"The joke works just as well without knowing his name or age."
The joke would possibly work without us knowing that he is a famous pianist since we could just assume that he is good at the piano. However, I think that the joke is seriously improved by the inclusion of that information and I don't see any better way of presenting it.
Just writing "He is a famous pianist" or something would look plainly silly - like something made to just explain the joke. As it is now it looks more like a very typical movie on-screen information text, giving a mini-bio about a person. It works. Not giving his age would work slightly less and not giving his name wouldn't work at all.
Like mentioned previously, the flow is good this way - it isn't interrupted by a jolt of "here, let me explain the joke to you" - it's more of a "here's information about this character, which might come up by now either way and that coincidentally also explains the joke."
It would have been obvious that the man who owned the safe also can open it, hense is the information about his name and age redundant (unless that's some kind of real world reference?)
Comments
The joke would possibly work without us knowing that he is a famous pianist since we could just assume that he is good at the piano. However, I think that the joke is seriously improved by the inclusion of that information and I don't see any better way of presenting it.
Just writing "He is a famous pianist" or something would look plainly silly - like something made to just explain the joke. As it is now it looks more like a very typical movie on-screen information text, giving a mini-bio about a person. It works. Not giving his age would work slightly less and not giving his name wouldn't work at all.
Like mentioned previously, the flow is good this way - it isn't interrupted by a jolt of "here, let me explain the joke to you" - it's more of a "here's information about this character, which might come up by now either way and that coincidentally also explains the joke."
and btw i lived in korea for 20 years an this is sooo true
No... just shit.