• Hadriscus@jlai.lu
    41·
    18 hours ago

    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

  • Waffelmeister@lemmy.world
    16·
    1 day ago

    Gottseidank heißt unser Führer nicht Kräuter. Sonst hieße es den ganzen Tag Heilkräuter! Heilkräuter!

    Karl Valentin

  • abbiistabbii@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    591·
    1 day ago

    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!”
      • AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml
        81·
        23 hours ago

        Germans hate humor so much that hey renamed “The Simpsons” to “Die Simpsons!”. “Die Simpsons!”!!

      • crater2150@feddit.org
        25·
        1 day ago

        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.

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
        9·
        1 day ago

        English and German derive from a common root language, so I’d honestly be surprised if there weren’t some that do.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
        15·
        1 day ago

        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”.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
        3·
        13 hours ago

        LED bulbs still exist and are more efficient to use than LED fixtures where you have to change the entire lamp instead of a bulb!

        In fact, I’ve got a room with six such fixtures and only one still works.

        • SirLeToet@lemmy.world
          1·
          3 hours ago

          The LED bulbs barely die. I am still using first gen bulbs i bought over a decade ago. I’ve only had 1 die on me so far. Versus the monthly replacement of some heat bulbs and always having a box of spares around.

          Changing lightbulbs is kind of a thing from the past. Old fashioned fillament heat bulbs are hardly in use in Germany nowadays.

        • ExtremeUnicorn@feddit.org
          3·
          12 hours ago

          Right? I don’t understand how we got here (I mean, I kind of do, but still). I will refuse to buy non-socketed AIO lamps. Having them break and instead of opening the case and quickly changing out an LED bulb, having to replace the entire thing and screw new holes into the ceiling sounds like a complete nightmare.

  • arotrios@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1631·
    2 days ago

    Another German banger I heard awhile ago:

    “Ask me if I’m a schoolbus.”

    “Are you a schoolbus?”

    “No.”

  • Kushan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    901·
    2 days ago

    Hey now, the Germans take humour very seriously! It’s no laughing matter.

  • Enkrod@feddit.org
    312·
    2 days ago

    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:

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

    • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      I’m of German descent on both sides of my family and I can confirm the dry, and sometimes dark humor.

      My dad would drop drive-by jokes that you might not get for a couple of days.

    • nightlily@leminal.spaceEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      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.

      • Enkrod@feddit.org
        8·
        1 day ago

        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.

    • abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      The Germans we’ve met LOVE silly puns and plays on words.

      One time I was playing in a German beer pong event, and one of our opposing teams was “ten inches soft” (in English). We all introduce ourselves (all in English), and one of the guys says to us “do you get it? It’s about the penis!” And we just died laughing.

      It’s great honestly

      • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
        1·
        10 hours ago

        See, thats why I think a lot of non-germans don’t get German humor, there isn’t a scenario where you say “10 inches soft” that isn’t a dick joke, so when the punchline comes around “haha it is about penis”, the recipient is confused thinking they missed the real punchline.

        • abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world
          1·
          4 hours ago

          To be fair, we understood the joke ahead of time (and found it to be a bit “on the nose,”/direct compared to some of the jokes/names we’ve heard), but their insistence on explaining the joke (in English, to English speakers) somehow made it so much funnier

  • Don Antonio Magino@feddit.nl
    108·
    1 day ago

    Germans are funnier than the average American. American humour seems to amount to claiming you own random countries and then threatening military action.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 hours ago

      Honestly american humor has been on massive decline in the last 20 years despite increase of the overall comedy market. Particularly american standup is so bad these days despite bringing in stadiums of people. It’s so cringe: “they’re trying to cancel me yap yap yap”