I am writing a paper about German film comedies and would like a couple of zingers about the stereotypes about Germans being stiff and humorless…
Any good jokes about the Germans’ sense of humor?
“Take my wife, I command you.”
OK, so that’s more about the authoritarian stereotype, but it fits.
I will ignore the borderline offensive request for “zingers” to bolster your German “stereotypes”. (Although I’m sure if a German had posted here looking for some zingers about stereotypical fat-assed, red-neck Americans, a few feathers might be ruffled.)
However, do a search and you will find there was another thread about German Film Comedies not too long ago that might help you with your paper.
I’ve seen exactly one German comedian, and that a long time ago, but I still remember one of his bits. He talked about the stereotype that Germans are regimented and unspontaneous and thus not funny, and said that this was not true. He then went into his act by saying “Joke number one:…”.
I believe he also said “We have ways to make you laugh”.
Hitler’s favorite joke (posted by me eons ago in another thread):
It’s pretty weak without the visuals of Hessian looking uniforms and Kaiser helmets. Apochyphal? Sure. Innaccurate? You bet. Funny? No.
I’ve got a book full of exactly this. It called German Humor, though it’s mostly about German-American (especially Wisconsin). Most of the jokes were about grandmothers from the old country who pester their children.
I didn’t know there was a stereotype of the Germans being humorless. I just thought they required their jokes to be scatalogical. There’s a book titled “Life is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder” that explores this.
I’ve seen this guy and he’s bloody hilarious. However, it’s all a put on. It was a guy from Cleveland who did this bit at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal right after the Berlin Wall came down. It’s generally hailed as one of the funniest acts that ever played there.
Another of his bits was about the good side of the Berlin Wall. “It’s a good way to keep the in-laws out. ‘well, I’d like to visit but there’s this big stinking wall in the way’. Also my handball game has gone all to hell.”
A prime example of German (or perhaps just Bavarian) humor comes from the Schwarzenegger movie Commando. He throws a knife at a guy, and it hits him in the chest hard enough to peg him to the wooden post behind him. Arnold glares at the dead guy and says, “Stick around!”
I saw this movie at an AAFES theater in Germany, and the Americans groaned and rolled their eyes at this line; the Germans loved it and laughed uproariously.
I saw a terrific German comedian several years ago here in the states… he said “people think we are so tight and analytical and structured, but that’s not true and I’m here to prove it!..”
(Stern manner, pointing at the audience): “JOKE NUMBER ONE:…”
It was priceless.
I wish I could remember who he was, he did a lot of Bavarian stereotype humor.
…and I felt compelled to search for the guy, and found this poor re-telling from google:
"This German comedian began his monologue stating that there was little truth regarding the stereotype of Germans being too rigid. He continued, “And now for joke number vun.”
...after the first joke, he said, "You must continue to laugh at all zee jokes, for if you do not laugh on your own, we have vays of making you laugh."
It’s from this site, but it’s mostly really bad really old jokes:
They screwed up the Hamburg/Frankfurt joke! Putting in ‘hotdog’ kills it. The real funny part was the comedian’s next line, “even in Germany, this joke sucks.”
Well, there’s this German joke on the subject:
Q: Do the Germans have a sense of humor?
A: No.
German Humor. Oxymoron 
Having worked with and married into the Cult of Germanic Thinking. ( What fun! I recommend it to any maschositic person!) I have spent a great deal of my adult life getting the blank look or mildly amused but more like annoyed look from ze krauts. ( coworkers and family members wonder why I keep trying. ’ They will NEVER get it." I’m a glut for punishment.)
Besides the old Monty Pyton joke that **NoClueBoy ** got here first with [size-1]damn you, boy ! [/size] let me tell you the joke that never fails to get the inlaws laughing. It’s bad. You’ve been warned.
A little background is needed.
There is a song in Northern German called *On The North Sea Coast * (translation phoetically: on the nord see kusta) that every time they say *Kusta * they clap three times. Got it?
So,
Two guys are walking along and fall off a cliff. They grab onto a branch hanging off the side of cliff, but with the two of them hanging there, there is no way it can support both their weight for very long.
“What should we do?” asks one.
“Maybe if we sing it will cheer us up and get someone above’s attention.” says the other.
The other man starts: " On the north sea coast clap, clap…AIEEEEEEE"
Yes, is purely Humor of Mass Destruction.
I don’t remember who said this, but;
German humour is no laughing matter
I met a Lufthansa pilot on my travels, who once went onto the PA system during a flight and said:
"If the passengers on the left-hand side of the plane will look left, they will see the Alps.
“And if the passengers on the right-hand side of the plane look left, they will see the passengers on the left-hand side of the plane looking out of the window.”
I’ve got a German husband who finds nearly nothing humorous. Same with the German ex. He flat out said “I don’t think stuff is funny.” I’m Swedish, Norwegian, and German, and I crack me up! But it’s wasted on Der Husband.
Well, I’m German, and one of my favorite jokes making fun of the Germans is the following:
An allied prisoner is being interrogated by the Gestapo. After giving his name, rank and serial number the Gestapo continues to interrogate him, but the prisoner answers every question by swaying back and forth and sying: “Tic…Tic…Tic…”
To this the head interrogater answers:
“You are being very foolish. We hav vays of making you Toc!”
Another one:
If someone in the room tells an anti-semitic joke, you get a really stricken look on your face and explain that you don’t find this humorous at all, since your grandfather died in a Concentration Camp. After everyone tells you how sorry they are, you blurt out: “Yeah, he fell off the watch tower”.
::d&r::
**Mycroft **
I must be dense, I don’t get the second one.
The first one, however, you must be beaten for.
Oh wait… I just got it.
Sorry, two hours of sleep. Sick kids. Living on java…
I thought it read *Watch Tower *. I was like…uh…what to Jehovah’s Witnesses have to do with Concentration camps?