The Difference Between Muhaha and Puhaha

I just realized something.

Indulge me for a second. Do a Google search on both muhaha and puhaha.

Do you see anything in common with the search results? Perhaps this post should be about the similarity rather than the difference between the two. I thought it would be interesting to delve into the difference between the two sounds of laughter, but I think I should start out with a preface.

It seems that the vast majority of users of both muhaha and puhaha are Korean-Americans either in highschool/college, or recent grads. I did not know this before I decided on this post topic. What is WITH Korean-Americans, the internet, and their indiscriminate use of phrases indicative of laughter?! Don't they (or don't we) know that language is really an artform, and to blatantly and quite recklessly throw around words is to degenerate art into mere forms of speech?

A short aside about Korean-Americans - I will get into this much greater in future blogs, but as for now, I will say that in my experience (being one, first and foremost), there is no ethnic group greater able to make a positive impact in society, and yet is as insular and cliqueish. We are, as a group, extremely well educated, on the rise in terms of socio-economic strata, the vast majority being indoctrinated in Christian thinking, and extremely adept in adapting to new technology. And at the same time, I see an entire generation of Korean-Americans risking nothing as they inter-connect amongst themselves and live (more or less) happily ever after. Their parents' generation took incredible risks to emigrate to this country, to fight discrimination and to make a new home for themselves and their children. And the values that they passed on were good ones - solidarity with family, Christian belief, education and climbing the economic ladder, and hard work. Yet, the one thing that wasn't passed on was the idea that America isn't just a place to succeed, America is a place to integrate, to learn about those different from yourselves, to participate in the grand experiment in the greatest country in the history of mankind.

Quoting John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, almost 400 years ago (1630) in his work, “A Model of Christian Charity (City on a Hill),”

"For this end we must be knit together. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to give up our superfluities to supply others' necessities...We must delight in each other; make others' conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together... So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace."

This might beg the question a bit, because he didn't define "we" to mean just those he cared about. Taking this from the Christian idea of everyman being part of the 'we", the point is that everyone has to take it upon themselves to view their community as being greater than just those who might share the same political ideology, economic strata or ethnic background. America is about EVERYONE, and in this political age of a truly divisive two-party system where both parties seek to divide rather than to unite, Korean-Americans of this generation, with all their resources and windfall, have a unique opportunity to work to create more unity than has ever been seen. And yet, we are more clique-ish and close-minded than any other ethnic group I've witnessed. Ok, more on this in another blog.

Back to muhaha and puhaha. Speech is one thing, and I don't denigrate those whose form of speech is different from my own. How one speaks is by individual choice, and there is no "better" or "worse" than. But language, well, that's another thing entirely. Language is a canvas with a full palette, and like music or visual art, it commands a more discriminate attitude.

MUHAHA.

Muhaha. Say it outloud a few times, really emphasize the MOO part of the word. See how you feel? There is a gutteral element here, something that really pushes your internal organs around to create a resonating sound. What does it mean? It means, "I have something that you do not, and what I have gives me power over you." Muhaha is a power word, and the laughter is akin to flogging the listener with a stick. Muhaha is often used by fiendish evildoers or by criminal masterminds, and they share the megalomania disability that is often their downfall. Muhaha means I am above you, it means that I am laughing at you because you are beneath me and it is my right as a superior being to treat you as sheep.

PUHAHA.

Again, say this aloud, and be mindful of the spittle that should emanate from your mouth. It is a surprise reaction, indicative of a previously unknown quality that, having manifested, forces a bodily reaction in the form of laughter. It means, "I find what you say (or do) to be humorous in a way I had not anticipated, else my laughter would be a chuckle or a quick snort." There is a sense of equality here, a form of peerage that stems from the relaxation of social mores. We are equal because I am laughing at you, lowering (or raising) myself to your level, and we are brothers; my spittle is analagous to a handshake, and we are the same.

**

Of course, if you scan the websites for use of both puhaha and muhaha, you might find that the vast majority of Korean-American blogs and personal websites use muhaha more than puhaha. I find this to be telling.

The next time you find yourself about to laugh, forget the "moo", add the "poo" and treat your audience with some respect and maybe some spittle. I myself use neither, and rather demurely use "hehe" as my phrase of choice. But that too, will be a topic for a future post.

-hehe,
David