German Humour - Culture

Culture

German humour often follows many conventions which, due to similarities in cultural perception of events and day-to-day life (and other such universal themes which may be discussed through comedy), may be readily interpreted by natives of other countries.

Some German humorists such as Loriot use seriousness as means of humour. Another notable example of mock-serious humour with satirical content is Jakob Maria Mierscheid MdB, a virtual politician, and his eponymous Mierscheid Law. Begun as a hoax to falsify restaurant bills, Mierscheid has gathered sufficiently enduring pop culture recognition since the '70s to gain his own (tongue-in-cheek) entry on the official Bundestag Website. Similarly, the Stone louse (Petrophaga lorioti), a fictitious animal which was a part of a comic mocumentary video sketch, gained acknowledgement as a fictitious entry in the medical encyclopedic dictionary Pschyrembel Klinisches Wörterbuch.

However, current events situations, traditions, and cultural factors which are unique to the country may provide a barrier to the understanding of the meaning behind a joke or comedic reference to someone who is not aware of the events being referred to. This applies especially to the abundant use of local dialects and customs in Germany. In other cases the humour derives from mixing different styles of speech or opposing them to each other. For instance, the comedian Helge Schneider (DOB: Aug 30, 1955) is renowned for his absurdist and anarchical humour, yet due to the deep roots of his humour in the German language and its several stylistic levels, extensive parts of his material are lost when translated into English.