May 29, 2006
The Guardian. Comedy. Just, no. Please, no.
This article in the Guardian, on British versus German alleged senses of humor, reminds me of one of those furious non-fact discussions you used to hear in bars before the Internet became popular, where no side in the argument had any clue what the hell they were talking about. The author, some sort of British ha-ha guy, claims deep linguistic differences between the two languages cause a difference in national styles of humor -- the strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as applied to comedy.
Of course the article reeks of bogosity.
There are six overt jokes in the article, two supposedly British, four supposedly German, all supposedly funny. Let's go through them.
Joke 1: The German Child, a British joke about Germans. Except it's not: it's a joke that can be successfully told without any ethnic identification at all -- and it is, in its American form. The tension in the joke comes from a recognition of parental anxieties about childhood linguistic development, not from stereotype.
Joke 2: A British joke, presented as an example of an English-language joke style, that ends "... and then I got off the bus." It's a type of joke that ends with an incongruous short kicker to an elaborate set-up. Lee calls it a "pull back and reveal," and the kicker the "failsafe," and claims it can't be performed in German because of German sentence structure.
Except the humor in this type of joke is almost entirely dependent on delivery, not language. Read the paragraph in the article again; see how lifelessly the words connect on the page. The comedian has to inflate this apparatus from scratch, and the humor comes from how quickly they can deflate it. You could do this by mime.
Also, it's not a popular American joke style. (There's a tired tired quip British pundits like to make, that Americans don't speak English. It was old in John Maynard Keynes' day. It was probably old in Joe Miller's day.) If I had to guess, its genealogy comes from the shaggy dog story, also not so popular here. The recent movie The Aristocrats basically hammered this one into the grave.
Joke 3: From Schleswig-Holstein. Actually, I've come across this joke in a history of the New Orleans red light district, presented as observational humor of the era. "Naughty is when you use a feather. Kinky is when you use the chicken." No call-and-response in that version.
Joke 4: From Stuttgart. A combination of a typical cop-and-drunk joke and a typical animal story. The fox and the rabbit don't have iconic roles in the U.S., so it's a little mysterious at first glance. (What sort of animal jokes do Americans make anymore? Bear jokes; dog jokes.)
Joke 5: From Bad Toelz. It's the same type of joke that Lee claimed couldn't exist in the German language. There might be a pun missing; doesn't matter.
Joke 6: From Lower Saxony. Except for the Evangelical pastor -- and in Wisconsin this would still work, although the theological content would have to be revised -- there's nothing about this joke that couldn't be told in any American supper club to polite laughter. Maybe a little too edgy for Reader's Digest? Maybe not. Also, Americans wouldn't include the dog dying.
(Possibly these jokes were made up by Lee. If so, WTF?)
There is one hilarious joke in the article, however.
I looked back over the time I had spent in Hannover and suddenly found situations that had seemed inexplicable, even offensive at the time, hilarious in retrospect. On my first night in Hannover I had gone out drinking with some young German actors. "You will notice there are no old buildings in Hannover," one of them said. "That is because you bombed them all." At the time I found this shocking and embarrassing. Now it seems like the funniest thing you could possibly say to a nervous English visitor.
The quip made by the young German actor is amusing. But the real joke is... Lee didn't get it. And then wrote about how he didn't get it, but now he gets it, in such a way that you know he still doesn't really get it, although he thinks he gets it. Because he's down with the brothers. Who are German.
That's funny.
Maybe Lee meant to do that.
Posted by coyu at May 29, 2006 12:30 PMyou're talking a lot about mimes lately. are you not feeling heard, my angel? a garden of lipstick marks for you! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!
Posted by: la_loca at May 29, 2006 04:07 PMHmmn. American bear jokes....
Ok, so these two backpackers are on part of the Pacific Crest Trail (and a hidee-ho there to all the Muirs in the audience!) when, across a wide mountain meadow, they spot a grizzly bear. The bear, alas, also spots them, and starts charging across the meadow. The one backpacker says, "Well, we're toast." The second puts down his pack and starts rummaging through it.
Backpacker One: "What are you doing?"
Backpacker Two: "Looking for my running sneakers."
Backpacker One: "Running sneakers? You're not going to save yourself with a pair of New Balances! Those things can climb trees and they've been clocked at 40 miles an hour! You'll never outrun a grizzly!"
Backpacker Two (putting on sneakers): "I don't have to outrun the bear."
