German humour in Great Britain...

[Torsten]

This German guy is trying to funny in Great Britain...


TOEIC listening, photographs: In a hair salon

[Cgk]

I heard about him on TV! He seems to be quite successful in Britain . . .

German humor seems to have a weird reputation in other countries. Often, we are being perceived as never-ending sticklers, stricken with constant worries and fears (German angst). Too bad, actually. Often, German humor is just being misunderstood. I don't consider us to be great stand-up comedians and our jokes in film often fall flat. I regard Germans more as situational comedians rather than joke-tellers.

There is a British joke about Germans that I enjoy. I don't remember the exact wording, but I'll give it a try:

An English couple can't conceive, but they desperately want a child, so they decide to adopt one. They are happy when they bring home with them a little baby boy from Germany. But that is no problem, as the baby is healthy and developing normally.

As the German child is growing older, he shows a preference for Lederhosen. He can walk, sleep, eat and drink, but he does not speak. The concerned English parents take their German son to a doctor who assures them that there is no problem, as the child is healthy and developing normally.

Years later, the German child has grown into a handsome youth, but he still does not speak. Still, there is no obvious problem, as he is healthy and functional.

The English mother is sad and worried nonetheless, but hides her distress. Her German son is seventeen now, a healthy, fully developed and bright young man. One day, she goes into the kitchen and cooks him his favorite dish: tomato soup. After her German child finished up the bowl, he says: "Mother, the soup tasted very bland."

Astonished, the English mother exclaims, "My son, you can speak! We thought you couldn't! Why did you never say anything before?!"

"Because," her German son answers, "up until now, everything has been satisfactory."

Claudia
_________________
In the land of the ignorant, the biggest fool is king.

[Jamie (K)]

We have that same joke, but the child is not German, and he's not adopted.

I found that German comedian VERY funny!

A few years ago there was a play that was a hit in the UK and that someone decided to translate for the German stage. The problem is that it was all about standup comedy, and the English jokes couldn't be translated. It appeared that the placement of the verb in the sentence made some English styles of jokes impossible in German. So they just had to replace them with German-style jokes. They said one of the styles is to start telling an ordinary-sounding story but little by little make it more and more preposterous until the audience realizes it is a joke. This interested me, because the German side of my family jokes in exactly that way even after 161 years.

As I mentioned in a different post recently, Americans don't understand some British humor because it involves people trying hard to remain calm and polite in situations where Americans would see no reason to be.