I don't know how I could have missed this, but its stuff like this that makes learning a language fun!!!

First of all, a classic about the mythical animal 草泥马 (操你妈) that lives in 马勒戈壁 (骂了个屄). And like every one else in China, they have problems with 河蟹 (和谐).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=01RPek5uAJ4#!

And then we have 百度十大神兽(The 10 BaiDu Mythical Creatures)!!! Where of 草泥马 is the most famous.

For some VERY intersting reading, check out wikipedia:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/神兽_(恶搞)
(copy/paste the link if it does not work).

There is an english version if your Chinese is not that good yet :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_10_Mythical_Creatures

what is funny as hell!!!!!?

I don't really get it myself, but if I had to guess then cao3ni2ma3 (grass mud horse - are those alpacas or what?) sounds a lot like cao4ni3ma1 (!$@% your mom), in which case getting kids to sing it is hilarious yet so, so wrong....

Edit:
Just read the wikipedia link and I guess I was right... Oh god. That's so bad hahahahaha

@Luke
I hate to ruin fun stuff by explaining it, but I also understand that it might be hard to get if you haven't studied Chinese that long.

The youtube song is a wordplay on various chinese cursewords, but it's done extremely well, making it sound like an actual song. It was made by some Chinese interet:ers (or however you translate 网民), that were very tired with all the online censorship restrictions, and made their point pretty clear in a great and funny way.

There are 3 things that stand out the most and those are:
1. 草泥马 which means grass mud horse (does not exist), but sounds like 操你妈 (fxck ur mom)
2. 马勒戈壁 (malei desert) is the place where the 草泥马 are supposed to live, but it sounds like 骂了个屄 (calling someone a pxssy)
3. 河蟹 means river crab, but sounds like 和谐, which means harmony or to harmonize. "Harmonizing" is what the chinese government calls to block websites and censor stuff.

There are also some combinations like 草泥马戈壁 which means "the grass mud horse desert", but sounds like 操你妈个屄,(fxck ur moms pxssy) etc.

The song is a bit deeper than this, but these are the 3 main points.

@DavidChung

Hehe, a lot of people actually believe that this is a real song made for children, and that 草泥马 actually exist. Thats how frekkin great it is!!!

Mildly amusing as hell

I know learning a language involves at least a passing knowledge of swear words etc, but I have to admit I find this thread a bit offensive. DaXie, I'm glad you find it funny, but for me it seems juvenile and tasteless.

@CC
Ya, maybe im just childish...or maybe ur too old to find it amusing :P *just kidding*

Still, the swear words used in this song are not as harsh as it may seem when you translate them to English. I wrote my bachelors thesis on 汉语与瑞典语詈骂语对比, which means "a comparison of swedish and chinese cursewords".
Take for example the in sichuan commonly used curse phrase 狗日的. If you translate this to english it sounds very harsh and offensive (fxcked by a dog), but in China its like "damnit" is in english.
Or the phrase 我顶你个肺 thats pretty commonly used in Guangdong. If you translate it to english it means "I will fxck you up your lungs", extremely harsh and offensive. But in China its not more offensive than "crap!" or "dickhead!".

A lot of a countries culture is reflected in its cursewords. English for example is heavily influenced by Christianity, so thats why you have things like "go to hell", and "damnit" etc. China however has not been influenced by religion to the same degree as western countries, and thus base most of their cursewords on other things, like family members, animals and sexuality.

I could go on forever about this, but my point is that the better your chinese get and the more time you spend in china, the less offensive you will find this song.

People are offended by anything and everything these days. Likewise people write their theses on anything and everything. It is a little interesting, unfortunately I'm not at a level yet where I can appreciate this type of Chinese humour.

Actually, the thing I'm finding offensive is the post where you have given English translations. I haven't looked at the song itself (I suspect my Mandarin isn't good enough yet and even if it was, it's really not my type of thing) but even with substituted letters, it's obvious what you are trying to say in English.

Maybe I am too old. Maybe it's cultural, and it works in your culture and not mine. It could be a gender thing (I'm female, and suspect this is a more male based humour). Or maybe I just object to what you seem to want to do to my mother!

@夏普本
Hehe, my teachers thought I was joking when I told them what I would write about. Anyways, I learned very much writing it, as curse words has so many different uses in different languages. Like the topic of this thread "funny as hell". Is hell funny? Nope, but it still works as an adverb, enhancing the meaning of the adjectve. I mean, in Swedish you can say that "I am shit hungry", meaning "I am very hungry". Kind of interesting how opposites like "shit" can enhance the meaning of "hungry" in a positive way.


@CC

Yeah, maybe it was a mistake to write the english translations, as those words in English sound way way worse than they do in Chinese. It's definitely a cultural thing. I mean, take the english curse word f*ck. It's pretty commonly used these days in english speaking countries, but if I would translate the literal meaning of the word to swedish and use it the same way, it would sound extremely rude and vulgar.

I was just joking about you being too old :D I have lived in China together with Chinese people for almost 10 years, and spent 6 years studying chinese on a university there. I mean, living in China and being constantly exposed to all different nuances of a language really takes away the rough edges of some words that might sound extremely offensive in other languages. Maybe you will find this song funny in a few years ^^ :D

Thanks for sharing, DaXia, I enjoyed it (after reading your explanation).

@DaXia, I agree that words have different uses in other languages that can be quite interesting. They also have different subtle feelings attached to them that often only native speakers truly ever feel. You can study what the feeling is supposed to be when using certain words, but you never actual feel it. I think it comes from childhood and growing up with the language.

