While tragedy is universal, comedy tends to be far more culturally specific, and this is especially true with theater. When drama is transposed out of its vernacular, audiences can be expected to tune in more easily to a mournful melodrama or saga of self-destruction than to a humorous work with all the nuances, inferences and subtleties that lovers of the stage expect from comedic drama.
This is no doubt why companies here in Japan more often stage Shakespeare tragedies such as "King Lear" or "Hamlet" than his far more culture-specific "The Merrie Wives of Windsor," whose jokes and humorous situations rely more heavily on specific knowledge of English culture.
As a result of this natural understanding gap, there have been many translated comedies performed here to near-mute, uncomprehending houses, and many farces which, due to the time-lag of puzzlement in audiences' brains, have lost their vital tempo.