What are Japanese Memes like? 

"Japanese Twitter user Jesus Christ" lmfao

It would be great to have a monthly Japan meme catch up video. Something like "These are the memes that Japan has cooked up in the last month." Then explain the context/language behind them. That would be fun.

I made this video into a series, and the other videos are significantly better than this one! Check out the playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLj3CqetXqSu8x61poDA7m6aEO_9wdVDIo

I've been studying Japanese for a while, not enough the converse but enough to know that the first damn story was about the lady in the lake offering a golden axe to a lumberjack and started loosing it before you even explained the whole damn meme.

The context of the meme with Biscuit Oliva is that besides the character there’s a sign saying おりば専用 (which pretty much means exit only) but the pronunciation of おりば in Japanese is identical to the pronunciation of Oliva (オリバ), thus could be interpreted as “Oliva only”.

The Zenfone one is less of a meme and more of a reference to the "Honest Woodcutter" Tale by Aesop, which is very well known and often referenced in Japanese media (for example Nichijou episode 2). In the tale, a woodcutter loses his axe in a river. Hermes comes to him with a golden axe, asking him if that's the one he lost, the woodcutter says no. Hermes does the same with a silver axe and the woodcutter responds the same. So Hermes, admiring the man's honesty, decides to give him his axe and the other two as well.

I've never imagined my university would appear in a video like this. I'm a student of Tokyo University of Science (a.k.a. tus) and study physics there. Lemme talk about more detail for self satisfaction. Not a few students go to university to remain students. In japanese society, it's rare to get a long-term(more thaan one year) free time after getting a job. So they want to remain students to keep enjoying youth. The Kindai ad says it's a good university for such people. In contrast, tus is famous for its busyness due to the hard education and research. some says tus is five-year period university (many universities are four-year but many students repeat a year in tus). So the tus ad says it want only students who seriously want to study. These are why the comparison picture of the two universities went viral, I guess.If you're readig this , thanks for reading my bad English ;)

I love how this age's JP memes are just a language barrier away.

The meme at 1:12 needs additional context. Aside from the Pokemon reference, these three (from left to right: Hori Miona, former member of Nogizaka46, a comedian whom I've forgot her name, and Kimura from the comedic duo Bananaman) are often associated with one another because they work together in variety shows. e.g Kimura is one of the host alongside his partner Shitara of Nogizaka's own variety show Nogizaka Under Construction. The female comedian often works with the Sakamichi franchise which includes Nogizaka46 in talk shows and other variety shows that include Nogizaka or the other "Zaka" groups of Sakamichi.

I asked my Japanese girlfriend the other day if they had memes in Japan and she said it was just an English speaking thing. This video has devestated me, I'm dating a normie lads.

This is actually really interesting to see the difference and similarities between international meme culture and Japanese meme culture

My wife's from Japan, things are relatively smooth sailing in our relationship and while I do speak Japanese fluently, humor and memes haven't carried over. It's definitely a cultural gap thing, when you grow up with Western memes of surreal humor, self deprecation, existential dread etc., kinda hard to find vanilla humor funny. My wife doesn't get any of our memes either and that's perfectly fine.

as someone from eastern europe, seeing Stalin and Kruschev on Pokemon styled DS boxes made me pause the video and laugh for a good minute

Fun fact: Kumamon is not copyrighted. It’s one of the reasons the character is so popular! So no, that restroom sign wasn’t breaking any rules:) Also the jacked dude one, as you said the characters name is “Oliver”, pronounced “Oriba” in Japanese. There is a sign that says “おりば専用” (Exclusively for getting off ((the bus)), “exclusively for Oliver”! Lol

I just wondering "Do Japanese know Dank Memes?" so I searched and I glad I found and click this video. I learned something new. One day you will have many viewers.

It was interesting. The off script section seemed to fit the tone of the earlier material, although the added emotion was nice, the earlier delivery isn't too dry either. I would watch another one in a series.

You've got a great youtube voice, I'm sure you know what I mean by that, and you have great content man. Going off script like that is difficult, and I'd say your speaking in general was more natural off-script, so I preferred it that way. Just a great video I feel with your style of content you could easily blow up with consistency, it doesn't feel like amateurish writing or editing it feels like I'm watching a video from an established youtuber with hundreds of thousands of subs. If you wanna keep doing youtube you should because you evidently have what it takes

I really liked this! It's really helpful for trying to better understand the current way people in Japan are looking at things.

