paper, the author presents an example method of introducing a different sense of humor through the U.S. films.

Key Words: communication;humor;U.S.-films;comedies