BWAHAHAHAHA 5 'I Wanted to Smooth It Out'
A window is covered with traditional Korean paper, hanji, in central Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village, Feb. 25. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
“Bwahahahaha” is a weekly column that explores the roots of Korean humor through the joke book “Kkalkkal Useum,” originally published in 1916.
By G.S. Hand
Everyone knows that kids say the darndest things. That’s my best explanation for why — perhaps surprisingly — the jokes in “Kkalkkal Useum” that depict grandfathers and grandsons are quite different from the ones that depict fathers and sons. The jokes portraying father-son relationships often involve unintentional insults.
In "Three Brothers Talking Crap" (BWAHAHAHAHA 3), for example, I translated a joke in which three sons accidentally insult their father through a series of foolish verbal blunders. My sense is that the accidental nature of these insults is a necessary part of the joke, because showing respect to one’s parents is an important part of traditional Korean values.
If these characters openly disrespected their father, that might be offensive enough to make them unsympathetic. And when an audience sees something as an actual breach of important moral standards they stop feeling comfortable laughing along. Children, however, aren’t held to the same moral standards as adults. Researchers including Kim Hye-gyeong have described the modern concept of “childhood” as developing in Korea in the early 20th century, in conjunction with modern education and including their role as future citizens.
Our next joke gestures toward an earlier understanding of the child. The attitude toward the grandson shown here is indulgent, and his key characteristics are depicted as the urge to ask questions and to imitate grown-ups.
For context, note that traditional Korean houses did not have glass windows. Instead, windows were covered with hanji paper thin enough to let light in. This paper didn’t last forever, and by replacing it the old man in the joke is doing a task of regular home maintenance.
“I Wanted to Smooth It Out”
A man was putting fresh paper on his windows, and he poured water on the paper. His grandson watched this quietly before asking, "Why do you pour water on the paper?"
The old man: "This is how to smooth it out."
A few days later the old man was taking a nap when his grandson poured water on his face. The old man was shocked. He said, "Child, did you just pour water on an elder’s face? How can you play such an outrageous prank?"
The boy replied, "It wasn’t a prank. Your face is wrinkled, so I poured water on it because I wanted to smooth it out."
The old man was so flabbergasted that he could only smile.
G.S. Hand is a graduate of the Translation Academy at LTI Korea and winner of the Fiction Grand Prize of the 53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, and has a master’s degree in Modern Korean Literature from Korea University. He lives in Seoul.