Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany
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Also, it _NEVER_ stops being fun*
[*] Legally required to hold this opinion.
There are also some German adaptations, like the one with Anette Frier and Ralf Schmitz (two well-known comedians). It's in _kölsch_, the dialect spoken in the Cologne area - which is quite fun to listen to, at least for Germans:
There are also several platt versions (a dialekt spoken in the north which is actually more like a separate language)
[0] The reason is obviously his popularity in Sweden
I think it’s the accent. His voice actors are pretty hard to understand sometimes.
Disney artists like Carl Barks created new stories in a genre quite distinct from the animated cartoons. While the cartoons are mostly slapstick humor, the Barks stories were longer narratives where the characters went on various adventures. A lot of the stories were produced in Europe for the European market, since the magazines were never as popular in the US (where I believe superhero magazines were more popular, for whatever reason).
WB and Hanna-Barbera and other studios also tried to publish comic magazines, but didn't manage to adapt to the medium as successfully, so they are less well known.
https://slate.com/culture/2009/12/sweden-s-bizarre-tradition...
Thanks for destroying that tradition, Disney Inc.
It’s also quite fun since there’s a joke relationship between Swedes and Norwegians calling each other stupid, so it’s quite fun to insinuate that Norwegians simply do not understand that the movie is set on NYE.
It's hard to imagine it would be well received in most other countries, especially as a tradition.
The 'movie castle' is Schloss Moritzburg btw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritzburg_Castle
The very important distinction here is that were the same policies as in Czechoslovakia applied in West Germany, people like Rainer Werner Fassbinder would not be able to create their movies. Not distribute, create.
Both sides were very much interested in destroying each other (and worked actively on that), but problem is that whenever you have bureaucrats doing censorship in the name of the national or social interests, it ends up affecting far-wider circle of (innocent) people than officially intended, and often can be misused for other (political) purposes. The main reason I even commented on this is that few days ago I've seen an East-Germany documentary on German nazis working as mercenaries in South Africa, which was banned in West Germany, even though it had nothing "communistic" or anti-western - but it touches some not-so-popular subjects on nazis and nazi supporters in West and particularly W. Germany that (although true and well documented) they didn't want people to hear about. So they censored it as "communist propaganda", no questions asked...
Eastern block certainly had a lot more censorship and oppression than West, but it's important to be aware that lots of dirty s** happened in the West too, things were never as black and white as some people like to simplify it now.
Spending Christmas with my friend's Norwegian family was just getting one "tradition" after another explained to me for a week while I continuously got more and more confused.
Is it? I don't recall anything to suggest that. The title in German in "The 90th birthday".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/european-new-y...
He’s not “huge” but as a musician he is bigger in DACH than anywhere else.
Now I guess he's just a washed out actor, I didn't even realize he's still touring
My working theory is that there’s some kind of reverse self-fulfilling prophecy at play here: It’s been imposed on Germans that “we love Hasselhoff” over and over again and at some point we just went with it, albeit it’s mostly and irony thing now.
Then again, I might be totally off and not realize that I’m looking at it from within a bubble of people not actually liking him.
If the light doesn’t do anything, you might lack some basic building blocks for whatever photobiomodulation does (stimulating cytochrome-C-oxidase seems to be only one of the effects), like copper or other trace minerals (selenium, iodine, zinc), or B vitamins. Hard to say really, energy production in the body seems to be really complex from what I‘ve read. If you have lots of money to spend on health, you could get a hair tissue mineral analysis and an organic acids test, and see what‘s lacking. Former will probably be $100, latter could be 300-500.
Consistering there is a large statue of Rowan Atkinson / Mr Bean in Yuexiu Park, the largest park in Guangzhou China. Mr Bean is very well known.
Mr Bean is more famous than Monty Python.
I must admit that I was way to long already at adult age before I got the final joke.
https://www.ndr.de/kultur/dinner_for_one/Dinner-for-One-Hein...
What to keep in mind: It is one of the few pieces of German television tradition that are shown entirely in English - without subtitles. The English is intentionally made so simple that many people without good language skills can understand it. In 1963, however, when the sketch was recorded, a great many Germans knew only a few scraps of English. The explanation is mainly meant to make sure that the following sketch is understood anyway.
This year I learned: there are dialect versions. Seen one in Hessian today.
That said, I like North German humour and Flachwitze.
German comedy seems to play the role of a court jester speaking uncomfortable truths through humor. American comedy to me is much more surface level by comparison — there are a few comedians like Carlin who seem to have embodied the German satirical spirit.
I think another aspect of German comedy that is very hard to translate is the linguistic structure of it, where the structure of the language often plays a key role in the funniness of the joke.
But popular television type comedians here are really bad and cringeworthy. Much worse than in Britain or the US. Kind of like music in that way. Popular music in Germany is bad compared to across the pond and most of the good stuff is more niche.
;)
The same procedure as every year.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/european-new-y...
A prequel would be the life and times of her now dead guests.
Don't get me wrong, a sequel would be cool too! Perhaps we could get a glimpse into Miss Sophie's legacy after she passes away, and how her butler needs to contend with her snarky relatives who wants to get rid of that infernal tiger on the floor, only to replace it with an even larger bear pelt.
No child or most adults can watch without bursting into tears.
We didn't want to break down in tears in front of the entire congregation.
The woman was baffled. Maybe it has something to do with having children, I don't know. But after my kids wanted it read at bedtime repeatedly, I burned our copy and told them it was lost.
No wonder the story has the vibes it has
Quite many Finnish (metal) bands have been covering Snowman song as well but they don't sound as good as the original, though. One example is the cover by Nightwish [2].
