The Multilingual Puns Game

[Saaropean]

THE RULES:
Tell a play-of-words joke in a language other than English. Explain it between spoiler tags (like this). See how many of the language's learners get the joke...


Here's one in [flag]de[/flag] German:

Gibt es einen Unterschied zwischen Theorie und Praxis?
Ja, in der Tat.

Translation: "Is there a difference between theory and practice? Yes, indeed.
Literal translation: "Is there a difference between theory and practice? Yes, [it's] in the action.


I was looking for [flag]lb[/flag] Luxembourgish puns, but all I could find was this Facebook group with stupid jokes like the following:

Ech caneloni mei bei den Italiener iesse goën.

Ech kann elo ni mei bei den Italiener iesse goën. = I can never go dine at the Italian place again.
"kann elo ni" ("can there never") is pronounced almost like "caneloni," a type of Italian pasta.

[Bernard]

[flag]de [/flag] "Wo sind die Toiletten?" - "Am Ende des Ganges."

("Where are the restrooms?" - "At the end of the passage / at the end of the river Ganges").

des Ganges: German genitive of Gang (= passage).

[Reinder]

[flag]nl[/flag] Van klok kijken, wordt onze kleine wijzer.
Literally: From telling the time our little (kid, child) becomes smarter.

You can say "onze kleine" in Dutch instead of "our son/daughter", so the son or daughter is becoming smarter because she or he is telling the time.
The pun is, that "kleine wijzer" means "hour-hand".
So when you read it, it's like: From telling the time, becomes our hour-hand, that's weird, because it sounds like an unfinished sentence, what did the hour-hand become?

[Muisje]

[flag]nl[/flag] Van klok kijken, wordt onze kleine wijzer.
Literally: From telling the time our little (kid, child) becomes smarter.

You can say "onze kleine" in Dutch instead of "our son/daughter", so the son or daughter is becoming smarter because she or he is telling the time.
The pun is, that "kleine wijzer" means "minute-hand".
So when you read it, it's like: From telling the time, becomes our minute-hand, that's weird, because it sounds like an unfinished sentence, what did the minute-hand become?

It's the hour hand. The minute hand is the big one

[Reinder]

It's the hour hand. The minute hand is the big one

Haha, I'm so smart I thought the small one was the minute-hand, haha. Digital clocks ftw!

[Bernard]

For certain reasons…

German pun.

Scene as follows.
Police notice - no parking!
Pickup truck parked against regulation in front of shop.
Driver loading pickup and walking to and fro between truck and shop.
Attached to windscreen in order to prevent police intervention slip of paper “BIN LADEN” (i. e. “I’m loading”).

[モモンガ]

제일 음란한 한국 토지는 뭐니?

전라도.
What is the most perverted Korean province?
Cheolla
전라 means completely naked in Korean
this one is very stupid, I think.

[linguaholic]

Ooh, I have an interlingual one, is that allowed as well?

It's from the short story "Estimata Vi!" by Tim Westover. Elizujo is an Esperanto city in the story, but it's set in the US.

Mi devus establi taksikompanion en Elizujo, ĉar venis al mi en la kapon perfekta nomo - Taksio "Kabe"!

"I should start a taxi company in Elizujo, because I thought of a perfect name - taxi Kabe." Kabe is a famous Esperanto author and activist. He suddenly left the movement without explanation, which lead to the coinage of the verb "kabei" (do like Kabe) for "unexpectedly stop doing something/leave", especially in the context of abandoning your responsibilities. ("We've had to vote for a new executive board, because the head kabeis.") So there's the allusion of "not working anymore" and the pun with the English word "cab".

[MillMaths]

[flag]fr[/flag]
Q: Pourquoi le hibou est-il amoureux de sa femme ?
R: Parce qu’elle est chouette !

hibou = owl with a crest
chouette (n.) = owl without a crest
chouette (adj.) = great, cool

[kamanek]

[flag]es[/flag] ¿Cual es el santo de las frutas? ¡La Sandia!
Translation: Who is the saint between the fruits?, The watermelon!
Explanation: In Spanish Saint-X is San X and watermelon is San-dia