German humor is usually not funny and a bit mean.
The Dutch have compensated for their neighbors with an over-developed sense of humor.
German humor is fine, but much of german humor does not translate well, because it is often using puns, homophones, double entendrse or subversion of expectations, and you have to actively listen - just hearing without paying attention might result in not even realizing a joke was made. And I wouldn’t say it’s mean, but it is often dark and hitting where it really hurts regarding whatever goes wrong in society. I heard once that people start laughing if they can’t bear the pain anymore, and a lot of german humor fits this saying well.
what is belgian humor like?
There are 2 pizzas in the oven.
Says the one pizza: “It is getting really warm in here!”
Then the other pizza says: “Eww! A talking pizza!”
Maybe you’ll recognize some of the titles on here.
Some puns inevitably get lost in translation, though.Tintin, Lucky Luke and Spirou et Fantasio will always remain some of my favorite funny comics.
Only Asterix is better.For non-funny comics though, everything Alan Moore reigns supreme.
Same as the rest of France
As far as we Flemish know, humor in Wallonia is non-existent
i have a dutch friend whose favorite joke is:
knock knock
who’s there
interrupting cow
interrupting cow who?
…dammitmine is: two pretzels were walking down the street. one was assaulted. pretzel. (it’s funnier if you tell it in a silly voice)
I don’t get either joke TT_TT
This whole thread is making me cry laugh
I think this forklift training video is pretty funny
Not Safe For Mental Health.
but safe for work fingerguns pew pew
it’s been a while. i can’t remember if SFK survives or not
Spoiler
No, he drives into the sunset without head
I read that as it was gay (as in happy) until they walked in.
Thank you. I’d have spent ages thinking about how that could possibly be funny.
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 wunderbar
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.
Wow ok that’s clever
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.
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!
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
English and German derive from a common root language, so I’d honestly be surprised if there weren’t some that do.
I’ve heard it claimed German humour differs from English humour due to the grammar of the German language making it harder to hide the punchline, and so largely eliminating a lot of wordplay. The humour that remains is either cerebral (conceptual satire and such) or lowbrow slapstick.
Nah, our humour and our everyday conversation is chock full of wordplay. Obviously it’s hard to detect the humour if one doesn’t speak the language. Humour is a nuanced thing anyways and also plays with cultural associations.
For example if I were with friends in a pub and only ordered one beer and someone asked me why and I replied: “I muss fei spare” , the text itself isn’t funny
(I have to save money).
But it would be funny because I said it in a slight Swabian accent and because of the cultural association of Swabians being penny pinchers.
It wouldnt be hilarious mind you, just a little funny to spice up conversation. How would one translate or even understand that?Native speaker of German here and I am not sure about that. German tends to put verbs in the end in a lot of sentences, but apart from that, it’s mostly possible to use English-like word orders in German too; I don’t think the difference is significant enough that it would change the entire style of humor.
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 jokes are the wurst
Dude the meme game they have is on point you’d be surprised…
People who genuinely think Germans cannot be funny should check out Otto Waalkes.
Worst possible example. He is awful
unless you are 8 yrs old
How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb?
One, they are an efficient people and lack a strong sense of humor
What? Do lightbulbs get stuck if you tell a joke?
You must be German
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.
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.
Germany has some of the best wordplay. Puns aplenty over there.
I think most English and Americans would be surprised to learn that large parts of Europe view Germans as uncultured and a bit trash. They dress poorly, can’t cook and would sell their mother for some quick cash. Austrians are just Germans except fatter and with a diaper fetish.
I’m curious about that last part. Please elaborate.
Name something more German than wearing socks with Birkenstocks
Ive tried that, i find the socks make them too likely to slip when I walk. Don’t understand it.
For me, Birkenstocks slip a little bit no matter what. If I don’t wear socks, the rubbing eventually makes me bleed (usually just under the ankle). If I wear socks, that doesn’t happen.
I’m not sure why that happens to me and not to most people. Maybe my skin is too dry? But yeah. When I wore Birkenstocks, it was with socks. These days I just don’t wear sandals.
I can see that. My feet take a few days of careful husbanding before they develop the callouses for a new pair of sandals, and there’s gonna be some sore spots. It helps to stick a bandaid over the sore spots to give them a chance to toughen up.