Wow this video was really really good! I especially thought the last one with the colleges was quite interesting but everything here was fascinating. Great job!

Okay, I am both proud and ashamed to say that I knew, thanks to NekoPara anime, the smartphone meme/story was based on a Japanese folktale about a woodcutter who drop his axe in a lake and a spirit tested his honesty with gold and silver axes, which he got after being honest.

this video was amazing and your explanations were great. i'd watch hundreds of these

I approve of this. Definitely laughed out loud on the pokemon evolution and the step forward meme. Good job.

please do more japanese memes/twitter analysis!! i’ve always been so curious as to what japanese memes are like, these were hilarious. and your offscript at the end? *chefs kiss* perfect it felt so natural and enjoyable

this, i loved this concept, this is original content i would have never imagined and it absolutely charmed me. really shows you that those people really do exist and are as human as you but you just dont realize. Please make more

2:59 Mad lad did the Sasuke neck twist in real life.

This was very good. I'd never be able to understand this much of Japanese memes without a helpful person like you!

Please continue making these videos. After a long day, watching these videos are funny and interesting.

The meme reviews are funny and insightful. Keep it up!

This was fun to watch! It’s cool to see memes I wouldn’t have otherwise understood without a translation.

i love it. youre exposing me to culture a side that only a japanese person can understand. you can never learn this in news or interviews. thank you, do more of this?

This is a great idea, please keep making more! The evolution one and its replies got me good xD

I've watched 2 of your videos so far...both great. Don't change anything...you do you.

Dude that was a really cool video and I think a couple more of these will lead you to fame

I think these instructional / informational videos will take off. I started watching one channel at the start of covid of someone using Japanese ferries, silent with captions. Now there are tons of channels, all getting high views. So many aspects of Japanese life and culture are being viewed, it's great to get a Coles Notes on some stuff we see. 39! (I got that from your other video). Otsukare

I love these, I've been almost binge watching your Funny Japan Memes videos.

I love this! Would love to see more meme reviews.

4:33 kinky university

2:36 The sign next to Oliver says "For Oriba Use Only" where Oriba means 'a drop-off point' in Japanese.

this was absolutely great. got it recommended randomly and was so pleasantly surprised!

I just love having an insight on other cultures and having all sort of contexts explained thoroughly so keep it up, you do it great

enjoyed this thank you!

I want to go to Kinky University. They should have kept Kinky University.

these are very helpful and amusing to watch! would love to see more

i love the review, and i learn quite a bit of japanese culture from your show. plz keep it up.

I've been in Japan for 8 years and I feel really detached from what I know about Japanese memes. There are so many more out there and I think you should definitely explore!

The drum meme is the drummer exaggerating the lifting of his arms,while his shoulder muscles were already tensed up. So it resulted in his upper torso tilting as a way to achieve the arm height needed. Sometimes drummers do it to add flair, other times it's because their muscles tensed up too much. Technically not very efficient but when showmanship is part of your job description...

yep I liked and subbed right here so keep these up.

this was such an interesting and educational vid, I hope you'll make more :)

Good video! I like hearing about this since you explain the context so well for these memes and background info on them. If you do make more I’ll be looking forward to it!

I really like how you explain the linguistic lore, as someone who is also studying japanese, this content is great.

Lol great video. Liked, subscribed and commented

this was actually very funny, the first one was so wholesome. Your knowledge is really impressive too!!

That first meme Is a reference to a Japanese story where somone loses an object in a lake and the lake spirit appears to them. The lake spirit offeres the person an object that is better than the object that was lost. The person is honest with the spirit about the item that was lost and the spirit rewards their honesty with the better item.

was very informative, thank you. would love to see more

Ive never seen a Video of yours but I liked this one. Please feel free to make another one 👍

Would love more of these--super interested in memes in other countries

That last minute without a script was great! I honestly didn't even notice. Both the scripted and the unscripted speech sounded natural to me. Great work!

This was pretty good, I'd love a series of this type!

Definitely an interesting video. I would enjoy more of these on a regular basis.

I love the first one so much. The old myth/fable but it is actually happening FOR REAL xD that they were both aware and aboard on it is so perfect.

i do find some funny Japanese tweets from time to time and my most favourite one was a group of Japanese guys mimicking the poses of statues of a historical tourism location in another country. They almost made a human tower, i laughed so hard seeing those pictures

Hi, thanks for the video, I found it very entertaining. Please do not refrain from making videos similar to this in the future, as I would enjoy seeing more of this type of content.

