Humor often translates inadequately into other languages, and can even fail to connect when crossing borders into countries that share the same lexicon.
Understanding humor when learning a language, or when one is unfamiliar with a foreign culture, can be fraught with complications. Greenhorn language students are rarely able to decipher jokes that rely on wordplay, cultural references, irony or slang.
So went my first few experiences with “Chespirito,” the beloved Mexican comedian Roberto Gomez Bolanos, who died last week at the age of 85.
Making matters more embarrassing was the fact that his hugely popular television sitcom “El Chavo del Ocho” was my young son’s favorite (the episodes were made between 1971 and 1980 but constantly rerun). His giggles and belly laughs contrasted with my frosty demeanor as we followed the trials and tribulations of El Chavo (Gomez), a simplistic orphan child living in a low-income housing complex (vecindad), and the cast of quirky characters.
The physical and slapstick humor was easy to grasp – adults playing the roles of children, crying, getting slapped around, falling on banana skins, etcetera. But the many double entendres and persistent comedy based on misunderstandings (plus the running gags), took longer to get my head around.
My perseverance – perhaps aided by my son’s insistence never to miss an episode – eventually won through, and I came to appreciate the zany characters as fully as my Mexican family. And even I would chuckle when someone mimicked one of El Chavo’s famous catchphrases, such as, “fue sin querer queriendo” or “bueno pero no se enoje.”
Perhaps my growing affection for Chespirito – whose characters also include El Chapulin Colorado, the inspiration behind The Simpsons’ Bumblebee Man – was because his comedy actually had universal appeal. As obituaries noted last week, Gomez Bolanos’ work was exported to 90 countries and translated into dozens of languages. His shows still air today all over Latin America.
The elongated television news reports and homages, as well as lengthy articles in newspapers last week, confirm the public’s admiration and affection for Chespirito. And he truly did transcend generations. Although his shows were first broadcast more than four decades ago, when he joined Twitter in 2011, he clocked up an astonishing 6.5 million followers.