好笑
hǎoxiào · HSK 7
funny
😂 好笑 = 好 (good/very) + 笑 (laugh) → very-laugh → laughable, funny
好 often acts as an intensifier meaning very, and 笑 is the verb to laugh or smile. Stack them and you get the sense of something so worth laughing at that it is funny. Compare 好吃 = good-eat = tasty.
好 — woman 女 + child 子
好 is an associative compound showing a woman 女 beside a child 子, depicting a mother with her baby. From this image of maternal affection it came to mean 'good, fine, pleasing.' The reading hǎo means 'good'; read hào it means 'to like.'
笑 — bamboo radical 竹 (⺮) + 夭 (yāo, bending)
Originally written with the bamboo radical over 夭, depicting a person bending or swaying. One traditional reading is that bamboo bends in the wind like a person doubling over with laughter. The character has meant 'laugh, smile' since early times, with no major shift in meaning.