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I was reading an article about how the humour in the Yakuza games gets
translated into English, and in the original Japanese a pun is made.

> ふとんがふとんだ

The article says it is a play on words. But I cannot find any explanation
online but I do see a reference to it. I can understand "a table is a table"
but this isn't really a pun, it would be equivalent to "calling a spade a
spade" in English.
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2018-02-13T11:02:44.347
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2018-02-14T09:36:04.260
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question
puns
Why is ふとんがふとんだ a pun?
The actual pun is:

> 「ふとんがふ **っ** とんだ」 with a small っ.

and not:

> 「ふとんがふとんだ」 = "A futon is a futon."

which is what you wrote.

The verb prefix 「ふっ」 is explained here:

[What does the word
「ぶったてる」mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/24577/what-does-
the-word-%e3%81%b6%e3%81%a3%e3%81%9f%e3%81%a6%e3%82%8b-mean/24578#24578)

To use kanji, the phrase is:

> 「布団{ふとん}がふっ飛{と}んだ。」 = "The futon was blown off."

Thus, it is a legit pun indeed. It is the kind that small kids like to say.
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2018-02-13T11:17:00.883
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answer
A pun is a play on words exploiting homophones or similar-sounding words.

The pun in [布団]{ふとん}が[吹っ飛んだ]{ふっとんだ} _The futon was blown off_ is that it
sounds almost like 布団が布団だ _A futon is a futon_ , the latter being a complete
tautology.

There are many such popular puns, including

  * 犬がいぬ  
_A dog is a dog_ v _The dog is gone_

  * イルカはいるか  
_A dolphin is a dolphin_ v _Is there a dolphin?_

  * イクラは幾ら  
_Salmon roe is salmon roe_ v _How much is the salmon roe?_

  * コンドルは[喜んどる]{よろこんどる}
  * ラクダは楽だ
  * etc. _ad nauseam_
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2018-02-13T11:54:40.973
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answer