Adolescent humor

[Aquatarkus]

Hello everyone!

I visited Shanghai recently, and when I was strolling down a flea market there I came across one stand that sold some plates (or tables, or signs) with funny inscriptions in Chinese. The stand was crowded with a lot of young people.

I tried to use my dictionary to make sense out of these plates, but I could hardly understand one or two in the dozens of signs. So I took a picture of them, and then I typed the characters in my notepad. Now, I'd like to ask if there's someone here who can clarify the meaning of theses inscriptions?

I suspect the humor can be hidden in omophonic characters, but I cannot catch it. If you see the sense in the following phrases, please explain!

骚扰我吧

不要迷恋哥， 哥只是个传说

知识奴录

全民漂移

此地无银

非成勿扰

警告：色狼出没

(the last one I think means "Caution! Sexual maniac inside" or something like that)

Thank you!

[anonymoose]

I don't think there is any hidden humour as such. They are just the kind of cheap humour used to sell otherwise useless items, like fake dog poo for example.

[Aquatarkus]

Well, maybe it is so. Nevertheless, I'm curious to know what they can mean. I realize they aren't completely meaningless, but I absolutely don't have a clue...

[abcdefg]

Are you sure you transcribed them right?

I can imagine the last one being a sign some collge boys might hang outside their dorm room in jest. The rest of them don't strike me as funny, so I must be missing the humor too.

[jbradfor]

Maybe post the pictures? It might make some good signese postings.

[Aquatarkus]

Yes, there they are.

I really made a little mistake. Instead of 非成勿扰 it should read 非城勿扰.

[jbradfor]

骚扰我吧 -- "disturb me" -- as opposed do "do not disturb me"?

非城勿扰 -- "it's not a city without some noise/craziness"?

不要迷恋哥， 哥只是个传说 -- "don't be a fan of [your] brother, brother is only a myth"? [No, I don't think this is right either....]

全民漂移 -- "this country is at drift / not going in the right direction / lost"? [Don't like this one either]

此地无银 -- "we're broke!"

[daofeishi]

非城勿扰

It actually says "非诚勿扰" which is often used in personals and means something like "serious inquiries only". There is a very popular speed-dating-show on 江苏卫视 by that name.

知识奴录

This one is also transcribed wrongly. The last two characters are 奴隶

[imron]

Actually, there are two plates shown here, one saying 非城无扰 and one saying 非诚无扰. Not sure if it's intentional or just a typo. 非城无扰 doesn't strike me as being particularly witty or funny.

[gato]

The joke might be "Don't bother me if you are from the countryside", an anti-rural joke.

[daofeishi]

Actually, there are two plates shown here, one saying 非城无扰 and one saying 非诚无扰.

Oh yeah, you're right. I didn't see that. I'm not well versed in classical Chinese grammar, but does 非城勿扰 even make sense? Doesn't 勿 correspond to 不要/别?

[samueletoo]

“此地无银”is a idiom,which comes from a stroy says that there was a stupid man who buried a pot of silver, to avoid these silver being stolen, he put a board next to it with the word "此地无银" on it, just to tell other people there is no money buried here.

此- this

地- place

无- no

银- silver

[xiaocai]

非城无扰: Could it mean that “没有(北京、上海、广州)城市户口就不要来勾搭我”？

[roddy]

Let's see what we've got here . . .

骚扰我吧 is more 'Harrass me, molest me' than disturb (which would be 打扰). Sexual harassment, for example, is 性骚扰。

不要迷恋哥， 哥只是个传说 is an Internet meme which lead to a wave of photoshopping, as far as I can figure out.

知识奴隶 (you have a typo in your first post) I've never seen before, and this is the only thing that made sense:

今后的语文教学势必要定位在使学生摆脱把知识本身视作目的的这种“知识奴隶”的厄运而回归生命

So it's maybe not so much knowledge, but rote learning of it? A cry from the tortured heart of the oppressed middle schooler?

全民漂移 - don't know. It seems to pop up in an online-gaming context, but I'm not delving into it.

此地无银 has been explained above.

色狼出没 (没 is mò here, btw) - comes and goes, haunts. 'Watch out, pervert about' if you like.

非诚/城勿扰, don't know. There's the 葛优/舒淇 movie and the dating show mentioned above. Not sure how either are meant to be taken here.

[Aquatarkus]

Thank you all for the explanations!

It would be nearly impossible for me to see the point in these signs by myself

[Aquatarkus]

Having looked through my photographs recently, I have found some more mysterious phrases on such plates:

靠谱 - 小青年

车匪路霸

别滴滴 - 越滴越慢

珍惜生命 - 远离美女

Does anybody have any idea as to what could they mean? I'd be very grateful

[xiaocai]

靠谱 - 小青年: 靠谱(don't know how to translate) lad.

车匪路霸: Road gangsters?

别滴滴 - 越滴越慢: Don't honk, the more you honk the slower it gets.

珍惜生命 - 远离美女: Cherish your life and stay away from beautiful women.

[ma3zi1]

靠谱 could be translated as "reliable" or "reasonable", the opposite of 靠谱 is 离谱 meaning "irresponsible/unreliable" or "unreasonable"

I think maybe you would typically think of a 小青年 ("youngster") as 离谱, so maybe that's the joke...?

[roddy]

The ABC has 车匪路霸 as highwayman, but I wonder if it's not meant more as 'road hog'?

珍惜生命 - 远离... I think this was originally an anti-drugs slogan (远离毒品) but is a bit of an adaptable meme now.

[xiaocai]

Alright, I'd say that highwayman is the closest translation of 车匪路霸 then. Learn something new everyday.

靠谱小青年 sounds alright to me. I think it is more like a label than a joke?