What do we laugh at? Comparative analysis of Japanese and Spanish television comedies

Abstract

Japanese humor has traditionally been described as something peculiar and difficult to understand outside Japan, especially for Western audiences. However, in recent years, the reception in Spain of Japanese comic productions in the field of manganime, film, and even the performances of professional comedians, refutes this idea and allows us to formulate the hypothesis that popular humorous themes and formulas in both societies share certain characteristics in common, despite the cultural distance that separates them. In order to validate this hypothesis, through discursive analysis of the most successful television comedy programs in both countries, the article analyzes the similarities and differences of their humorous themes, with the final goal of establishing the specific elements of Japanese humor that are perceived comically by the Spanish public. It is a qualitative study on a field, such as humor, usually neglected in cultural analysis but whose detailed study is highly productive to deepen the knowledge of a society through its most interstitial dimensions, illuminating areas such as the analysis of discourse in audiovisual productions, the translation of humorous works, and the cultural analysis of the sense of humor in Japanese and Spanish societies