Gintama gets away with breaking the comedy rule that you should never explain the joke by taking it’s potentially confusing or mundane jokes to hilarious places.

In “If You’re A Man, Try The Swordfish!”, an Amanto (alien) who lives in a lake is a dead ringer for Japanese water spirit known as a Kappa, whose strength comes from the plate on its head. A premise that isn’t laugh out loud funny but that is immediately paid off when the plate that would be the crown jewel of a real Kappa is broken, and the Amanto becomes bashful. Incidentally, what broke the plate was a flying golf club that belongs to the owner of the land; a man who wants the Amanto driven out of the lake.

The Amanto’s dysphoria at having his plate broken is a funny extension of the premise, but further fleshing out of the joke and Japanese Kappa lore occurs. The next night, when the landowner and his lackeys are attempting to fill the lake with sand, they are stopped by the Yorozuya, each dressed as a Kappa. We see Kagura push a heavy construction vehicle up the hill from whence it came while Kappa versions of Gintoki and Shinpachi harass other lackeys. Kagura then asks the operator if he has any cucumbers, and he screams in horror. Since we already know what a Kappa is, the scary Kappa spirit idea recurring in familiar characters is funny, and it’s also funny that, as is described by helpful screen text, “the only thing that Kappa’s love eating more than children is cucumbers”. Learning this while the cucumber line is delivered by the adorable Kagura makes this even more uncanny and hilarious.

This joke is elevated because it is taken to the point of absurdity. In comedy, it’s sometimes said that the joke isn’t funny after you explain it, but many of Gintama’s jokes require an initial setup to understand the premise, and more than make up for it with a follow through that surpasses the scope of the original idea.

A typical Gintama plot will have several types of jokes scattered throughout, but a select few plots hilariously beat a joke within an inch of its life. Examples of these include lesson 16, which focuses on Hasegawa after he loses his job, and in which he is called a Madao, which roughly translates to dork, and people use it as an acronym for many different interpretations of the word (always negative) at least half a dozen times. Another example is the plot in which a heat-stricken Gintoki is simply asking for an electric fan (Senpuki), but through misunderstanding gets wrapped up in a criminal plot in which thieves are trying to steal a money-sealing machine also known as a Senpuki.

By not only explaining a joke but milking its potential, Gintama makes up for initial moments of confusion by taking its ideas to hilarious extremes.