[Music]
when most Americans think of Germany we
think of things that aren't very
funny Germans are known for their
efficiency productivity discipline and
seriousness not for their sense of humor
even a sweet silly word like Giggles
sounds serious when you say it in German
Haram
zuken a recent International poll
actually ranked Germany as the least
funny nation in the world but are
Germans really too serious to be funny
or is their humor simply Lost in
Translation I'm Brooks swen and I'm
about to find
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out Germans are aware of their unfunny
reputation and have made a national
effort to combat their humor Problem by
establishing the German humor Institute
which is where I'm headed today it's
crazy how proud Germany is of its trains
because they have like literally the
worst history with trains like when we
think of trains we think of like the
Holocaust which is awful and then you
come over here they're like have you
seen our trains I'm like I've heard of
your trains you know it's a nice train a
dude came back I was like would you like
a coffee and I was like no and he's like
but you could if you want do whatever
you want on this train forget about on
the train you know this a nice train was
very proud of our trains now we have a
mobile hotspot H you like that you put
your fun you do not look up history you
don't look up history we would never
kill anyone have you seen what we've
done post
1989 everything
before afterwards haah going into comedy
don't let us do another War we'll be so
embarrassed if I was going to understand
German humor I had to get serious and
nowhere on Earth is humor taken more
seriously than the German humor
Institute The Institute offers personal
humor coaching joke seminars and classes
on subjects like humorous spontaneity
and sarcasm at Brooks let me tell you
something about the German humor okay
this is great Germans love structure you
know structure I can tell yeah they
totally like exaggeration like press
yourself while telling a funny story
they have a bit of difficult history so
what Germans may not be very good at
sarcasm but they sure are good at charts
come to humor Styles Eva was teaching me
to be funny the same way scientists
teach evil robots how to imitate humans
yeah getting your eyes bigger and using
your muscles here and just using your
smile yeah that's pretty good and just
open your mouth yeah think about
something
sad try to take your eyes a little bit
down you're coming
there and what of course is very easy
that's why we go move on now we just
going to move on after that so what I
would like to do is to exercise and you
ask me what are you doing and I'm
allowed to answer everything just not
this thing what I'm
doing what are you doing Eva um I'm
cleaning the
toilet
okay I wasn't sure what she was doing or
what I was doing or why either of us
were doing it all I knew was that there
had to be more to German comedy than
this thank you so much I really
appreciate it great having you
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I hit the streets of Berlin German's
Capital City to talk to some locals
would you say Germans have a good sense
of
humor oh yes yeah kind
of no they don't have I think they have
a really strange sense of humor would
you say that you are funny I think I I
have a kind of humor I like it yeah I
think do too I think in the South people
are more maybe outgoing in the north the
humor is more about the deeper sense of
what you say what's your favorite comedy
movie This is a question I can't answer
no one could give me any definitive
answers I decided the only way to find
out what's funny in Germany is by asking
a funny German so I met up with one of
Germany's most popular standup comedians
Manuel wolf you do standup comedy right
I do standup comedy here in Germany yeah
is there any way that you could like
generalize what Germans what the sense
of humor is we don't have a sense of
humor that's it no yeah are we in that
serious do we come across as yes that's
what the world thinks that's what the
world thinks they have to be wrong
everybody has a sense of humor I I'd say
there is some reservation about certain
topics or or about risky subjects not
just World War II just like like
anything do you guys make fun of
American in Germany do you have like no
no there's nothing to make fun of
Americans I mean they're the best and
greatest people in the world that's what
I thought let's just move on to the next
question next question is it difficult
to like
translate German language into like a
joke structure yes I could give you an
example the English language quite
naturally puts the punchline or the joke
at the end of the sentence yeah and with
German sentence structure it's uh more
difficult for example punchline of a
joke would be and that's why I took the
dog to the manicure something and in
German it would
be so manicure is the punch line but it
wouldn't be the end of the sentence you
have to say mom because to tell the
audience that you took the dog there
right okay yeah yeah how do you feel
German audiences like differ from like
english- speaking audiences English
audiences are more forgiving if you have
like 10 good jokes on one bad joke
English audience would go hey great 10
great jokes thank you thank you thank
you German audience would say well that
one joke that wasn't okay oh man that
sounds that is my impression that sounds
terrible for me I be like I know what
about the 10 you know what I I uh play
uh tonight doing stand up tonight in
English you should well you should come
you can perform it's an Open Stage
really yeah of course I'm kind of
excited but I'm let go terrified okay
all right
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relationship this is like the most
German thing I've ever seen as you can
hear from my accent I'm I'm not English
I'm
Australian sorry no offense other
Germans but I started to do stand-up
comedy in English to get away from other
Germans you could be climbing some
remote Mountain somewhere in the
Himalayas the one other German person in
a 600 mile radius will finally climb up
to you and go hello a huge round of
applause Mr Brooks
Wheeland this is this is crowded like
there's no German word for fire
code relax guys you can sell out you
know that you can just be like we're
full I have like one German word down
which is hello like I can knock that out
of the [ __ ] Park like when I go into
like a restaurant I'm like hello and
they're like
oh and I have to be like oh I lied
I don't know what you just said to me I
used to live in New York City I left it
[ __ ] not for me man it's it's too
rough New York has a Saye they love how
shitty they are they're like Welcome to
New York
City the city that never sleeps and I'm
like oh that sounds like a [ __ ]
nightmare I sleep all the time it really
helps my
mood you should try sleep
[Applause]
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no idea this scene was here it's [ __ ]
awesome like this is very cool and you
guys should be super proud really
pleasantly amazingly surprised and thank
you so
[Applause]
much guys Brooks
whan thanks by thanks man I'll see you
dude reminders of Germany's dark
turbulent history are everywhere in
Berlin and some of that history is very
recent which makes last night's comedy
show seem even more remarkable Germans
seem to be moving out from the shadows
of its dark past and into a much
brighter funnier
future a
bye hey what's up I'm Joanna from above
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what ow God damn it