Hi all.
I’m wondering if you can help explain the usage of this phrase.
I’m currently playing through the JP version of Zelda: Link to the Past, or ゼルダの伝説 神々のトライフォース. I came across this bit of dialogue:
大きなカギを 手に入れた。
小さなカギでは 開かない
ジョウ前を開く事ができるぞ！
This is after getting the first “boss key”, before unlocking the dungeon cell. Can anyone offer any insight as to 前を開く is being used here? I mean, it’s funny, but I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be a joke or not.
Thanks!
It’s saying 錠前 (じょうまえ) meaning “lock,” but they elected to write the reading for 錠 in katakana, probably for the sake of kids who might not know the kanji (or I suppose perhaps platform font limitations). It just ends up looking a bit strange if you don’t know the word already.
~“You got a big key. It can open locks that a small key wouldn’t be able to open!”
OH MY GOSH thank you, that’s so obvious now. I kept reading it as, “ジョウ” as lock, from ichi.moe, and then “前を開く” which jisho is showing as “to show one’s privates” and, yeah.
Very much appreciated! And now I feel so silly. 
Don’t worry about it! I was confused exactly what was going on at first too and actually went to a let’s play to doublecheck you hadn’t mistranscribed anything. 
I also realized that the on reading is ジョウ、so in the future I wonder if that might also be a clue.