in portuguese, i just came across “por que o vírus da gripe não tem amigos? porque ele é uma má influenza”
translation: “why does the flu virus have no friends? because it’s a bad influenza!”(Influence)
i think it could work in english but sounds better in portuguese.
I’m sure there’s a better example in Ukrainian, but
Як як? Ну як як? Як як як…
Not really a pun and not translateable as a joke, but same word that can repeat to form a sentence.
Joke is a guy went to the zoo and friend is asking him how was yak. He replies with yak was like yak.
Something similar in Finnish;
Kokoo koko kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon.
Which translates to
Put together the whole bonfire. The whole bonfire together? The whole bonfire together.
There are several versions of these kinds of puns in German, one version:
Wenn Grillen Grillen grillen, grillen Grillen Grillen.
When crickets barbecue crickets, then crickets are barbecuing crickets.
A similar one in Swedish:
Bar barbar-bar barbar bar bar barbar-bar barbar.
This can be translated to “a lightly dressed barbarian from a bar for barbarians carried a lightly dressed barbarian from a bar for barbarians.”
https://youtu.be/ZYkBf0dbs5I
Barbara’s barbarian rhubarb bar
Danish has: Far får får får? Nej, får får ikke får, får får lam.
This translates to: Dad, does sheep get (give birth to) sheep? No, sheep don’t get sheep, sheep get lambs.
Similarly, Swedish has
Or slightly different:
Får får får? Får får ej får, for får får lam.
As an Estonian, it doesn’t surprise me that you Finnish people have this. You weird, but actually cool neighbours.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
I’ve seen this before and always thought the verb was a stretch since it is definitely not used in modern English, but I do like the idea of forming a sentence this way.
I’ve always used this version, since the verb is commonly used in modern English unlike buffalo:
Police police police Police police police Police police.
That expands to “the police from Police, Poland will police the police from Police, Poland, who in turn also police the police from Police, Poland” or something like that.
It doesn’t work as well spoken, though? Pretty sure Police is pronounced something like po-lee-tseh.
Also, I think you might have swapped a police with Police: “Police police, (whom) Police police police, police Police police.”