Soramimi

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Humorous homophonic reinterpretation of words

title: "Soramimi" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["japanese-words-and-phrases", "phonology", "lyrics", "homophonic-translation", "japanese-internet-slang"] description: "Humorous homophonic reinterpretation of words" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soramimi" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Humorous homophonic reinterpretation of words ::

is a Japanese 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, 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 Tamori's TV program Tamori Club. 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, 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, when Adolf Hitler 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 1990s to the mid-2000s. 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. One such example is the Moldovan band O-Zone's song "Dragostea Din Tei". The refrain of the original song (in Romanian) is: : Vrei să pleci dar nu mă, nu mă iei... : ("You want to leave but you don't want, don't want to take me...") A soramimi version, from the Japanese Flash animation Maiyahi, translates these words as: : 米さ！米酒だろう！飲ま飲まイェイ！ : Bei sa! Beishu darou! nomanoma-iei! : ("Rice, obviously! Rice wine, most likely! Drink drink yay!")

Notes

References

References

  1. 実際にはない音や声が聞こえたように思う/聞いているのに聞こえないふりをする https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E7%A9%BA%E8%80%B3
  2. "空耳とは".
  3. (1 January 2013). "笑わせてナンボ お笑いビッグ３の特徴とは？". [[The Asahi Shimbun]].
  4. "タモリ倶楽部｜テレビ朝日".
  5. (14 August 2008). "解読不能とは (カイドクフノウとは) [単語記事]".
  6. "解読不能".
  7. "空耳一覧/ヒトラー ～最期の12日間～ - 総統閣下シリーズまとめwiki".
  8. "総統閣下は本当は何を言っているのか : コメント御礼(767) - 社会保険労務士日記".
  9. "おっぱいぷるんぷるん".
  10. (4 March 2011). "ネットサブカルチャーの原点、Flash黄金期をニコニコ動画で振り返る".
  11. Lucas, Dean. "Numa Numa".
  12. This video can be found at http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/maiyahi. Its explanation: http://www.mimo-jp.com/japan/maiyahi.htm.
  13. "Gary Brolsma & The Numa Story". Gary Brolsma & New Numa!.

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japanese-words-and-phrasesphonologylyricshomophonic-translationjapanese-internet-slang