Type of slapstick humour associated with Hong Kong popular culture
Mo lei tau
(
traditional Chinese
:
?厘頭
;
simplified Chinese
:
?厘?
;
Jyutping
:
mou4 lei4 tau4
;
pinyin
:
M?olitou
;
lit.
'nonsensical') is a type of
slapstick
humour associated with
Hong Kong
popular culture that developed during the late 20th century. It is a phenomenon which has grown largely from its presentation in modern film media. Its humour arises from the placement of surprising and incongruous elements, and the complex interplay of cultural subtleties. Typical constituents of this humour include nonsensical
parodies
,
juxtaposition
of contrasts, sudden surprises in spoken dialogue and action and improbable and deliberate
anachronisms
.
During an interview with
Stephen Chow
for his 2006 season of
Asian Invasion
, BBC film critic Jonathan Ross referred to the genre as "Silly Talk", a label that Chow was happy to accept.
Semantics
[
edit
]
Mo lei tau
(
Jyutping
: mou4 lei4 tau4) is a
Cantonese
term which may be loosely translated as "with no source", but is generally used to mean "makes no sense". The original phrase was
mo lei tau gau
(?厘頭尻) which literally means "cannot differentiate between head and tail". However, in Cantonese the word "
尻
" (
Jyutping
:
haau1
, commonly mispronounced as
"gau1"
), which means the end of the spine, is often mispronounced as the vulgar word "
??
" for penis. To avoid saying the word
gau
, the phrase is cut to
mou lei tau
.
[1]
Related catchphrases
[
edit
]
Another phrase in Cantonese that is used similarly is
九?搭八
(
Jyutping
:
gau2 m4 daap3 baat3
). This literally translates as "nine doesn't follow eight".
Gau m daap baat
is something that is considered completely nonsensical, but in a somewhat comical manner.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
Mo lei tau
humour is a recent phenomenon in the culture of Hong Kong.
[
citation needed
]
1970s and 1980s
[
edit
]
As a film form the earliest proponents of this form of humour can be seen to be the Hui brothers (
Michael Hui
,
Samuel Hui
and
Ricky Hui
) working in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although their comedy was never specifically labelled as
mo lei tau
.
Jackie Chan
's
Fantasy Mission Force
(1982) could conceivably be seen as another early example of the genre.
[
citation needed
]
1990s and contributions by Stephen Chow
[
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]
Immediately following the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
and the subsequent tensions, the escapist nature of
mo lei tau
led to a surge in its popularity and it has since become synonymous with the comedy of
Stephen Chow
. One of his classic
mo lei tau
movies was the 1990 hit
All for the Winner
.
[
citation needed
]
As typified by Chow's 1990s Hong Kong movies,
mo lei tau
developed into an 'anything goes' form of nonsensical humour that can and does ignore narrative conventions. It is nonsensical in the same way that
Edward Lear
's poems are, where irrelevant elements are somehow thrown together; as opposed to, say,
Lewis Carroll
's novels, where the nonsense relies on a play on logic or semantics. Generally, a
mo lei tau
scene gives one the feeling of incongruity, consisting of rapid comic banter,
non-sequiturs
,
anachronisms
,
fourth wall
references, and Cantonese
slang
and
word play
.
[
citation needed
]
Regarded as an integral part of
Hong Kong's popular culture
, it is considered by some as being unique and untranslatable. Compared to a Western comedy film,
mo lei tau
movies have greater attention on
puns
and other Cantonese word tricks.
[
citation needed
]
Characteristics
[
edit
]
A
mo lei tau
performance can be either verbal or
slapstick
.
[
citation needed
]
A verbal example is the
catchphrase
"Co5 dai1 yam2 daam6 caa4, sik6 go3 baau1"
(
坐低?啖茶,食個包
), meaning "Let's sit down, take a sip of tea, and have a
bao
(a Chinese bun)", first uttered by Stephen Chow in the TV serial
The Final Combat
(
蓋世豪俠
). The phrase becomes
mo lei tau
because it is repeated in irrelevant and inappropriate situations. It also serves as a
comedic device
because the actions suggested by "sitting, drinking and eating" are so plain and normal.
[
citation needed
]
For a
slapstick
example, consider this scene from a
mo lei tau
film: a man is battered by others but is still able to stand upright. He bravely tells his friend he can take the beating, whereupon his friend replies: "Wow! After being hit so badly, you can still talk? If that was me I'd be puking right now!" The man promptly starts vomiting. The scene is hackneyed, but can be seen even to this day in the 2005 film
Initial D
, for example.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Pang, Chi Ming (2007).
Xiao gou lan ca xie (小狗懶擦鞋): a Study of Hong Kong Profanity Culture
(in Chinese). Hong Kong Subculture Publishing. p. 29.
ISBN
978-962-992-161-3
.
External links
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]
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