Furiously Happy continues to find an audience in China and that means that I get tagged in a lot of weird things that possible don’t translate well. Mostly they’re reviews but when I use google translate it’s wonderfully entertaining:
Makes you wish she was your super super good friend. – Entertainment Weekly
She will let you spray coke out of her nose. – Parade
Jenny’s story will make you laugh, but in fact you know that you shouldn’t laugh so arbitrarily, otherwise you may laugh all the way to hell, so perhaps you shouldn’t read this book. You have to think about your personal safety. It would be wise. – Neil Gaiman, author of The American Gods
I can’t express how deeply Jenny poked me. – American Reader’s Review
Her sunny vernacular became a chicken butt soup….Fun angle. Interesting soul. ~ Amazon top review
I want all of these blurbs on my next book.
How deeply did you poke that reader Jenny?
Those are some weird comments.
It’s good to have the deeper penetration into China though. Well done.
Chicken Butt Soup is the name of my Talking Head cover band. 🙂
I love that Neil is worried about our personal safety. That means we’re BFFs, right?
Wait- we can spray coke out of your nose? Game changer.
I’ve always wanted a friend who would let me spray coke out of her nose!
I… don’t actually want chicken butt soup. 😳
Mmmmmm…. Chicken butt soup… You’re like a funny Ina Garten.
I hope they meant Coca-Cola.
So, these are translations of translations. Those always come out weird.
Dude,you’ve GOT to read the translations of my (only) viral post. So hilarious. AND THERE’S AN ACTUAL BABY BUNNY DRIVING A VAN. No joke.
https://wedontchewglass.com/2016/01/18/lost-in-translation/
I’m having a flare day because like a moron, I forgot to take my stupid meds this morning. My body has been in revolt most of the day. This made me smile. Thank you.
Chicken Butt Soup would be an awesome name for a metal band.
Love!
Am I one of the last people to know that we are allowed to spray Coke out of your nose?!
How does one get a chicken to sit on a boiling pot of water?
So do they mean coke the soda or coke the illegal substance?!
Either way I imagine it’s not comfortable. But at least you’re giving.
You little poker you…and really you can spray coke out of your nose…I want to see that…
Having had “chicken hit with brick” and “terrorized beef” in Beijing – both absolutely delicious – I say give the chicken butt soup a try if you get a chance. Will you get to go and tour?
“Chicken Butt Soup for the Soul”
Now there’s an untapped market.
OMG, laughing as always!!! You are the one.
I’m laughing all the way to hell. I know it isn’t wise.
Wait – you’re NOT my super super good friend? I’m heartbroken.
OMG does this mean you are writing your next book?!
I wish I had just 1 of you in my daily life. Where are you?!
Watching mysteries at the museum-crime fighters. There is a woman who made “nutshells” dollhouses to recreate crime scenes to help teach forensic science. Her name is Frances Glesner Lee. Look it up. It reminds me of your dollhouses
I think the first quote about the super super good friend is pretty accurate. I wish you were my super super good friend!
I thought it said spray CAKE out of your nose, which would be quite an accomplishment, really. But more uncomfortable. I don’t know, I’ve never actually sprayed anything out of my nose because some self-protective reflex makes me swallow my food/drink first.
It is so generous of you to allow me to spray coke out of your nose. That is the definition of a good friend.
I had to re-read the Neil Gaiman quote a few times because “You’ll laugh yourself all the way to hell,” kind of sounds like something he might write. And also something you would be happy to be party to.
I don’t mind laughing all the way to hell — especially if chicken butt soup is waiting for me. 😉
I feel cheated. You didn’t poke me deeply and you do didn’t let me spray coke out of your nose.
Wow, and to think I knew you when you only have a few thousand Twitter followers. Now you are, quite literally, a world renowned author. That is so, so cool. 🙂
I just sprayed chicken butt soup out of my nose for you Jenny. You’re welcome.
Your sunny vernacular turned into chicken butt soup! What wizardry is this???
You must really love us to let us spray Coke out your nose. That sounds like at least a third or fourth date kind of intimacy.
Way to bury the lede that your book was reviewed by Neil Gaiman! So cool!
I SWEAR I read that you would spray CAKE out your nose. Coke makes so much more sense, but I’d love to see cake come out of someone’s nose. I think.
Lucky Chinese speakers! I read both your books in English, but I would adore the possibility to read any one of them in Russian if they have been translated. Do you know if it’s been done?
So those beer can chicken cooker contraptions could totally be used with Coke cans, but they have to be right-side-up, I think, so not sure how they’d affect the soup. You’ll work it out. The two flavors deserve each other, and you might even get egg drop-Coke-butt-mix soup as a bonus. Live chickens like butt-Jacuzzis, right?
I’m sure the Entertainment Weekly quote was translated well. I thought from your first book that I wished you were my super super good friend. I operate on the assumption that you are and you just don’t know it yet.
Chicken butt soup? Umm ,I think I will skip that one,but I love you let us spray coke out of your nose! Thank you for helping laugh through my tears ,literally.
You just know some US publisher with a sense of humor is just dying to do a limited addition run right now with these quotes just oddly enough appearing, lol. You never cease to make me smile Jenny🙂
ahh man, i read “spray CAKE out of her nose”
after looking through the comments i was like “they all missed it, CAKE not COKE.. so much better with cake.” then i went back to the top.. dang. coke. all my visions of vanilla frosting, chocolate ganache, and pastel buttercreme for naught.
Guess what? CHICKEN BUTT SOUP!
My favorite blurb? “you may laugh all the way to hell, so perhaps you shouldn’t read this book.” Neil Gaiman
Too funny. If I saw that on a book, i would immediately want to read it.
