is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

word that in the context of contemporary Japanese internet meme culture and its related slang is commonly used to refer to humorous homophonic reinterpretation, deliberately interpreting words as other similar-sounding words for comedy (similar to a

mondegreen A mondegreen () is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes w ...

, but done deliberately). The word is more commonly used for its original, literal meaning. The slang usage is derived from the long-running "Soramimi Hour" segment on Japanese

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience dir ...

Tamori , known by his stage name (an anagram of his surname), is a Japanese television celebrity. Known for his trademark dark sunglasses, Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan along with Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takesh ...

's TV program ''

Tamori Club , known by his stage name (an anagram of his surname), is a Japanese television celebrity. Known for his trademark dark sunglasses, Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan along with Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takesh ...

''. Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan, and is very influential. The segment, in which he and his co-host watch mini-skits based on submissions from fans, began in 1992. In modern Japanese internet culture, soramimi also includes videos with subtitles of humorously misinterpreted subtitles, or text transcripts that do the same. Unlike homophonic translation, soramimi can be contained within a single language. An example of "soramimi" humor confined to Japanese can be seen in the song Kaidoku Funō by the rock band

Jinn Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic my ...

, in which the lyrics "''tōkankaku, hito no naka de''" ("''feeling of distance, amongst people''"), which are considered hard to make out by Japanese listeners, are intentionally misinterpreted as "''gōkan da, futon no naka de''" ("''it's rape, in a futon''") for comedic reasons. Soramimi applies to dialogue as well as song lyrics. For example, in the 2004 film ''

Downfall Downfall may refer to: Books * ''The Downfall'' (novel), an 1892 book by Émile Zola * ''Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire'', a 1999 book by Richard B. Frank about the last days of World War II * ''Downfall'', a 2001 Dragonlance ...

'', when

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

says "''und betrogen worden''", it is misrepresented as "''oppai purun purun''" ("''titty boing boing''"). Soramimi humor was a staple in Japanese message board Flash animation culture from the late 90's to the mid-00s. It later became very popular on Niconico, a Japanese video-sharing website in which comments are overlaid directly onto the video, synced to specific playback times, allowing for soramimi subtitles to be easily added to any video.

References

{{Reflist

External links

A list of past soramimi featured on "Soramimi Hour" (in Japanese)
Japanese words and phrases Phonology Lyrics Homophonic translation

See also

References

External links