To those, living in Germany...

[Vetty]

Thank you very much again.

Studying German for about 3 years I think I could understand the linquistic essence of German humour theoretically, but could you possibly recommend me something similar to British show of Fry and Lorry or " Yes, Minister" of Linn and Jey ( not sure about the spelling of the authors' names ). What is there in Germany ( I don't mean sitcoms or international sex anecdotes ) that makes people laugh? In Russia there is a website Hultura. ru, it's rather funny.

[Kitosdad]

Sorry Vetty I can't as I don't watch German TV at all. What I do see is only at mealtimes, and that is usually the news on CNN. Most times I am either on-line here, or watching films that I have downloaded.

Perhaps Shyone ( Andrea ) could give you some advice as she originates from Germany.

Kitos.
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[Shyone]

Unfortunately I'm not a mainstream reader, and I never watched a lot of TV either.

Nowadays I don't even own one because it would be such a waste.

But up to this day I enjoy the humour of Eugen Roth. He wrote mostly poems displaying the naked truth of every day life. I also used to like Wilhelm Busch, but I guess he is very hard to come by.

Humourous programs on TV depend too much on the region you live in. In Hamburg, where I come from, we wouldn't, not for our lives, enjoy the same things as the Bavarian for example, we wouldn't even understand them. Goes the other way round, too.

But I will give you an example of Eugen Roth, it's funny that after all that time still remember this little poem.

Das Ferngespraech

Ein Mensch spricht fern geraume Zeit
Mit ausgesuchter Hoeflichkeit.
Legt endlich dann mit vielen suessen
Empfehlungen und besten Gruessen
Den Hoerer wieder auf die Gabel,
Doch tut er nochmal auf den Schnabel
Nach all dem freundlichen Gestammel
Um dumpf zu murmeln: "Bloeder Hammel".
So einfach wird oft auf der Welt
Die Wahrheit wieder hergestellt.

Eugen Roth
Volume: Ein Mensch

I asked Google to translate it for me, but I had to edit it a bit, the word to word translation is hilarious, but it doesn't make a lot of sense

The Long Distance Call

A man speaks some time on the phone
With exquisite courtesy.
Replaces then finally with a lot of sweet
Recommendations and best regards
The receiver
But then opens again his beak
After all the friendly stammering
To dull murmuring: "Stupid mutton."
So simple is often in the world
The truth restored.
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[Jamie (K)]

During her junior year in high school, a friend of mine spent a year as an exchange student in Kiel. She said the amazing thing was how humorless the people there acted. She said you could sit in a crowded movie theater and watch a hilarious movie, and the Germans wouldn't laugh. At first she thought they didn't think the film was funny, but she claims that later she found that the people really did find the film funny, but they just didn't laugh.

I noticed that in some discotheques in Northern Germany the men and women don't dance with each other, but with their own image in the mirror. I don't know how widespread this was, but it was quite startling, and I'm sure people in Bavaria don't dance that way.

It's coooooooold up there!

[Jamie (K)]

Another characteristic of Germans: They always think the apocalypse is coming.

Americans are good at making up false environmental scares, and they come up with a new one every decade or two when the previous one is proven untrue. The Germans generally swallow these American theories hook, line and sinker, and the whole nation gets mobilized. So you've got two nations believing in the same environmental scare story, but their reactions are much different.

The Americans tend to have faith in humanity's ability to come up with technical or economic solutions to the "problem", whatever it is. They modify their lives somewhat, but not that much, because they can see these solutions coming down the road. Plus, most of us are a bit skeptical about these theories, because we've been scared again and again about so many things that never happened. (Global cooling in the 1970s, no petroleum anymore by 1980, mass starvation and a huge reduction in the world population by 1990.) I think it's safe to say that right now most American adults don't even believe in man-made global warming, because for us that theory is just "déjà vu all over again". (Besides, carbon dioxide is plant food, and plants produce oxygen.)

The Germans, on the other hand, tend to think that the whole world is going to be destroyed if the problem isn't solved right away, and their answer is generally to come up with ways to control people and force them to change their behavior. This is part of their culture, even though the Germans are very good at finding technical solutions to environmental problems. This fear of the apocalypse has been part of their culture since at least the Middle Ages, and you can find its evidence in everything from medieval paintings to modern pop songs. Plus, in the 20th century Germany was destroyed twice because they didn't control themselves, so you can understand why they'd be nervous.

[Vetty]

At my German classes this year my teacher presented a German rock/pop( I am not good at it) group "Wise guys". And now reading your messages I have suddenly recollected and listened to it again



This is, sure, one of the songs, maybe the most popular, but the humour of that "minor problems of male/female difference" and the way they are put togehter are very clear and intimate to me. They remined me of my schoolhood and the recollections are very pleasant. And this thoughts bring me back to my prior assumption that humour, possibly, is not a national characteristic, but individual with a little national ( by national I meen historically reasoned ) difference of expressing it.

The apocalyptical mentality is interesting to analyze comparing the Germans with the Jews. Maybe it's something opposite to jewish calmness being persecuted through the history, constantly having wars. Consiquently they are not scared of anything ephemeral. And the German nation ( as a common unity) is rather young, it was organised by Bismark somewhere in the middle of the 19th century, consiquently the fear of ephemeral something might be a normal fear of "a young child".

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

[Torsten]

I'm just watching a show on German Television (Maybrit Illner, ZDF). The current issue is called 'Angst vorm Abstieg' and a couple of leading politicians and industry leaders are discussing the current 'financial crisis'. I've been watching the show for about an hour now and about 90% of the time all of the participants have been using phrases such as 'wrong decisions', 'more problems to come', 'who is to blame?', 'no solution in sight', 'it'll get even worse', 'next crisis to come', etc.

This is exactly what the majority of all Germans want to hear: We are doomed and there is no way out ! It's good live in Germany if you can travel abroad whenever you want and if you speak other languages so you can get a more positive view on things than most Germans have. If you only listen to German mass media you very likely to get depressed.

By the way, 'Angst vorm Abstieg' is a phrase that exactly describes the state many Germans have been for quite a while....
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[Jamie (K)]

Torsten, what do you think causes this? You see this attitude in medieval German paintings, where everyone is having lots of fun and none of them realize they're sliding down to hell until the devils have them and it's too late. I hear it when Germans talk about the environment, too. Germany got hit by the Black Plague, which many people blamed on sin, and later it got destroyed twice in world wars, which really in a way were about their collective sins. My opinion is that their history conditions them to think that certain doom is coming, but I wonder if there's more to it. Plus, the whole idea that Germany can't get out of its current problems just denies Germany's demonstrated ability to help itself.

In the US some people are talking about the next crisis to come, because the credit card defaults haven't come to full fruition, nor the student loan defaults. Those could be a shock to the system also.