Thank you, thank you! I'll be hear all week, try the salmon!
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at May 29, 2006 05:26 PMDammit, I did _not_ just type "hear" up there.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at May 29, 2006 05:28 PMTwo bears walk into a bar. Bartender asks what'll they have. Hamm's. (It's always Hamm's.) They run up quite a tab. Bartime, they're asked to settle up. We can't, they reply. We're naked.
Posted by: Carlos at May 29, 2006 09:05 PMA bear is chasing a rabbit down for dinner. The rabbit charges into a clearing where a genie happens to be polishing his lamp.
"Stop you two!" yells the genie. "Jeez. OK, in the name of interspecies harmony, I'm going to grant the two of you three wishes. You can't wish each other any harm, of course."
The bear thinks a minute, and has a stroke of genius. "I wish that all the bears in this forest, apart from me, were female."
The rabbit asks for a crash helmet.
The bear goes up again. "Heck, I wish that all the other bears in the *world* were female."
The rabbit asks for a motorcycle.
The bear says, "Rabbit, you're an idiot. You could have just wished for money and bought a motorcycle!" Putting his claw to his nose, he says, "I wish for one million dollars."
The money appears in a big pile on the edge of the field. "Women, money, I'm set!" says the bear.
The genie looks over at the rabbit.
The rabbit grins, hops on the bike, guns the engine, and says, "I wish that bear was gay."
Posted by: Noel at May 29, 2006 11:52 PMBefore I went hiking in Glacier I was solemnly informed of the three principal safety rules for bear country:
1) Wear bear bells.
2) Carry pepper spray.
3) Keep on the lookout for bear sign. It can be recognized because it contains bear bells and smells like pepper spray.
There is also the field test to determine what type of bear is pursuing you. Climb a tree. If the bear comes up after you, it is a brown bear. If it knocks the tree over, it's a grizzly.
Posted by: Dave MB at May 30, 2006 03:05 PMHm. I did not expect American readers to post bear jokes. I expected German readers to arise and post German jokes.
(Or defensive Brits to post, telling me that Stewart Lee is funny. Remember, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.)
Jokes from Germany... there's the famous one of asking a Berliner and a Viennese for directions.
Posted by: Carlos at May 30, 2006 04:36 PMNever mind the stereotypes, repeat the instructions!
Posted by: Dennis Brennan at May 30, 2006 06:30 PMNever mind the stereotypes, repeat the instructions!
Posted by: Dennis Brennan at May 30, 2006 06:32 PMWhich is odd, because I associate modern Berlin with cynical naturists.
Posted by: Carlos at May 30, 2006 08:05 PMJust curious, since you're in Armenia, have you heard any "Radio Yerevan" jokes? There were very popular during communism in Romania and it turns out in Russia too.
For example:
Q: What can a 75 old citizen do to become powerful and loved again?
A: Nothing, comrade Khrushchev...
Or:
A soviet listener is asking us if it is true that after Chernobyl nuclear accident, people lost their teeth.
Our answer is yes, but only those who couldn’t keep their mouth shut.
I don't know about Doug, but I have a collection of Radio Yerevan jokes somewhere.
Posted by: Carlos at May 31, 2006 04:36 PMThere are lots of good ones--
Regarding (political) postage stamps, a listener asks: Why won't they stick to the envelopes? The answer is that you need to be sure to spit on the correct side....
Nice PCT/bear joke, by the way.
Posted by: Renee at June 1, 2006 05:35 AMhow about this article in NYT?
Posted by: Dana at June 5, 2006 04:05 PM"It's Springtime for Soccer, and for Rowdy England Fans" LONDON, June 1 — They have been warned, as always, not to rampage through the streets, destroying things and attacking people. But as England's soccer fans prepare to visit Germany for the World Cup this month, another item has been added to their long "verboten" list: Don't mention the war.
Posted by: Dana at June 5, 2006 04:14 PMOh, The Aristocrats! I have some seriously mixed emotions about that one. Language barrier? Cultural barrier? Don't know, but I barely smiled a couple of times.
Did anyone seen the movie? Did it make you laugh hysterically?
Posted by: Kit at June 7, 2006 04:45 PMDisclaimer: I had friends in the movie. I'm glad it was made. The joke itself, not so funny. But it got a good burial.
Also, I heart Sarah Silverman.
Posted by: Carlos at June 7, 2006 07:44 PM