2022年经济学人 单口喜剧——认真搞笑（2）

He acknowledges a debt to British comedy, too.

他还承认受到了英国喜剧的影响。

From a young age he watched shows like "Blackadder" and "French and Saunders" (while admiring Harith Iskander, the "godfather of stand-up comedy in Malaysia").

他很小的时候就在看《黑爵士》和《弗兰奇与桑德斯》这样的节目（同时还崇拜着“马来西亚单口喜剧之父”哈利夫·伊斯干达）。

Comedy was a safe haven¹ during tough years at a Chinese school, where there was a "constant threat of physical pain" from corporal punishment.

喜剧曾是一个避风港，那时他在一所中国学校里度过了难熬的几年，在那里体罚带来“身体疼痛的威胁持续存在”。

This period shaped his career in another way.

这一时期以另一种方式塑造了他的职业生涯。

"I became really introverted and quite afraid of speaking out," he says, leaning back and closing his eyes, as if recoiling² from the memory.

“我变得非常内向，非常害怕发言，”他说着，向后靠了靠，闭上了眼睛，仿佛在躲避这段记忆。

"Then finding stand-up, it was this form of communication that I thought I could do.

“然后我发现了单口喜剧，这是一种我认为我可以交流的方式。

I felt I could earn the right to speak by writing something funny."

我感到我可以通过写一些有趣的东西来赢得发言权。”

Moving back to Britain in his teens, Mr Wang took part in his first comedy night at school.

菲尔·王十几岁时搬回了英国，在学校参加了他的第一个喜剧之夜。

Most of the material was borrowed: "I didn't realise at the time you had to write your own jokes."

大部分素材都是借用别人的：“我当时没有意识到，你得自己写段子。”

He went on to Cambridge University, which had a thriving comedy scene, and became president of the Footlights, an incubator of entertainment greats including Eric Idle and Hugh Laurie.

他接着去了情景喜剧发展繁荣的剑桥大学，并成为了Footlights社团的主席，这里培养出了包括埃里克·伊德和休·劳瑞在内的娱乐界大师。

In 2010 he won the prestigious³ Chortle Student Comedy Awards.

2010年，他获得了享有盛誉的“Chortle学生喜剧奖”。

Steve Bennett, editor of Chortle, a comedy website, recalls his cool delivery, self-deprecating jokes and "intricate, detached wordplay".

喜剧网站Chortle的编辑史蒂夫·贝内特回忆到他冷静的表演风格、自嘲的段子和“复杂精妙的、超然的文字游戏”。

That accolade⁴ helped Mr Wang make comedy a full-time⁵ job.

这份荣誉帮助菲尔·王把喜剧变成了一份全职工作。

He has since appeared on assorted⁶ television and radio programmes and, alongside his stand-up gigs, performed with a sketch⁷ group called Daphne.

自那以后，他便出现在各种电视和广播节目中，除了他的单口喜剧表演之外，他还和一个叫Daphne的幽默短剧团队一起表演。

He has encountered bigots as well as fans.

他遇到过偏执狂，也遇到过粉丝。

In one painful passage in "Side splitter", he describes how a woman in the audience once loudly announced that he was unattractive because of his ethnicity.

他在“Side splitter”中描述了这么一段痛苦的经历，一位女性听众曾大声宣布，他因他的种族特点而毫无魅力。

The incident confirmed his comic vocation⁸, he says, making him even surer "that British society would benefit from an outspoken⁹ East Asian making jokes about himself from a place of authority".

他说，这个插曲证实了他的喜剧才能，使他更加确信“英国社会将受益于一个直言不讳的东亚人在一个权威的地方拿自己开玩笑”。

Mr Novellie, his collaborator¹⁰ on "BudPod", likens Mr Wang's ability to take on subjects such as race to that of American counterparts such as Dave Chapelle.

他的“BudPod”播客合作者诺维利先生认为，菲尔·王呈现种族这类犀利问题的能力可以与戴夫·夏贝尔等美国同行相媲美。

As well as their joint¹¹ interest in history, films, games and scatological mishaps¹², Mr Novellie -- who was born in South Africa and brought up on the Isle¹³ of Man -- suggests he and Mr Wang share an "outside perspective".

