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Comedy in different languages/countries

  Tags: DVD | Foreign Languages | TV
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
Doogle
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5278 days ago

20 posts - 22 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin

 
 Message 1 of 7
18 May 2014 at 10:40pm | IP Logged 
I'm a long-time lurker on this forum, and have seen and utilised many useful pieces of advice (thank you!) that I haven't felt worthy of adding to, but I don't believe I have seen anything on here about this topic...

As a Brit who's recently got a bit hooked on Australian stand-up type comedy (in no way helpful to my language learning efforts!), I was wondering about the sort of comedy existing (in particular stand-up) in other languages and countries.

I have heard it said in the past that some British comedy dvds sell well in the rest of Europe - I think the example was Jimmy Carr dvds selling in Scandinavia. People watch the dvds, and if they laugh in the right places, then this can be seen as "proof" that it has been understood. I have no experience of this, partly because my TL skills are still not at a high enough level, and partly because I wouldn't know where to start to find materials in German, French or Spanish, or even what sort of comedy there is.

Has anyone here used comedy to help with their TL? And are there any suggestions for programmes/comedians in languages aside from English?
2 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4466 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 2 of 7
18 May 2014 at 10:53pm | IP Logged 
I've watched a bit of French comedy but found it hard to penetrate. Dutch has a great
stand-up tradition (although the jokes are almost all as rough as Jimmy Carr's if not
worse so be prepared for that).

Anyone who enjoys Dutch should try and watch Hans Teeuwen, Javier Guzman, Guido Weijers,
Theo Maassen, and a few more (classic 70s stand-up featured names like Youp van 't Hek
and Freek de Jonge, but they are more well-known to my dad's generation).
2 persons have voted this message useful



eyðimörk
Triglot
Senior Member
France
goo.gl/aT4FY7
Joined 3858 days ago

490 posts - 1158 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, French
Studies: Breton, Italian

 
 Message 3 of 7
18 May 2014 at 11:12pm | IP Logged 
I watch stand-up in French sometimes. I'm a fan of Gad Elmaleh. I occasionally enjoy Jamel Debbouze, but he sometimes has that "all over the place" "really big personality" style that I find difficult to connect with in any language.

Swedish isn't one of my target languages, but I enjoy Johan Glans. I also really liked Henrik Schyffert's one man show The 90's: ett försvarstal. Those might have more to do with recognition than language, though, since Johan Glans is Scanian and I remember the 90s all too vividly.
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Lakeseayesno
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Mexico
thepolyglotist.com
Joined 4093 days ago

280 posts - 488 votes 
Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 4 of 7
19 May 2014 at 12:04am | IP Logged 
Japanese comedy is called owarai and it has a ton of subgenres, but the most famous ones are manzai (stand-up), konto (sketch) and rakugo (one-man shows in which the rakugo-ka tells the audience small comical episodes, usually using only one or two props and voicing all the characters him/herself).

While I studied Japanese, I used manzai and konto TV shows pretty much every day to learn new vocabulary and refine my accent. I don't study it actively anymore, but I still watch a ton of owarai every week, so it goes without saying that I really like it. However, I've also found that eight out of ten Japanese language learners find it incredibly hard to get into, because it's very different to European and American stand-up (as, when it's not super physical and slapsticky, it depends one hell of a lot on wordplay and linguistic trends).
3 persons have voted this message useful



tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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Joined 4424 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 5 of 7
19 May 2014 at 12:04am | IP Logged 
For French, in addition to Gad Elmaleh I've also enjoyed Fellag and Pierre Desproges. I also love Fabrice Luchini but while it is a "one-man show" and often humorous it's not really "comedy" and probably not for everybody.

Edited by tastyonions on 19 May 2014 at 12:06am

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sctroyenne
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5150 days ago

739 posts - 1312 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Irish

 
 Message 6 of 7
19 May 2014 at 1:38am | IP Logged 
While in Paris I went to a lot of improv shows and competitions plus a stand up show. I also enjoy the sketch
comedy from Les Inconnus and enjoy watching the comedy new shows Le Petit Journal and Les Guignols de
L'Info.
2 persons have voted this message useful





newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
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1598 posts - 2174 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
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 Message 7 of 7
19 May 2014 at 3:10am | IP Logged 
Coincidentally, this past week I saw an article on standup comedy in China.


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