Dashan and a leading Chinese comedian, Huang Hong, appeared in 2005 as special guests on CCTV-3 to support children’s education in China. When asked to share a joke with the audience, each chose the other as their subject matter. 大山与黄宏在CCTV-3《真情无弦》节目中互相拿对方开玩笑。 … Dashan CCTV 大山Chinese joke Huang Hong 黄宏
da shan (the canadian) ’s joke is that the other comedian went into a store and tried to use english to ask how much something cost. Instead, the chinese comedian got mixed up and used chinese that sounded similar to “How much?” He says hao chi ma? (does it taste good?) ma hao chi (the horse tastes good) and chi hao le ma? (did you eat well/ finish eating?)
Lol, completely.
Well, jokes always sound best when you hear someone say them.
Wow, these are two good examples of how translation kills humour.
Dashan’s joke is that when the 2 of them went to Holland, Dashan taught Huang Hong how to say “how much” in English. Huang memorized it, then went to a store and tried to say it. He ended up reversing the order of the words and the clerk didn’t understand him. So he said “sayonara!” and left. Dashan asked him why he suddenly spoke Japanese. Huang replied, if someone has to look stupid, I don’t want to make the Chinese people look stupid!
What he means is that when Dashan first came to Beijing, he was counting the number of floors on a skyscraper. Then a kid came up to him and said that it’s illegal and wanted to fine him a doller for every floor he counted. Dashan said “fine, I counted 8 floors.” Dashan gave him $8 and he left. Dashan said that the kid is dumber than him, Dashan counted to the 18th floor.
When Dashan first came to Beijing he saw how there were lots of of skyscrapers. As he was looking at one and counting the floors, a little girl comes up to him and asks him how many floors there are, then demands that he give her as much money as there are floors. He said eight, the girl took the money, and Huang Hong asked, “How can you be so stupid to say so many floors?” Then Dashan said, “She’s dumber than me, I didn’t tell her I live on the eighteenth floor!”
Can someone please explain the jokes?