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Would

私を見て突っ込む所はないか

translate to something like "Would you come take a closer look at me?"

I've done a lot of context searching for 突っ込む所 but I can't quite pin down a solid meaning on it.

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    if the speaker has some ridiculous appearance then 突っ込む probably refers to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_owarai_terms
    – HAL
    Jul 19, 2014 at 1:36
  • That doesn't help much, I'm afraid. I've seen it used to describe a plane hitting the WTC, so I figured it may primarily mean to literally thrust in to someplace. But does it have a rough meaning of "butt in"? Oh, and the context is that the speaker (who now looks different) hasn't seen the other person in a few years.
    – Storm Echo
    Jul 19, 2014 at 1:44

1 Answer 1

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Forget about the 9-11 reference; That is just the literal meaning of the word.

Here, we are talking Japanese comedy slangs. If you have not seen any Japanese two-person stand-up comedy, you probably should before reading this answer as it is readily available on YouTube. You will understand the term much better that way than getting an explanation.

[突]{つ}っ[込]{こ}む vs. ボケる (verbs)

ツッコミ vs. ボケ (Nouns)

I recommend that J-learners learn these words in pairs. Knowing only one of them will not help you much in the real Japanese-speaking world, trust me.

If you are the ボケ, you will just keep on telling jokes in an uninhibited manner trying to make people laugh. You can be illogical, rude, ignorant --- anything. People do not expect sanity or normalcy from you in the first place.

The ツッコミ must do the opposite. He keeps correcting and pointing out the irrationalities presented by the ボケ.

「私を見て突っ込む所はないか?」 means:

"Dontcha have anything funny to say about my face?", "Can't ya think of anything funny to say about my face?", etc. One could tell that the speaker is usually the ボケ type. ボケ types always "require" reactions from the ツッコミ.

Point is, you do not have to be a comedian for others to expect you to talk like one in present-day Japan. Among the young and not so young generations, this boke-tsukkomi-style of talking rules. It is like everyone knows which type s/he is and they usually stick to it.

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  • I already knew about the literal meaning, but now that you've explained what the whole sentence means I can now make the connection between that and the whole comedy role thing. Thanks!
    – Storm Echo
    Jul 20, 2014 at 4:45
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    A decent English gloss for the term ツッコミ would be "straight man". Jul 20, 2014 at 7:09

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