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.
“Care e diferența dintre un porc și o râmă? Porcul râmă, dar râma nu porc”.
It’s not translatable directly because in Romanian there’s a word for digging with the snout. That word is the same word as the word for earthworm. So it goes like “What’s the difference between a pig and an earthworm? The pig digs (earthworms), but the earthworm doesn’t pig.”
In English there’s one very similar in concept: “What is the difference between a fly and a flea? A fly can flee, but a flea can’t fly.”
A similar joke could be made in English as “root”, to dig with the nose, is also part of a plant. Earthworm is, unfortunately, not a homophone.
My favorite of this style is about roast beef and pea soup.