LAUGHING THROUGH HISTORY 21 'I’d Rather Have Two 25-Year-Old Husbands'
A young couple in the early 1900s / 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.
Today I’m translating two short jokes that both depict marriages with an age gap. Conflicts between husbands and wives are the most frequent subject for jokes in “Kkalkkal Useum.” The 1910s, when this book was published, was a period when Korean intellectuals were actively discussing questions about what marriage should be. Although in Joseon-era Korea it was common for people to marry in their early teens, the writer Yi Gwangsu in particular drew attention for condemning “early marriage” as harmful and immoral. There was also debate about whether marriage should be arranged by families or be a free choice between individuals.
The first of these two jokes shows a difference of opinion between a man and his daughter as to what she should be looking for in a husband. The humor genre makes it possible for her to express her own agency and desires, rejecting his values without facing criticism or negative consequences.
The second joke depicts a marriage between a very young groom and a girl several years older. Although social convention placed a husband in a position of authority over his wife, this puts her in the position of being bossed around by a boy who’s still basically a child. The groom’s perspective here is interesting — particularly the fact that at the end of the joke he sides with his wife, rather than exposing her to criticism from her in-laws by appealing to them as his parents.
I’d Rather Have Two 25-Year-Old Husbands
A man said to his daughter, “My child, now you have come of age and the time has come for you to be married. But young men these days are so foolish. Wouldn’t it be better to choose an appropriate gentleman with learning and worldly experience for you to marry, even if he’s 50 years old?”
His daughter said, “Instead of a 50-year-old husband, I’d rather have two 25-year-old husbands.”
Should I Pick the Big Squash? Or the Small One?
A man in the country married off his son, but the husband was still young and the wife had already come of age.
One day her parents-in-law had gone out to weed the fields, and the first chance he got, the boy said to her, “Hurry up and make me dinner.”
The wife immediately shouted, “You little brat! Now see here, do you think you can boss me around?”
Then she grabbed him by both ankles and threw him up onto the roof.
Just then, her parents-in-law came back.
Her husband quickly hunched over the squash vine on top of the roof, looked at his wife, and said, “Did you want me to pick a skinny squash? Or one of the thick ones?”
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.