除了他们在历史、电影、游戏和庸俗事故方面的共同兴趣外，诺维利——出生于南非，在马恩岛长大——表示，他和菲尔·王有着共同的“外部视角”。

That means that when they discuss subjects like the Elgin Marbles, ancient Greek sculptures currently held in the British Museum, they are not constrained¹⁴ by the sense of national embarrassment¹⁵ that many of their liberal peers exude¹⁶.

这意味着，当他们讨论像埃尔金石雕——目前被收藏在大英博物馆的古希腊雕塑——这样的话题时，他们不会像他们的自由派同行那样，受限于那种国家尴尬感。

For his part, Mr Wang denies that comedy has a political duty.

就菲尔·王而言，他否认喜剧有政治责任。

He says he mostly strives to entertain, encourage listeners to take themselves less seriously and point out jarring truths -- such as, in his bit about impressions, Chinese people being considered a "very vulnerable minority" in Britain while also being linked to a "globally very powerful" country.

他说，他主要是努力娱乐听众，鼓励听众别太把自己当回事，并指出一些令人不快的事实——比如，在他关于模仿的那部分内容中，中国人在英国被认为是“非常脆弱的少数群体”，同时又属于一个“在全球范围内都非常强大”的国家。

Yet, intentionally¹⁷ or otherwise, he is a subtle champion of nuance¹⁸ and balance.

然而，有意或无意地，他都在不露声色地捍卫着细微差别与平衡。

He uses the set-ups of jokes, and the sudden switch of a punchline¹⁹, to undermine preconceptions about people and places.

他利用段子的结构以及笑点的突然切换来打破大家对一些人们和地域先入为主的观念。

Perhaps, he says, the gags would come easier if he were more polemical.

他说，或许，如果他更好辩一些，那些段子就会更容易响。

"It's much more funny to have a really strong opinion about something and scream about it, than it is to say: ‘But let's look at this from the other perspective’," he concedes.

“对某件事有非常强烈的看法并就此大声嚷嚷，比说‘但让我们从另一个角度来看这件事’要好笑得多，”他承认道。

"But I don't. I can't."

“但我没有这样做。我不能这样做。”

1 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

2 recoiling   

v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回

参考例句：

• Some of the energy intended for the photon is drained off by the recoiling atom. 原来给予光子的能量有一部分为反冲原子所消耗。 来自辞典例句
• A second method watches for another effect of the recoiling nucleus: ionization. 探测器使用的第二种方法，是观察反冲原子核的另一种效应：游离。 来自互联网

3 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

4 accolade   

n.推崇备至，赞扬

参考例句：

• Four restaurants have been awarded the highest accolade of a three-star rating.四家餐馆获授予三星级餐馆的最高荣誉称号。
• The Nobel prize has become the ultimate accolade in the sciences.诺贝尔奖已成为科学界的最高荣誉。

5 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

6 assorted   

adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的

参考例句：

• There's a bag of assorted sweets on the table.桌子上有一袋什锦糖果。
• He has always assorted with men of his age.他总是与和他年令相仿的人交往。

7 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

8 vocation   

n.职业，行业

参考例句：

• She struggled for years to find her true vocation.她多年来苦苦寻找真正适合自己的职业。
• She felt it was her vocation to minister to the sick.她觉得照料病人是她的天职。

9 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

10 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

11 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

12 mishaps   

n.轻微的事故，小的意外( mishap的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a series of mishaps 一连串的倒霉事
• In spite of one or two minor mishaps everything was going swimmingly. 尽管遇到了一两件小小的不幸，一切都进行得很顺利。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

14 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。

15 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

16 exude   

v.(使)流出，(使)渗出

参考例句：

• Some successful men exude self-confidence.有些成功的人流露出自信。
• The sun made him exude sweat.烈日晒得他汗流浃背。

17 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

18 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

19 punchline   

n.（笑话、故事等的）结尾警语，点睛之笔

参考例句：

• Even then,the magical pause can strengthen the punchline.即使这样，有魔力的停顿依然可以增强笑点。
• A good joke or a mystery novel has along wind up to the final punchline.好的笑话或神秘小说都是一路曲折，直至最后的笑料或真相。