Hacker News Reader

Comment by vander_elst | Hacker News Reader

The best thing about the German version (if you watch in on tv) is that before the comedy begins, there's an explanation about why it's funny.

View on HN

Here's the part you mean:

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.

The original is being kept original.

This year I learned: there are dialect versions. Seen one in Hessian today.

For anyone outside of Germany who's wondering, the introduction mostly has the function of explaining the setting and the key repeating line to people who might not be completely familiar with the English language. It's usually shown without subtitles.

I found it on YouTube with German subtitles and a rather annoying laugh track.

A laugh track on top of the original laughs (the whole set was filmed in front of a live studio audience)? The audience laughter is an important part of the show, with the person having the most prominent audience laughter being interviewed about her experience 50 years later ("Today I'm rather embarrassed about my laughing" https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/dinner-for...)

It's a short round up. There's still enough to discover.

I must admit that I was way to long already at adult age before I got the final joke.

What's the final joke?

James assists Miss Sophie to “retire”. The same procedure as every year. wink wink

And furthermore, presumably poor old James has to perform the duties of all the four deceased friends of Miss Sophie that night. Same procedure as every year, James.

He will do his very best.

Germans stereotypically have a conceptual intelligence. If something is good, they will like it. This is why they like badly-translated US sitcoms so much when there's a laugh track. This is why the French sell so much bad-tier wines in fancy bottles (even if you know the producer and the wine, don't buy it in Germany unless you've tasted it or it's certified like AOC). This is why their sense of humour is so...strange.

That said, I like North German humour and Flachwitze.

I’m German-American, and I would say I am culturally much more American than German, but I find German comedy quite funny. I think it is much more observational and satirical than US standup comedy, but it’s also more biting, which makes it funny in a more self reflective way.

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.

Being German I think our political satire is really good. Kabarett/Cabaret is huge and has a long tradition and it's often uniquely dark and has a lot of gallows humor compared to other places. We also I think have one of the largest poetry slam communities. Everything that comes out of the performing arts scene really is pretty solid.

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.

I think German improv is generally better than German sitcoms. I have the disadvantage of mentally translating and overanalyzing as I watch in a way that a native speaker wouldn't, but Schillerstraße, for example, strikes me as funny.

That is embodied very well in the Fastnacht (Carneval), especially of the Mainz and southern German variants (Cologne is a little bit more "Kokelores"), with many acts with biting political satire and commentary.

Yes almost all of my German family is from around Mainz.

Me too!

I'm torn between believing that Germans have a good sense for the absurd, and thinking they just experience joy when they find a good source of randomness with which to re-seed their internal PRNGs.

vell how would man know if zee sketch is funny otherwise?

Isn’t this required for all televised comedy in Germany?

;)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com