[quote=“terentii, post:40, topic:742178”]
Here is the sketch, courtesy of YouTube:
[/QUOTE]Talk about being a language Naz- ah, forget it . . .
I should have started that sentence with [To be read in a German accent]. 
Sure it can… it translates to “Deutsch” or maybe “Deutsche”.
(seriously… the prissiest, most nit-picky people I’ve known have been Germans)
In this specific case it seems like the Soup Nazi’s nickname could have been translated as something like “Soup Dictator” (Suppendiktator?) and preserved the meaning. The character was the “ruler” of his own soup stand, made and harshly enforced his own rules, and everyone was awed by or frightened of him.
This wouldn’t work with other instances of “Nazi” as slang for someone who strictly obeys/enforces rules set by someone else, but the Soup Nazi was owner and operator of his soup business.
I was part of a multi-national think tank (well, it might have been soccer players at the local bar), and we got talking about humor. The Dutch guy said the Brits and the Americans are the masters of humor. The Yank said that American humor is really just British humor crossed with some Yiddish. The Belgian agreed, postulating that Monty Python Plus Woody Allen Equals Hilarity.
The German guy said “It’s well known that Germans really don’t have a sense of humor…”
No one disagreed with him (not even the Canadian who wanted everyone to feel better). We all felt a little bad for him, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to say “Oh, that’s not true…”
Asked and answered already:
Also, Germans usually don’t “get” self-deprecating humor. Lots of self-deprecation, but not in a funny way. This is especially true with regards to German politicians who take themselves extremely seriously. This often leads to awkward situations when they meet their counterparts from Britain or the U.S.
It is extremely rare. One example for a mainstream German entertainer who was (he is semi-retired) able to pull off politically incorrect humor and Nazi references was Harald Schmidt.
As Donnerwetter said, it’s rare, but it’s not exactly unheard of. One of my favourite examples is from Ladykracher, a popular television sketch comedy series. The sketch is called Süßer Nazi. Here’s the plot (spoilered for the benefit of those who speak German):
Two single women are sunbathing in a park, and notice a sweet-looking male sunbather not far from them. They discuss whether to make contact with him. One of them is hesitant because she thinks his red towel marks him as an obnoxious soccer fan. The other woman thinks it’s ridiculous to judge someone by their towel and calls the man over. He stands up and we see that he has an SS tattoo and that his towel has a Nazi flag print. The funny part is that the women don’t comment on this at all; they’re simply relieved that he’s not a soccer fan after all. He later reveals that he’s unemployed and under a restraining order, which is also no problem for the women.
Missed the edit window, but I wanted to add that the video I just posted should put to rest the misconception that Germany always censors cultural depictions of swastikas. That sketch was shown on prime-time network television in 2010.
In 2010, a scandal erupted when German TV sports presenter Katrin Müller-Hohenstein used the expression “innerer Reichsparteitag” (= inner reichs party rally, referring to the Nuremberg rallies of the Nazi Party) to describe how lucky/emotional a striker (Miroslav Klose) must have felt after he scored a nice goal in a World Cup match (at that point, Klose had been unsuccessful for quite a while). It was an innocent, off the cuff remark.
For those of you who understand German, here’s a clip (the infamous reference comes at 0:21):
All hell broke lose on the day she said this. The head of public broadcaster ZDF formally apologized, one politico from ZDF's governing body called it a “violation of the state treaty” (the legal framework for public broadcasting in Germany), a number of commentators in newspapers were shocked, appalled and deeply offended. The incident almost sank Ms. Müller-Hohenstein's career.In America, the equivalent would be “That’s some nappy-headed ho’s there!” :eek: :smack:
The humor was that the guy was willing to turn away customers who displeased him. He was doing a slow burn when Elaine was banging on the countertop…and when George dared to ask for bread, they snatched his order away.
There are not too many people in business who WANT to alienate customers.
No, no, no, what Katrin Müller-Hohenstein said was only in passing, actually witty and absolutely benign. “Nappy-headed whore” is just nasty racism.
I doubt Don Imus would agree with you.
It seems to be ok to use swastikas in “works of art.” IIRC, when the film Inglorious Basterds was released in Germany, promotional materials such as posters could not include swastikas but the movie itself (i.e., the “work of art”) could.
That’s what makes racists so annoying, their lack of self awareness.
Although completely unintentional, in a real meta, ironic way the most mainstream German Nazi humor has been the dearth of Hitler Downfall parodies on YouTube.
Dearth? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
You just won the Internetz.