OK, I have never ever posted here, but just finished Furiously Happy and read your Acknowledgements….. here’s is what I came here to write (something I am sure creative people everywhere have already told you, but just in case they have not, I feel the need to point it out)…. If you wrote, “He was later dragged to death by catfish,” wouldn’t that mean, “Catfish had cruelly dressed him in heels and boa’s to his death?” Just sayin’. A good friend gave me your book and it is the most awesome thing I may have ever read. Though, if you have not seen it (and I am not the author, I swear) “The Bad Girl’s Guide to the Open Road,” is pretty fucking amazing.
I wonder if there’s a direct correlation between how deeply you poke someone and how much coke gets sprayed out your nose. #deepthoughts
For Samara way up the list — yes, there are Russian translations. Time to hit a bookstore!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcGlfFth_ND/
I had to find out what the Neil Gaiman one said originally so I tracked it down and:
“The Bloggess writes stuff that actually is laugh out loud, but you know that really you shouldn’t be laughing and probably you’ll go to hell for laughing, so maybe you shouldn’t read it. That would be safer and wiser.”
So really? Not too far off. Both good.
Well we know you are laughing your way to hell!
I’m ok if I laugh myself all the way to hell your books are worth it
“You have to think about your personal safety. It would be wise.”
Yes. Yes it would be. 🙂
But, read this book anyway. Read it again!
“Laugh All the Way to Hell” – can I borrow this for the title of my future memoir?
Dear Jenny: Congratulations on the translations! I’m so glad your wisdom & humor is being shared around the world.
I’m really writing because I wanted to tell you THANK YOU. I’ve been repeat listening to your audiobooks @ work because they are keeping me sane. Saving my life, even. This is not hyperbole. I suffer from fibromyalgia, MDD, ADHD-inattentive, anxiety & panic, C-PTSD, and probably a bunch of other things that I can’t recall right now. Yes, I’m an alphabet soup hot mess. I was just dx’d with chronic fatigue syndrome, which threw me for a loop, emotionally. It’s like… what more? Effing bring it all on already!
Anyway, I apologize for the rant. Your books are comfort reads, balm for my sick & damaged self. So… thank you with all my heart & soul.
Laughing all the way to hell … That sounds a lot like living with teenagers, no?
These sound like perfect reviews to me!
And what becomes the 2nd Best Seller in China after your book? “Chicken Butt Soup….for the Interesting Soul.”
I enjoy the interesting translations. They are almost as entertaining as pictorial directions, which I suspect had some kind of Google translate involved. Also wanted to say that I totally know who the No Man Can Match The Fierce Power of the Incredibly Wrestling Cheese commenter is. Only one brain can think that way.
Jemmy should use all the sweet, sweet cash from her Chinese royalties to buy these:
https://laughingsquid.com/cute-and-creepy-dolls/
And I can’t type right. Sigh.
I am cracking up!
I remember my daughter at about age 10 thinking it was hilarious to say “Guess what?………………Chicken butt!” Thanks Jenny, I haven’t thought of that one in decades.
You know you’ve made it after “chicken butt soup”
Neil Gaiman. I would be fainting with that one, mistranslated or not. Neil Gaiman. Nope Im not jealous, no indeed…
Hey Jenny,
Got you, finally.
Why am I writing to you when everyone is asleep at midnight? Because I can’t sleep at the moment and am thinking about your book, which is very popular in china recently.I found that I really want to tell you something.
Self introduction, now.
I am 16, a girl from china. I think I have metal illnesses, which I believe but others don’t. They just thought I need to relax myself and make myself happy. But no they don’t understand.I can’t control myself sometimes, you know.
Well, I didn’t intend to say about my illness. Now back to what I actually wanted to tell you.
I am an English lover so I bought your book, the English one. I read it and I feel you were telling your story to me, which helped a lot in English as well as mental illnesses. I was touched and grayeful.
Maybe what I wanted to say is just ” thank you”?
Thank you and wish you and me a nice dream.
( Also wish a lucky reply for myself.)
(You’re welcome! And thank you for such a lovely response. 🙂 ~ Jenny)
Well, what a shame of those mistakes.
Is your blog just about your previously published work and how much is being sold now? It would be nice to have posts beyond book selling updates and illness reports with the occasional enabling Victor commercials.
The Chinese eat every part of a chicken but the feathers. So my guess is Chicken Butt Soup is a highly craved delicacy from some part of the country.
Speaking of book reviews, I was swiping through some reviews on my phone, and I happened to see one particular title that
Said “Jenny Lawson – poignant” so of course now I have to read it!
Currently listening to the Furiously Happy audiobook at work and I have determined that you are one of my people and I would totally be best friends with you. Also, I realized how desperately I need a Rory of my own.
Kathleen (#65):
If you don’t love Jenny enough to want to read her every word, then just don’t come back! No one is forcing you to read her. There’s no reason to be rude. And frankly, this is HER blog. This is where most of us have discovered her, and have gone on to collect her books because of it.
Maybe you’re going through some shit. I hope you recover soon.
That Neil Gaiman review is PURE GOLD.
That’s… not how cocaine works. That’s not how any cocaine works.
Seriously, we ALL wish you were our super super good friend.
I’m pretty sure that quote from Neil Gaiman is an accurate translation.
I second the first.
Speaking of translations. This may be off topic but here it goes. I have an exchange student from Turkey coming next week and I wanted to buy Furiously Happy in Turkish. People look at me like am speaking Turkish when I request it at book stores. Any clues would be appreciated.
I hope they meant Coca-Cola.