# What would be an example of German humor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345 "2005-02-16T13:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/61 "2009-03-05T00:23:15Z")
I have a history of the last days of WWII (told largely from the German viewpoint). There is a prison in Germany where political prisoners are being held. Two of them are hoping that the advancing Allies will liberate them, and there are signs that troops are not far away. They are called before a sergeant of the guard, who informs them jovially: “Tomorrow, you will be shot. Tonight, you make kitchen clean.” It doesn’t sound all that hilarious, but apparently the guard thought it was quite humorous. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/62 "2009-03-05T00:41:43Z")
Zombie thread! This thread resurrection resulted in a _Twilight Zone_ experience for me. I was reading along, thinking “I know I’ve heard that toilet paper joke before. In fact, I think I read it on here. Maybe it’s a famous German joke. Do I know any German jokes? Well, there’s that one my friend’s German boyfriend told about the Nazi asking for directions…” AND THEN I SAW MY OWN POST TELLING THAT JOKE! ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/63 "2009-03-05T00:46:56Z")
Does a funny German computer game count? I’ve always found [Wagenschenke](http://www.wagenschenke.ch/index_site.htm), a game in which you try to keep a drunk upright as he staggers home with his bottle, to be pretty funny. It’s the link called “Home Run 2004”, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/64 "2009-03-05T01:05:49Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > HAH! I’ve seen this guy and watched with 1st generation American Mr. Ujest. I went…see! See! Everyone makes fun of zee Germans…you guys are just begging for it. He gets a bee up his nose everytime someone makes fun of zee Germans, yet he can see that the rest of us are that far off the mark. And I am not saying all Germans are humorless mechancial automatons. When they drink, they are loads of fun. > > One of the best examples of the difference between US and Them is this joke. > > **First the set up** > > There is a german folk song called, **Nord See Kuste** (on the North Sea Coast) that has clapping involved with the lyric. > > _On the north sea coast_ :::::clap clap clap:::: > > **got it?** > > So, these two germans are off on a hike and they fall off a cliff. By some chance they both grab onto the same puny tree that cannot support both of their weight. > > “What should we do?” Asks one. > > “I think we should sing a song…loudly…to see if anyone above will hear us and come to our rescue.” > > “Good Idea…What song?” > > “Nord See Kuste” > > The other guy sings…" On The North Sea Coast " clap clap…AAAAAAAAAAIGH! > > It’s about physical humor. Three Stooges. Jim Carrey. People falling into open manhole covers. Funny. But that is a global thing. i learned that as a texas aggie joke about 35 years ago from one of the company engineers … who was a texan but not an aggie… who was teasing one of our salesmen who was a texas aggie, but using Deep in the Heart of Texas ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/65 "2009-03-05T02:06:05Z")
County Kerry apparently is the Irish equivalent of Ost Friesland. I wonder if they are also their national versions of “where the men are men and the sheep are scared?” In England, I have heard, it is Cumbria and here in America it is usually Wyoming (usually). Though “Wyoming jokes” are not a category the way Polish jokes are (though I think that was largely a 70’s thing, and I lived in Chicago then so I thought it was a Chicago thing too though probably not). ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/66 "2009-03-05T02:47:01Z")
Told to me by a drunken German naval officer. Guy goes into a cafe and orders a dinner roll. Biting into it, he finds a corse hair. He complains. The owner take the guy to the commercial bakery in the back. A guy with one arm is in front of a conveyor belt. He is wearing an armless t-shirt. As a lump of dough comes buy the guy grabs the dough and shoves it into his armpit with his remaining arm. Plop! a perfect dinner roll. Manager explains, “He has a family to support so we can’t really fire him.” Customer says, “But that is disgusting!” Manager, “You should come by on Sundays, that’s when he makes donuts!” ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/67 "2009-03-05T03:06:52Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Guy goes into a cafe and orders a dinner roll. Biting into it, he finds a corse hair. He complains. The owner take the guy to the commercial bakery in the back. > > A guy with one arm is in front of a conveyor belt. He is wearing an armless t-shirt. As a lump of dough comes buy the guy grabs the dough and shoves it into his armpit with his remaining arm. Plop! a perfect dinner roll. > > Manager explains, “He has a family to support so we can’t really fire him.” > Customer says, “But that is disgusting!” > Manager, “You should come by on Sundays, that’s when he makes donuts!” There was a version of that in Larry Wilde’s 1970’s Italian/Polish joke book (Italian section). There it begins with a pizza chef flattening the pie against his bare chest. There was a bit of dialectal humor included, something like: “you-a should a-come a-Sunday when he-a makes the donuts!” ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/68 "2009-03-05T21:19:10Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > There was a version of that in Larry Wilde’s 1970’s Italian/Polish joke book (Italian section). There it begins with a pizza chef flattening the pie against his bare chest. There was a bit of dialectal humor included, something like: “you-a should a-come a-Sunday when he-a makes the donuts!” Wow, I actually have that book - thanks for the reminder! ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/69 "2009-03-07T15:17:45Z")
Someone here once posted a link to a German worker safety video that was just too hilarious not to be parody. I mean… If the Germans are humorless, how could this not be intended as humor?! Here it is: [Staplerfahrer Klaus](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr3QwofYfHs) (with English subtitles) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/70 "2009-03-07T16:18:12Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > A lot of German humor isn’t exportable (due to needed context or untranslatable wordplay), and most of the rest isn’t recognizaby German after translation. > > As examples of the former I recommend the oeuvre of [Loriot](http://www.loriot.de) (Vicco von Bülow), e.g. his two movies [Ödipussi](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094407/) and [Pappa ante Portas](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102629/). “Ödipussi” is already funny and I don’t speak German and have no real idea what it means. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/71 "2009-03-07T17:35:07Z")
There was a black-humour expression that was a common grafitto in Berlin near the end of WWII that went something like: “Enjoy every day of this war, for the peace will be far worse.” ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/72 "2009-03-07T18:49:24Z")
Well, as long as this zombie’s still shambling, here’s [Knorkator](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUcSTyD2T7M) singing about inventing the 31st letter for the German alphabet, the _fart sound_, and its many uses. Clad in what appears to be mutated welcome mats. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/73 "2009-03-07T20:32:57Z")
My father is German, so I get the toilet paper joke (though I don’t laugh out loud at it). Dad likes to wax nostalgic about a standup comedian he remembers from the 50s or 60s – a bald man who in the middle of his act would take a comb from his pocket and, deadpan, slowly run it through his non-existent hair. Broke 'em up every time, apparently. As for the urinal joke, above, one of Dad’s favorite sayings is “You don’t buy beer, you only rent it.” ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/74 "2009-03-07T21:14:09Z")
BTW one German humorist whose best work was in the 1950s and 1960s but who is still considered one of the greatest (along with Loriot, probably) is Heinz Erhard. His talent was mainly in delivery, so the period context doesn’t matter much. There are some clips of him on Youtube, e.g. [Die erste Fahrstunde](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7haPE2nVLXo) (The First Driving Lesson), [Darf ich mal reinkommen?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkdCirNbAU), [Warum die Zitronen sauer wurden](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnnDR0BLr0I&feature=related). Also his nonsensical poems appear in newspapers from time to time, e.g. [Die Made](http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2007/04/28/732367.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345/75 "2009-03-07T21:33:16Z")
Searching for Heinz Erhard I also came across some good Loriot material: (animated) [The Breakfast Egg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHR_aU1TKZ8) (animated) [A husband who just wants to sit in peace, doing nothing](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgqpJlV1JuI) (wait for the last two seconds) (animated) [Two gentlemen in a bathtub](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rypULAp99ao) also: [The Noodle](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foyFTZwCx10) and [The picture hangs crooked](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x39flidzlis) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-an-example-of-german-humor/290345.md?page=3)