May I present in counter-argument Henning Wehn
Well, we did have to send him to Britain for training … seriously though, probably my favourite German comedian.
I’m a always especially impressed by comedians that can work successfully in a second language.
The funniest german joke is Deutsche Bahn…
That joke only works in German because “treffen” has two meanings: meet and hit.
Ah so kind of like “a man walks into a bar and says ouch”
Or like, “a man walks into a bar. It was a closed casket funeral.”
Yea same as “c’est l’histoire d’un gars qui rentre dans un café… et plouf”
German jokes are the wurst
So there are actually some German wartime jokes that are actually quite funny. Here’s some that I heard:
- " Where I live there’s now a lot of warehouses, there were houses and there were houses, and there were houses!"
- “How can you tell an optimist from a pessimist? The optimist is learning English and the pessimist is learning Russian.”
- One day at the barracks there was a soldier on his knees looking around the ground, picking up random papers he found and going “no, no that’s not it”. His officer asked what he was doing, “I’m looking for my special paper”. He sent him to the doctor and he was declared insane, when the doctor gave him his discharge papers he explained “ah, there’s my special paper!”
These are gold, thank you for posting
How would a German joke work based on english homonyms?
It’s just a coincidence that the same words are homonyms in English and German in this case: “Warehouses” = “Warenhäuser”, “There were houses” = “Dort waren Häuser”. You don’t even have to translate to colloquial German as the other comment suggests, a word-by-word translation works here.
You might like this (to be read aloud in French):
Un petit d’un petit
S’étonne aux Halles
Un petit d’un petit
Ah! degrés te fallent
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu’importe un petit d’un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes.
This. I asked myself this and that and was amazed the joke worked in both languages.
I mean to be fair, English and German are in the same language family.
So are English and French. And English and Frysian. English is a moshpit of languages.
More a happy coincidence that it lines up.
Dutch is wild to hear or see because it feels like alternate universe English.
English and German derive from a common root language, so I’d honestly be surprised if there weren’t some that do.
So I went and googled it out of curiosity, after remembering that German for was/were (in some form anyway) is ‘war’.
I found this in a thread about Downfall and a translated joke where someone was wondering what the original was:
The German pun uses ‘Warenhaus’ department store and “Da war 'n Haus” - “there was/used to be a house”.
hm thanks
Germans hate humor so much that hey renamed “The Simpsons” to “Die Simpsons!”. “Die Simpsons!”!!
Die Bart, Die!
Noone who speaks German can be an evil man. Parole granted!
these are wunderbar
Gottseidank heißt unser Führer nicht Kräuter. Sonst hieße es den ganzen Tag Heilkräuter! Heilkräuter!
Karl Valentin
Women are always the recipients of all humor, as were their mothers, and their grandmothers before them, and as will be their daughters, and their granddaughters after them, for it is the will of the Elders
German humor is no laughing matter.
My suggestion is to watch the documentary laughing with Hitler to see that not only do Germans have a scathing sense of humor, but also were willing to die for their jokes.
The forklift training video was amazing.
Klaus!
Uwe Boll movies left a lasting scar on the image of Germans…
Another German banger I heard awhile ago:
“Ask me if I’m a schoolbus.”
“Are you a schoolbus?”
“No.”
I’m sitting on the train by myself and cackling. I don’t know why I find it so funny.
Found the German.
So German humor is anti-meme?
it is post modern
german humor is no laughing matter
But is also the wurst.
It’s so derived
Modern.
How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb?
One, they are an efficient people and lack a strong sense of humor
Zero. Efficient germans use efficient LED.
LED bulbs still exist and are more efficient to use than LED fixtures where you have to change the entire lamp instead of a bulb!
In fact, I’ve got a room with six such fixtures and only one still works.
The LED bulbs barely die. I am still using first gen bulbs i bought over a decade ago. I’ve only had 1 die on me so far. Versus the monthly replacement of some heat bulbs and always having a box of spares around.
Changing lightbulbs is kind of a thing from the past. Old fashioned fillament heat bulbs are hardly in use in Germany nowadays.
Right? I don’t understand how we got here (I mean, I kind of do, but still). I will refuse to buy non-socketed AIO lamps. Having them break and instead of opening the case and quickly changing out an LED bulb, having to replace the entire thing and screw new holes into the ceiling sounds like a complete nightmare.
Poor lighting is no laughing matter.
It really isn’t.
What? Do lightbulbs get stuck if you tell a joke?
You must be German
Probably partly. My last name is a German name, but I think we’re more Eastern European muts. I’ve never really gotten a clear answer.
Hey now, the Germans take humour very seriously! It’s no laughing matter.
Honestly I very much enjoy German humor, but I do understand why people don’t always get it, because it comes in two distinct styles with (imho) vastly different qualities:
-
Just plain silly (see: Otto Waalkes), can be good but it is often with such a heavy handed punchline that it just doesn’t feel funny anymore. This is the only time people recognize that a German tried to be funny and it often lands flat for people with a more refined sense of humor.
-
Irony and sarcasm, dark and extremely, extremely, sometimes unbearably dry. People who did not grow up with it will often not recognize that a joke has been made at all, because Germans are the kings of straight-face-delivery. This is where german humor hides its refinement and wit and since it’s often undetectable, people imagine we’re just not funny. But if you catch it, this shit is HILARIOUS.
Both kinds are rife with puns… I don’t know why, but Germans love puns and considering the very complicated nature of the german language this also often passes by unnoticed with non-native speakers.
I’m of German descent on both sides of my family and I can confirm the dry, and sometimes dark humor.
My dad would drop drive-by jokes that you might not get for a couple of days.
People who don’t think Germans can be funny haven’t seen Loriot.
Yes! That’s a WAY better example than Otto.
The duck stays out!
I work with one guy who is a master of the second style to the extent that even other Germans don’t notice he’s joking.
That’s a common occurrence and since “you don’t explain jokes” sometimes in a group one person says something, one other person starts laughing uncontrollably and all the others just look on confused and will never get an explanation. It’s often a test of who pays attention, who you are on the same wavelength with and who has the wit to register the joke.
People getting each others jokes, while others don’t, is quite often the basis for lifelong friendships.
I don’t think this is a uniquely German thing.
Yeah, it’s a thing with germans, not a german thing.
The Germans we’ve met LOVE silly puns and plays on words.
One time I was playing in a German beer pong event, and one of our opposing teams was “ten inches soft” (in English). We all introduce ourselves (all in English), and one of the guys says to us “do you get it? It’s about the penis!” And we just died laughing.
It’s great honestly
See, thats why I think a lot of non-germans don’t get German humor, there isn’t a scenario where you say “10 inches soft” that isn’t a dick joke, so when the punchline comes around “haha it is about penis”, the recipient is confused thinking they missed the real punchline.
To be fair, we understood the joke ahead of time (and found it to be a bit “on the nose,”/direct compared to some of the jokes/names we’ve heard), but their insistence on explaining the joke (in English, to English speakers) somehow made it so much funnier
Which Germans have we met?
I don’t know, are you my teammate?
type 1 - fozzy
type 2 - Statler and Waldorf
-
I think this forklift training video is pretty funny
I first saw this video when getting my forklift license, lol. It being an official instruction video somehow makes it better.
Not Safe For Mental Health.
it’s been a while. i can’t remember if SFK survives or not
Spoiler
No, he drives into the sunset without head
but safe for work fingerguns pew pew