For example, I've never heard anyone say, shit hungry. I've heard people say, shit out of luck. If I heard someone say the first one I could only guess it meant they were really hungry, but mostly because the word hungry was used. Though in most contexts of hearing that word used as an expression I wouldn't consider it appropriate. It's something more I'd use with close friends when hanging out or something like that.

Funny as hell, is again something I'd say when hanging out with friends and such, but I'd never post that expression as a post title on a public website with a wide variety of users. Words like shit, damn and hell were all considered "bad" words in younger levels of school. Most parents don't actively encourage their children to use them either.

I'm not trying to be the politeness police, as I could careless about them being used. I'm just trying to point out that many words and expressions have a certain connotation to them.

New expressions and phases are nice, but they don't fit every situation just because the dictionary says the definition is the same.

@KingWang
At least someone enjoyed it :D

@Josh
I guess I could have used some less offensive words in the topic of this thread. English is not my mother tongue, and I don't have the same feel for the language as those of you who live in an english speaking country have. I really did not mean to offend anyone.

Although, I don't think that you necessarily have to be born in a country to get the right feeling for the language. If you expose yourself to it 100% then you will start catching on to the subtleties as well.

Thats what I did when I studied in China. I took distance from all other foreigners. I lived with Chinese people, only hung out with Chinese friends, and stayed away from anyone who wanted to speak any language but Chinese with me.

When I started to learn the language I did stuff like taking the bus to some random place in the city, then trying to walk home again only by asking for directions etc. I believe that if you really put your heart into doing something, then almost anything is possible.

I think a lot of people on this thread forget what it's like to be teenager. At every junior high school I have gone to I have had multiple boys say "Fuck you!" right to my face. Talking about their penises is also common. It's not polite but it's reality. Different people use language in different ways. I don't see what all the fuss is over.

@Icecream
Thats kind of the impression i've gotten too, although I have never been to a school in an english speaking country so I would not know for sure. I do know, however, that swedish and chinese teenagers use equivalents to "fuck you" in swedish and chinese pretty excessively.

BTW, if anyone liked the first 草泥马 video, you have to check out the Hitler version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfjRUEpo2wY&feature=share

There are some new cursing terms in this one, that are pretty difficult since it's not usual curse words, but pretty new ones, some that even most Chinese people would not understand.

Don't know if I dare translate them though, but I will if anyone wants me to.

To be honest I've had enough of the swearing, and the 'hilarious' videos.

Online communities are sometimes plagued by enthusiastic and vocal but annoying members who spam the forum with (often offensive) garbage, while not actually participating at all in the activity that the forum is set up to discuss.

DaXia has Skrittered for a total of 2.1 hours in the last 2.5 years, and has made 222 posts on the board.

Just saying.

Anon, what business is it of yours how much time someone spent Skrittering in any given time frame? Oh by the way, don't forget to log in before you reply.

I for one added a few new words to my Skritter; Chinese internet culture is still something quite obscure to me, so I'm glad to learn a thing or two about it, and I liked and shared the videos, too. Thanks, DaXia! :)

@DaXia

I teach in Japan! Japanese boys say that to me in English.

@Anon

DaXia has written many profound posts. That's what counts on a forum.

I support Daxia.
There is freedom of speech, and anybody can choose not to go into subjects they don't like. Cursing is a part of life and obviously most Chinese teachers are not going to talk about it so i am glad somebody else does.

@Anon, don't take the Skritter stats to heart as many people accumulate hundreds of hours and characters, then they nuke their accounts. I believe DaXia has done that.

@Anon Yeah, I think you'll find DaXia's pre-nuke stats blow just about everyone else's out of the water.

@Anon
I admit that I have been a bit of a firebrand on these boards. I believe that skritter is a great service, but it was not a good fit for me and thats why im no longer a "subscribed member".
The reason why my stats are so low, is because I nuked my account a long time ago, not that it matters.
I enjoyed the videos I posted, and wanted to share them with the community.

@Everyone else
Thanks for the support guys!!!

I do think there is a gender thing going on here. Teenage boys behave in a certain way, but teenage girls behave in another, and I think that's a world wide thing. I'm female, and that may partly expain why I don't find swearing or juvenile jokes funny, but after saying that, I know some women who do, and I know some men who don't.

Interestingly, I can see this thread at work because my PC filter blocks it due to 'suspicious content', which I think is related to some of the words in it.

It's provoked discussion, and that's good, but the content is not for me personally, and I don't appreciate some of the langauge in this thread (as I said above). It was interesting that when responding to me about my objection, DaXia used more swear words to do so....

I think most people here(perhaps including the original poster) are missing the point of the song. It is not meant to be juvenile humour. It is a popular and effective form of protest against censorship in China. The technology the Government uses to censor websites searches for particular words that it doesn't want people talking about. By coming up with words that sound like the banned word but use different characters, Chinese Internet users can get past the censors but still get their meaning across to readers. The song is an extension of that phenomenon. It is hugely popular in China and part of an important social/cultural movement, so I'm glad that DaXia pointed it out here for those students of Chinese who were not aware of it.

@Junglegirl
Yes, this is true. I tried to convey that in the first post, that "like everyone else in China, they got problems with 河蟹", but at the same time I did not want to be too straight forward about it. It's so much more fun to figure out these things by yourself, and I did not want to spoil it and rob people of that chance.
Instead, people got hung up on the curse words, and I guess thats partly my fault since I did put some emphasis on them by translating them. Oh well, at least some people got something good out of it.