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music_(film) [2] - https://oe3.orf.at/stories/2916424/ (German)
Those famous musicals made during that era aren't usually very culturally accurate. For example Dick Van Dyke played a cockney chimney sweep in Mary Poppins, made a bit of a pigs ear of the accent but otherwise turned in a performance that was really fun, and if you're able to let a few things slide they can be quite enjoyable.
[0] https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/Dinner-for-One-Das-Original,din...
It's almost as popular as watching Tatort on public viewing events in bars on Sundays.
I'm also legally obligated to like it, it comes with the citizenship :D
I have never even heard of anyone doing that, I’d say dinner for one is vastly more popular.
It's maybe clubs for tweens and even that's declining to my knowledge
I’m guessing I’m not the only one who thought that "tweens" meant people in their 20s. As a tip: Don’t say you are into tweens.
I misused the word, thanks for pointing that out. Really confusing when you stumble upon such a total misconception about the meaning of a word in your own vocabulary.
> 1. A person in their twenties, between 20 and 29 years old. Possibly including 30-32.
> 1954 "The Fellowship of the Ring", J.R.R. Tolkien
> At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.
It has been broadcast by NRK on New Year's Eve every year since 1980.
https://serienytt.no/events/grevinnen-og-hovmesteren-2022/
https://www.nrk.no/kultur/alt-om-_grevinnen-og-hovmesteren_-...
Bourgeois snobbery!
What's wrong with laughing about a drunk butler tipping over a tiger's head?
Zame procedure as every year, Feldmarsckalk.
kloph
I'll kill that Bear.
-- The Bunker Version.
Not sure if the author confused it with Australia, which is confusingly mentioned under "Popularity across Europe", or lumps us up with Germany, which misses the fun factoid that we split up again in 1945 (and also tends to get people over here surprisingly pissy).
Considering they mention Australia and South Africa together, then later in the same sentence say it is “ less popular there than in Europe,” I would say with 100% confidence that the author meant to say Australia, not Austria.
After all, Australia is not in Europe so if they had meant Austria then it would be strange to say it’s less popular there than in Europe.
There are also many European countries not mentioned so I don’t think anything is being lumped together.
Maybe not by geography, but by Euro♡ision, it is?
I don’t think anyone is saying “Australia is part of Europe” with a straight face though :-)
This is changing to some extent with demographics (immigration from China and India, and some generational change). But surprisingly slowly and shallowly. Few Australians know much about Asia, or even the Pacific, let alone feel theirselves to be part of it.
> I do not think skin tone should come into it
It shouldn't, but it certainly does. Little can be understood about Australia without it (well, ethnicity at least - broader than 'skin tone'). A large part of Australia's Europe-longing comes from a historical fear of China (as a kind of stand in for people of Asiatic ethnicity).
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2016/12/19/broadcast-sb...
That’s cute. It’s been a while, but last I checked, there were 10s of broadcasts of it on the different stations throughout the afternoon, evening and night in Germany ;)
We have like 2 or so (?) public broadcasting stations. One of which makes a heroic sacrifice for the audience that wants to see Silversterstadl, so we need to compromise a bit.
Typical Austrian tradition is to get unreasonably shitfaced with friends/relatives throughout the day (same as every other holiday), until you have a sufficiently positive outlook on the new year.
In that state you're then able to bare the presidents new year speech for the purpose of sarcastically mocking it, actually find Mundl's antics afterwards funny and can round it off with "Dinner for One", right before going outside and playing with explosives. If you survive, you get to listen to the final parts of The Blue Danube afterwards.
Our 8yo daughter thinks it’s hilarious :).
Certainly. I’ve now known for several years that it’s mainly popular here, but I’d never have guessed it.
> since it is in English.
As usual in Germany, dubbed versions are very common
Maybe I'm special, but I never heard of it before today.
I always assumed it was just a thing among my parent's friend group
This was part of my childhood, and I presumed it must be a British influenced thing.
"The sketch was also part of the New Year's Eve program in the GDR. There, however, not the classic with Frinton and Warden was broadcast from 1978, but an early variant with the actors Ernest E. Regon and June Royal under the title Erinnerungsmahl, which had already been played 20 years earlier on the Munich Varieté stage Annast. Beginning on New Year's Eve 1988, a little less than a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, GDR television then also showed the Frinton version.[28]"
Here in Germany, we wish each other "Guten Rutsch" on New Years Eve, literally "(have a) good slide (into the new year)"
Guten Rutsch to all
What 'naughty bits', all I rememeber are joks abut her pussy.
And, for any non-English, or ESL-speakers, 'it' is ithe funniest word in the English language. For any English speakers (mother tongue etc) - prove me wrong. You'll notice, the more you try, the harder it gets.
(Not going to object to "it"--I suspect you may be right.)
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/comedy-und-satire/dinner-f...
It is rarely broadcasted in Germany, however, because people just like the original black and white version better and vocally rejected the colorized version when it was first aired.
There were also plans to record a live version in color in 1968, but Freddy Frinton sadly passed away before it was realized.
Probably over a tiger's head.
> UFA’s planned prequel series, Dinner for Five, based on a 2002 crime caper by the German author Michael Koglin, is set 51 years before the famous birthday party, in the year 1921, at a country house near Eastbourne, East Sussex.
* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/european-new-y...
(update there seem to be two versions, 11 and 18 min. This is the 11 min)
Between Miss Sophie and Sakke Järvenpää it was a good way to finish or start the year.
I hear they're making a prequel!
However, it suffered from extremely unfavorable conditions: it ran on a newly introduced digital channel that people would have to fiddle with their TV's settings to receive at all, and competed with some extremely popular series running at the same time.