Korean women circa 1922 / Courtesy of Robert Neff Collection

"Bwahahahaha" is a weekly column that explores the roots of Korean humor through the joke book "Kkalkkal Useum," originally published in 1916.

This week I'm translating one of the most interesting jokes in "Kkalkkal Useum." It features three daughters, but since they have no distinguishing characteristics and face identical situations, it's essentially a way of talking about the alternatives available to a single individual. And since all three characters experience failure, it seems to imply that success is impossible to begin with. The joke can be read through a socially critical lens, as depicting societal expectations for women's behavior that were incoherent and untenable, but it's also possible to simply laugh at the absurdity of their predicament. It's appealing to believe that humor makes people think, but does it really?

Where this translation talks about being "rejected," the Korean original has "sobak." "Sobak" was a social convention for terminating a marriage in the 1392-1910 Joseon era, which was less onerous than divorce — more like a separation. Since the joke doesn't paint these men in a flattering light, it may seem like no great loss that the marriages didn't work out. However, Kwon Soon-hyung (in a chapter in "Everyday Life in Joseon-era Korea: Economy and Society," ed. Michael D. Shin) points out the disadvantages faced by women who experienced sobak. The separated couple might continue living in the same household without normal marital relations (perhaps with the husband pursuing a relationship with a concubine instead), or the rejected wife might be forced out of the home.

In any case, remarriage would not have been an option, and since women were not economically independent in this period, the woman in question would have faced limited life opportunities. These three daughters certainly fear the possibility, giving the joke a dark undertone.

"All Three Daughters Were Rejected"

A man had three daughters, who he raised and married off in turn.

On the eldest daughter's wedding night, she couldn't overcome her embarrassment and refused to take her clothes off, so her husband rejected her.

As the second daughter's wedding night approached, she thought, "My sister was rejected because she wouldn't take her clothes off." With that in mind, she stripped naked before even entering the wedding chamber, and leapt inside carrying her clothes on her shoulder.

Her groom said, "This is indecent," and rejected her.

As the youngest daughter's wedding night approached, she thought long and hard. "If I take my clothes off I'll be rejected, and if I don't take them off I'll be rejected too."

So she asked her groom for his opinion. "Sweetie! Should I take my clothes off or not?"

When her husband heard that, he said she was bizarre, so he rejected her.

G.S. Hand is a graduate of the Translation Academy at LTI Korea and winner of the Fiction Grand Prize of the 53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, and has a master's degree in Modern Korean Literature from Korea University. He lives in Seoul.