No, no, no. I’m a doughnut. John F. Kennedy is a dead politician who once made a subtle flub in German grammar. The folks in Berlin didn’t think at the time that Kennedy was claiming to be a pastry. Many of them smirkingly said he was married to a tasty looking pastry. If somebody told you he was a New Yorker, you probably wouldn’t think he was a magazine.
JFKennedy also gave me my username, AskNott. Thanks, Jack!
OK, help a non-German-speaker out here. What exactly is the subtle flub and what did it imply? For comparison, what should it have been? Answer that, AskNott and you’ll have done for your country. Err, or something like that.
He already explained it. A Berliner is a pastry, but it’s also someone from Berlin. When JFK said he was a Berliner people wanted to laugh at him and say that he said he was a donut, but if you said you were a New Yorker you wouldn’t expect people to laugh at you for calling yourself a Chrysler, would you?
If you think JFK made a mistake, then PLEASE tell us what he should have said. I speak German, but it’s not my native language, and it seems to me that what he said was actually just fine. The only flub I can think of is if he used the wrong version of “ein,” thus making a reference to a doughnut rather than a person (for the un-initiated, a “Berliner” is a person from berlin, but is also a type of doughnut). Der Die Das is a mystery of nearly mythic proportions to us Ami’s.
Ghanima — If I remember my high school German lessons properly, the “more correct” (i.e. conventional) phrasing would leave out the “ein” completely. “Ich bin Berliner.” (Or “Berlinerin” if you’re a chick.)
Native German speaker checking in again. That is exactly the subtle mistake JFK made. He should have said “Ich bin Berliner.”. By saying “Ich bin ein Berliner.” he was indeed pointing out his inner doughnutness.
So Matt Stone and Trey Parker are Jewish - they do these things to make a point, and nail it every time. There’s always morals and lessons to every episode. And they literally kill it. They are so intelligent and poignant. It’s so obvious and blatant if you were a South Park fan. The fact you think they are evil is weird. The only weird thing is that the German quotes in the pinkeye episode aren’t translating well. But, I’m 98% positive it’s because the words aren’t spelled correctly. German is a cousin language to English and translates extremely well.