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April 1 no joke for most Japanese
"The driver of the bus I was riding announced there was a bomb on board. After everybody disembarked in a big panic, he exclaimed, 'April Fool! Now wasn't that fun?' And all of the other passengers laughed!"
The above, related by 19-year-old woman from Aichi Prefecture, describes her reaction to an incident she experienced while visiting the United States.
When the "be between" supplement in the Asahi Shimbun (April 1) conducted a survey of 3,098 Japanese via the Internet, it confirmed that the custom of "Eepuriru fuuru" (April fool) has few followers in Japan. Precisely half the respondents voiced no opinion, neither liking nor disliking the notion of playing pranks on April Fool's Day. Of the remaining half, 30% said they were against the practice, as opposed to just 20% who voted in its favor.
The top reason given for their dislike to the practice, stated by 423 subjects, was to the effect that they "didn't know what sort of scope of gags would be permissible." This was followed by "this kind of thing is difficult to understand in Japan" (378 responses); "I'd worry whether the joke will be understood" (251); "telling fibs goes against the grain of one's conscience" (174); and finally "no time for such nonsense, or it's not worth the bother" (161).
Among the minority who said they were in favor of 4/1 gags, 468 said that "humor helps smooth over human relationships." Other subjects came up with such remarks as "it's fun to watch people show surprise (168 responses); "it's fun to think up pranks" (161); "it's all right to have one day when jokes are allowed" (150); and "a gag brings a little brightness to a world otherwise full of gloomy news." (102).
A full 60% of the respondents said they'd never once experienced an April Fool's gag. Among the 40% who said they had, what sort of gags, jokes or pranks had they been made the butt of, the Asahi asked? Broken down by topic, 229 respondents said they had been told they'd won a lottery; 114 received some faux news of a job change; 101 heard claims of someone having met a famous person; 50 involved marriage or divorce; 45 raised the subject of and accident or mishap. Finally 41 said they'd been on the receiving end of a declaration of love — something that's definitely no joking matter.
"I heard a BBC broadcast announce that a tree in Italy had been discovered that grew spaghetti. I guess that kind of nonsense is okay," a 37-year-old woman from Chiba concedes.
April 3, 2006
Japan Today Discussion
17 Total Messages (Click here to show all)
15 Messages Shown (Scroll down for most recent)
| Wonder if that's what he really said |  |
Beelzebub   (Apr 3 2006 - 12:55) | Rate | Report |
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| Poppa (Apr 3 2006 - 13:44) | Rate | Report |
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| Zaichik (Apr 3 2006 - 15:58) | Rate | Report |
Here's a round-up of this year's April Fool jokes in the British media:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4867512.stm
In addition, BMW annually places an April Fool ad in the Telegraph. I don't think this kind of thing would go down terribly well in Japan, though - Japanese people aren't used to humour in their newspapers, sadly.
| I'm so gullible | |
| Ah_so (Apr 3 2006 - 21:55) | Rate | Report |
Were all of these jokes? I feel so foolish now.
Why do the Japanese feel that they cannot appreciate a practical joke? I remember the audience in stitches at the candid camera style tricks, which they took to new levels:
The pilot of a light plance has a heart attack and dies, leaving passengers panicing (ho ho).
Another classic had the "victim" come across a traffic accident on a railway crossing, with cars, bikes and the semi-conscious strewn all over the tracks. He desparately tries to rescue them, when the bell goes "ding ding ding" and the barriers drop - to reveal the presenter dressed as a train runing down the tracks. Hahaha!
| My favourite one was... | |
| conqueror_of_Uranus (Apr 4 2006 - 12:18) | Rate | Report |
After waiting for 10 minutes or so, the victim gets impatient and exits the restroom, only to be confronted by several gangsters and threatened with a "knife". Before they "kill" him, they order him to bow down to "boss" who is just in the next room and apologize, he breaks down in tears and begs for his life as he's dragged in to the next room..... and is confronted by the show host and a big yellow tinsel sign reading, DOKKIRI DAISEIKO! (YOU FELL FOR THE PRANK BIG TIME!)
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| Li_Man (Apr 5 2006 - 00:20) | Rate | Report |
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| lena82 (Apr 6 2006 - 10:05) | Rate | Report |
like this one show they were singing a " baka japanese rap song" to will smith and he thought they were actually being serious
and another show where they dressed up as girls to see if guys would hit on them
and one where jin went on the street to talk with foreigners in engrish lol
the only joke that got played on me was on the cartoon network instead of showing inuyasha they decided they wanted to show some old early 90's chuck noris cartoon and during full metal and ghost in the shell they kept making farting noises *thud*
| Li Man, | |
| tomasinoue (Apr 6 2006 - 10:42) | Rate | Report |
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| mezzaninemk3 (Apr 6 2006 - 14:51) | Rate | Report |
Personally, I was more surprised that there was a prank in a Japanese newspaper! I'm waiting to get a scan of it.
| mezzanine | |
| Nessie (Apr 6 2006 - 16:52) | Rate | Report |
The sasara densha, which clears snow from the tram line, has been designated a "Hokkaido Heritage." I kid not.
| Nessie | |
| mezzaninemk3 (Apr 6 2006 - 20:49) | Rate | Report |
| the whole story | |
| smd (Apr 13 2006 - 17:43) | Rate | Report |
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| Piglet (Apr 17 2006 - 11:35) | Rate | Report |
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| reallyreal (Apr 18 2006 - 16:20) | Rate | Report |
is bulls**t...what kinda moron is this girl ?
No doubt. I just can't imagine any bus driver in the States saying that. Not only would he loose his job he probable would have to serve some kind of sentence.
| April 1 no joke for most Japanese | |
| Colonel_Mustard (Apr 19 2006 - 13:57) | Rate | Report |
It's how she claims the passengers reacted.
"And all of the other passengers laughed!"
I think not.
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