I think this forklift training video is pretty funny
Not Safe For Mental Health.
but safe for work fingerguns pew pew
So there are actually some German wartime jokes that are actually quite funny. Here’s some that I heard:
- " Where I live there’s now a lot of warehouses, there were houses and there were houses, and there were houses!"
- “How can you tell an optimist from a pessimist? The optimist is learning English and the pessimist is learning Russian.”
- One day at the barracks there was a soldier on his knees looking around the ground, picking up random papers he found and going “no, no that’s not it”. His officer asked what he was doing, “I’m looking for my special paper”. He sent him to the doctor and he was declared insane, when the doctor gave him his discharge papers he explained “ah, there’s my special paper!”
How would a German joke work based on english homonyms?
It’s just a coincidence that the same words are homonyms in English and German in this case: “Warehouses” = “Warenhäuser”, “There were houses” = “Dort waren Häuser”. You don’t even have to translate to colloquial German as the other comment suggests, a word-by-word translation works here.
This. I asked myself this and that and was amazed the joke worked in both languages.
I mean to be fair, English and German are in the same language family.
So I went and googled it out of curiosity, after remembering that German for was/were (in some form anyway) is ‘war’.
I found this in a thread about Downfall and a translated joke where someone was wondering what the original was:
The German pun uses ‘Warenhaus’ department store and “Da war 'n Haus” - “there was/used to be a house”.
hm thanks
Germans hate humor so much that hey renamed “The Simpsons” to “Die Simpsons!”. “Die Simpsons!”!!
Die Bart, Die!
I’ve met many funny germans, and then 1 german guy who so perfectly fits the stereotype that I almost think its a bit in its own right.
Honestly I very much enjoy German humor, but I do understand why people don’t always get it, because it comes in two distinct styles with (imho) vastly different qualities:
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Just plain silly (see: Otto Waalkes), can be good but it is often with such a heavy handed punchline that it just doesn’t feel funny anymore. This is the only time people recognize that a German tried to be funny and it often lands flat for people with a more refined sense of humor.
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Irony and sarcasm, dark and extremely, extremely, sometimes unbearably dry. People who did not grow up with it will often not recognize that a joke has been made at all, because Germans are the kings of straight-face-delivery. This is where german humor hides its refinement and wit and since it’s often undetectable, people imagine we’re just not funny. But if you catch it, this shit is HILARIOUS.
Both kinds are rife with puns… I don’t know why, but Germans love puns and considering the very complicated nature of the german language this also often passes by unnoticed with non-native speakers.
I work with one guy who is a master of the second style to the extent that even other Germans don’t notice he’s joking.
That’s a common occurrence and since “you don’t explain jokes” sometimes in a group one person says something, one other person starts laughing uncontrollably and all the others just look on confused and will never get an explanation. It’s often a test of who pays attention, who you are on the same wavelength with and who has the wit to register the joke.
People getting each others jokes, while others don’t, is quite often the basis for lifelong friendships.
I don’t think this is a uniquely German thing.
Yeah, it’s a thing with germans, not a german thing.
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I have never heard those stereotypes about germany anywhere. Its a ragebait post so im not supprised.
Detected the French dude
I’m curious about that last part. Please elaborate.
Anywhere north of the Alps, cuisine had to function as a means of enduring the long, cold winter. Hence a lot of it is hearty stodge, without the joie de vivre one finds closer to the Mediterranean.
If Bavaria is any better, its proximity to Italy may be of credit.
Been living in Bavaria for 2 years.
Bavarians can’t cook.
Wow, clearly someone who has never eaten Saure Zipfl, Saukopf or Presssack.
God please tag this nsfl. Have you even tried Bavarian food? At least Poland has good bakeries
Hohoho… somebody wants to start a new war. Never ever insult german bread.
I’d like to throw the brits into the mix.
But is this the average experience? Everyday meal? I think not. Mediterraneans have good everyday meals rest of Europe only for sundays. Tomatoes vs cabbage&potato.
I can’t confirm any of that except the cooking part. There’s a German restaurant near us, and the entire menu is various forms of Wurst - sausages. Apparently, their entire culinary range consists of hot dogs.
That’s simply a bad restaurant
Yes, a real German restaurant would also have a dozen styles of kraut to go with the hot dogs.
You misspelled good
Name something more German than wearing socks with Birkenstocks
Germany
Which is a style again.
I’ve tried that, I find the socks make them too likely to slip when I walk. Don’t understand it.
(edit: correcting phone typos)
I have poor circulation (possibly Raynaud’s Disease) so sandals without extra insulation have been a painful prospecr for two decades.
For me, Birkenstocks slip a little bit no matter what. If I don’t wear socks, the rubbing eventually makes me bleed (usually just under the ankle). If I wear socks, that doesn’t happen.
I’m not sure why that happens to me and not to most people. Maybe my skin is too dry? But yeah. When I wore Birkenstocks, it was with socks. These days I just don’t wear sandals.
I can see that. My feet take a few days of careful husbanding before they develop the callouses for a new pair of sandals, and there’s gonna be some sore spots. It helps to stick a bandaid over the sore spots to give them a chance to toughen up.
I can well imagine that some people might take longer or develop blisters more easily, preventing the skin from getting to that point. Dry skin is a good hypothesis.
Socks are a totally decent option. If it’s not going to happen, don’t try to force it. /nod
I read that as it was gay (as in happy) until they walked in.
MAYBE YOU ARE ALL HOMOSEXUALS!
Zwei Kamele sitzen im Keller und hacken Petroleum. Sagt das eine zum anderen: “Du, morgen ist Weihnachen!”. Sagt das andere: “Ich weiß, ich bin eh mit dem Fahrrad da.”
Ich lerne noch Deutsch und kann den Witz zwar übersetzen aber ich verstehe er trotzdem nicht.
Edit: Grammar
There is a trope of nonsensically combining statements, e.g. “at night it’s colder than outside” (it’s called Alogismus - is alogism a proper english word?). It’s children humor, most of them find it funny somewhere between 6 and 14 yo.
This sentence is an example of that:
- camels don’t sit in basements
- you can’t chop kerosene
- Christmas has nothing to do with the fact that the camel traveled via bicycle
Ach so! ich verstehe jetzt. Yeah the cultural immersion is still a bit far in my German learning journey. Aber danke dir :)
Gerne! :-)
Germany has some of the best wordplay. Puns aplenty over there.
What are we doing here? Is country bashing funny again?
In western and central Europe, country bashing your neighbours never stopped being funny.
We Europeans always bash our neighbors. We’re like brothers, that always fight but at the end of the day would stand in for another.
I’d kiss those silly frenchmen, that I keep on bashing, on the lips long before I’d even consider giving a yankee a hug.Was it ever not fun?
Lighten up a little
Germans are funnier than the average American. American humour seems to amount to claiming you own random countries and then threatening military action.
Unfortunately, the people who say that kind of shit are not joking.
I think Germans are pretty Damm funny tbh. They’re silly
Dude the meme game they have is on point you’d be surprised…
Women are always the recipients of all humor, as were their mothers, and their grandmothers before them, and as will be their daughters, and their granddaughters after them, for it is the will of the Elders
My suggestion is to watch the documentary laughing with Hitler to see that not only do Germans have a scathing sense of humor, but also were willing to die for their jokes.
The forklift training video was amazing.
