LAUGHING THROUGH HISTORY 19 'He Tried to Get a Bow but Got Humiliated Instead'
A Korean dog watches the photographer from the safety of his straw shop in the early 20th century. Courtesy of Robert Neff Collection
Editor’s note
“Bwahahahaha” is a weekly column that explores the roots of Korean humor through the joke book “Kkalkkal Useum,” originally published in 1916.
Korean humor has a long tradition of mocking the foolishness and incompetence of the aristocratic class. Today's joke is a clever spin on this tradition. During the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty, etiquette demanded that when a commoner saw a member of the aristocratic class, or yangban, they were required to bow. The yangban in this joke is introduced as someone who “enjoys being bowed to”; in other words, someone who enjoys lording his social superiority over others.
The punchline revolves around the fact that the aristocrat is wearing a type of hat made of dog leather. Dog meat has historically been consumed in Korea, but in 2024 the National Assembly passed a law banning the production and sale of dog meat, to take effect in three years. It should be no surprise that along with dog meat, dog leather also existed as a material, used for both clothing and items like traditional musical instruments.
Korean culture has traditionally had a negative image of dogs; although views have changed, Korean words which include the syllable “gae” (dog) often have a negative meaning. The punchline of this joke revolves around the convergence of an aristocrat at the top of the social system with leather from a dog, an animal at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The protagonist of the joke flips this value system upside-down, pretending that the reason he ought to bow to the aristocrat isn’t his social status, but his closeness to dogs.
He Tried to Get a Bow but Got Humiliated Instead
An aristocrat who enjoyed being bowed to was wearing a hat made of dog leather. He rebuked one man, “Why are you not bowing when you see a yangban, your social better?”
The man turned in the direction of a dog that was laying down below in a field and started bowing to it, again and again.
The aristocrat asked what on earth he was doing, and this is how the man replied:
“I was rebuked for not bowing to someone wearing borrowed skin. But he’s wearing his own skin, so I can’t imagine what would happen if I didn’t bow to him.”
At that, the aristocrat could only turn and 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.