Love this. Please make more.

Maybe give a rating for every meme like 4 sushi emojis out of tengu mask emoji. Off script segment felt the same as on script tbh so that's good.

The first meme of the broken phone and all resembles and most likely a call back to the story of a wood cutter losing his axe by dropping it in a river, the river spirit asks him whether the golden axe is his but he replies honestly that it isn't. Thus, he gets both his axe and the gold axe due to his honesty

Bro what a amazing find out your channel was, just love it! I'd like to see more of Japanese memes stuff.

I would love more japan meme reviews. Great video.

1:24 That girl on the left is Hori Miona, once part of the idol group called "Nogizaka46" and the guy on right is Himura Yuki, a part of a 2-person comedy group called BANANAMAN who are also the hosts for Nogizaka46's variety show.

Why is asus japan such a chad

I love this, immediately subbed

i love it! just found your channel and you’ve found a new subscriber!!

i want to share a little bit of insight regarding kinki uni poster vs tokyo science uni. kansai folks in general are more expressive and outgoing than kanto/tokyo people. for example, there's this osakan police poster that depicts police officer catching a thief and screaming "let's go! show em your might!". tokyo police poster, however, couldn't evet get more serious. it depicts two police officers serving older people and it says "the tokyo that protects you". ngl if i had to choose one of them posters to decorate my room with, i'd choose the kansai one. it's waaaay more interesting and funnier

2:14 i cant fucking breathe

I loved this how you explained it all and even translated some comments it was great context thanks

I hope you have more videos like this, very funny!

“Good video”- Kaz, Japanese kid at my school

To be fair to Kinki Kids, Porno Graffiti is pretty popular lmao

This is brilliant mate, and loved the OT rant ;D

definitely got my sub, keep making them bro!

Holy shit, I've always wanted to get more insight into Japanese memes, since they're extremely incomprehensible without context/speaking Japanese. (as I'm sure western memes are to Japanese people). This video was great

Improvisation = good. Pokemon = better. Please translate every Junichi Masuda tweet every day until he dies. He stopped writing his blog in english a while ago =[ Kumamon's song is so repetitive, haha. Also if you call out companies publicly on twitter, that is a way better road to a solution. Compared to a silent Contact Us email where they can't be shamed. It was funny how Asus handled it though.

'love the vido bro keep em comming you gots a new sub

This was hilarious and informative, 10/10 thx for the video

i thought he would say "this is yooour daily dose of internet." after hello everyone💀

2:30 I lost it by this point. I want my Pokemon: Warsaw Pact Edition!

This was really interesting to watch, nice job.

this makes me want a japanese meme review series

2:23 holy fucking shit that's hilarious

おりば専用の語感好き

I love this video format

Would love to watch more of these!

No, no, please keep doing these. This was great. A lot of people forget, or don't know, the meaning of Meme-- it's a collection of tropes and axioms of an idea, or expectations, about a particular topic. Just like how looking at memes shows the insight of the average American thought and acceptance; looking into Japanese memes windows their thoughts and acceptance. You can learn a lot from the memes, so please continue. Also Biscuit meme seems to be a joke about the Chikan problem, I would guess. Biscuit is introduced into the series as a sex offender to men during a tournament. Chikans are sex offenders; Biscuit is a sex offender-- the joke is instead of women, he's after dudes.

It started with a wholesome joke, then proceeded with funny memes, do more of these😂😂

The unscripted part was pretty funny. I liked it. Keep up the excellent work. :)

Cool video! Wish to see more!

I think you should make one in the future. It helps me connect with what is going on and interact with my friends and family in Japan. I was born in Japan but I moved to America when I was 10. I can make jokes in English but when it comes to Japanese, I suck at it so much that I didn't want to come off as a boring person in Japan. In my opinion, this is educational and helpful to me. Please keep continuing doing this!

I would prefer fewer memes and more detail, the way you explained the washroom signs (for example, you could explain the fairy tale reference in the broken phone conversation). Going off-script was fine, you clearly knew what you were talking about so it felt natural.

The meme review format was enjoyable to me, the video length was good, and scriptless videos are always welcomed.

this video is great, your voice is so soothing.

Enjoyed the video a bunch, the offscript rant was pretty funny. It feels like Japanese internet culture is in some aspects a few years behind the western world's. With the exception of niche areas like 2ch, it seems to me that meme culture kinda hasn't fully formed.