I can well imagine that some people might take longer or develop blisters more easily, preventing the skin from getting to that point. Dry skin is a good hypothesis.
Socks are a totally decent option. If it’s not going to happen, don’t try to force it. /nod
I have poor circulation (possibly Raynaud’s Disease) so sandals without extra insulation have been a painful prospecr for two decades.
Germany
Which is a style again.
If anybody in Europe can’t cook, it’s the Poles.
That’s a wild-ass take about the people who gave us pierogi and kielbasa. Bigos and golabki are pretty awesome too.
I mostly heard negative opinions about Dutch cuisine. Despite the popularity of stoopwafel lol
That’s a wild-ass take about the people who gave us pierogi and kielbasa. Bigos and golabki are pretty awesome too.
Is that supposed to be food?
And have you all forgot the British exist?
Britain is the worst. They took over India to get the spices in order to create the most bland food in the world.
Is that supposed to be food?
I wonder what your definition of food is if these don’t fit it.
And have you all forgot the British exist?
The comment that started this discussion specifically mentions their assumed perspective.
I wonder what your definition of food is if these don’t fit it.
The point is that the words just sound like non-sense to anyone outside Poland.
Oh! I thought pierogi and kielbasa were better known internationally given their popularity in New York. Anyway, I’d recommend them!
Everywhere I’ve lived in the US you could get both at Walmart
I’ve had very good food in NL but it’s pretty expensive compared with Germany
I’d like to throw the brits into the mix.
Anywhere north of the Alps, cuisine had to function as a means of enduring the long, cold winter. Hence a lot of it is hearty stodge, without the joie de vivre one finds closer to the Mediterranean.
If Bavaria is any better, its proximity to Italy may be of credit.
God please tag this nsfl. Have you even tried Bavarian food? At least Poland has good bakeries
Hohoho… somebody wants to start a new war. Never ever insult german bread.
Been living in Bavaria for 2 years.
Bavarians can’t cook.
My trouble with Bavarian food is the flavor is entirely in the “savory” section. Would you like some buttered noodles? How about just a chicken that’s been wonderfully cooked but unspiced? A friend referred to it as the kid’s meal section at restaurants.
Wow, clearly someone who has never eaten Saure Zipfl, Saukopf or Presssack.
I have never heard those stereotypes about germany anywhere. Its a ragebait post so im not supprised.
I can’t confirm any of that except the cooking part. There’s a German restaurant near us, and the entire menu is various forms of Wurst - sausages. Apparently, their entire culinary range consists of hot dogs.
That’s simply a bad restaurant
there’s a fantastic german restaurant like that near us. wurst served with amazing housemade kraut. imported beer. gluhwein in winter
You misspelled good
Yes, a real German restaurant would also have a dozen styles of kraut to go with the hot dogs.
Maybe y’all should eat at a restaurant in Germany before you judge German cuisine. I’m not walking into a McDonalds and go “MMM, AMERICAN FOOD TASTES LIKE SHIT!” Fucking hell…
We’re just joking with ya there Germy.
McDonald’s is actually famous around the world because no matter where you walk into one, you get pretty much the same ‘quality’ of food. So USians love eating McDonald’s abroad.
I mostly see Brits/Australians and wealthier locals with small children at McDonalds, who travels to the other side of the planet to eat expensive poison, we have expensive poison at home.
Idk, it’s quite a regular trope in discussions on travelling that USian tourists don’t eat local cuisine and instead go to McD because they know what they’re getting.
Detected the French dude
The funniest german joke is Deutsche Bahn…
I quite enjoy Henning When, especially when he appears on typically British things like (cats) Countdown or radio 4 shows like Just a Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue
Henning Wehn is a weird one because he’s much better known outside Germany than inside. His act of “look how funny and strange Germans are” doesn’t really land in Germany, maybe a lack of self-deprecating humour?
German humor is super self-deprecating. I think it’s more that we don’t need german peculiarities explained to us. We know we’re weird already.
He does also have good schtick with “British culture / language / geography / society is stupid and confusing”
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:
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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.
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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.
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!
type 1 - fozzy
type 2 - Statler and Waldorf
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.
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). They 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.
Which Germans have we met?
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.
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