I've been disappointed by the reaction to Germany's win at the World Cup. In particular, it's the number of references to the World Wars. No, I'm not offended by humourously touching on an emotional subject - I like dark humour as much as the next person. It's just gotten tiresome.
There's only so many ways you can make veiled references to a major war. It's gotten predictable. And aren't there plenty of things to make fun of them for? This is the country that dedicates a month to beer.
The same thing happens with France. They have only a limited number of joke subjects that are rerun again and again. They're rude, they like Jerry Lewis, and they surrender quickly in war. That last one is especially galling, since comics can tell a France-surrendering joke and the audience will laugh, even though no one involved knows why France is associated with surrender.
(Bonus points if you noticed the "galling" pun above.)
There has been humour about Germans being humourless and over-organized, and they've actually seemed refreshing. Also, Angela Merkel has been the but of some jokes, and really, her awkward-sternness can be pretty funny. So there is hope for German ridicule. I'll help out: sausage, Kraftwerk, the Porsche Panamera, reallylongcompoundwords, trying to pronounce "Goethe".
No comments:
Post a Comment