美国国家公共电台 NPR In Germany, A Comedy Renaissance

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

There's a stereotype¹ that Germans aren't funny. One reason for that is the World War II era. That's when the Nazis³ sent Jewish entertainers to the death camps. And many non-Jewish German comedians⁵ refused to perform under the Third Reich. But now German comedy is coming back, and it involves some funny but mildly offensive Nazi² jokes.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has this report on German comedy. And she starts with one of its champions.

MICHAEL MITTERMEIER: My name is Michael Mittermeier. I'm a German comedian⁴, kind of a unicorn⁶.

SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE⁷: I meet Mittermeier in a Munich museum dedicated⁸ to one of his heroes, Karl Valentin. He's been called Germany's Charlie Chaplin. The late comedian exemplifies the rich tradition of German humor before World War II. This 1934 Valentin skit⁹ is called "The Record Store."

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KARL VALENTIN: (Speaking German).

NELSON: In it, he walks into a record store and drops absurdist double entendres to a flabbergasted sales clerk. Valentin died shortly after the end of the war. Mittermeier says no one was in the mood to laugh anyway.

MITTERMEIER: And so after '45, the comedy industry in Germany was very weird¹⁰. There were no real comedians on stage as live performers. And on TV, we had these well-feeling, cheesy comedy movies - really crap ones.

NELSON: Humor tends to work when you're exposing uncomfortable truths but stops short of being offensive. And that was an impossible task for post-war German comedians. But Mittermeier is part of a new generation of Germans. He's willing to poke¹¹ fun at their country's past. Here the 51-year-old performs at a club in Edinburgh, Scotland.

He's talking about what it was like to be a German elementary school student in the 1970s.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MITTERMEIER: Every day we heard, you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty. I had a school subject called guilt¹².

(LAUGHTER)

MITTERMEIER: Three times a week, we had guilt. On Fridays, we had shame.

(LAUGHTER)

MITTERMEIER: By the time I was 14, I thought I invaded Poland.

(LAUGHTER)

NELSON: A German tells a Nazi joke and gets a laugh. It's a sign of the times - even better if you can work in a dig at Americans like this joke. It's about a girl walking up to Mittermeier at a bar.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MITTERMEIER: (Imitating woman) Hey, you, German guy, why are there so many different languages in Europe? What to answer to such a highly extreme intelligent question?

(LAUGHTER)

MITTERMEIER: And I said, look, Tiffany (ph), you want to know why there are so many different languages in Europe? Because we Germans lost the war.

(LAUGHTER)

MITTERMEIER: No, no, no, hey, don't applaud. You know what she answered to me? (Imitating woman) Oh, I'm so sorry for you guys.

NELSON: Nowadays, anything goes in German humor, even if it sparks international incidents, like it did with Turkey. Last year, Ankara demanded Berlin punish a German comedian who read a satirical poem about the Turkish president on TV. It insinuated¹³ the leader fornicated with goats. Berlin eventually refused. Officials here say they will get rid of the German law criminalizing insults against foreign leaders.

That's what the comedian was challenging in the first place. Germans seem to be more willing nowadays to protect free speech if it's funny. On a satirical show called "Extra 3," comedian Christian¹⁴ Ehring played part of a speech by right-wing candidate Alice Weidel.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "EXTRA 3")

ALICE WEIDEL: (Speaking German).

NELSON: In which she said, political correctness belongs on the scrap¹⁵ heap of history. Ehring joked, yes, out with the political correctness. Let's all be incorrect. The Nazi slut is right.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "EXTRA 3")

CHRISTIAN EHRING: (Speaking German).

NELSON: The candidate sued for defamation¹⁶ and lost. Another sign that Germany wants to shed its dreary¹⁷ reputation is the creation of the German Institute for Humor. It's led by life coach Eva Ullmann.

EVA ULLMANN: (Speaking German).

NELSON: Recently, she held a workshop for teachers in the northern city of Bremen. She coached them on using humor and body language to engage students and diffuse¹⁸ tension in the classroom.

ULLMANN: Somebody's eating and I say, oh, thanks for bringing me a sandwich. So trying to - little perspective change for daily things who annoy you.

NELSON: That perspective change is something Bremen school district official Susanne Poppe-Ullmann hopes her teachers will embrace.

SUSANNE POPPE-ULLMANN: (Speaking German).

NELSON: She says it's hard for Germans to grasp that being funny can actually be productive. She says the problem is they think humor clashes with their German work ethic¹⁹, which is internationally respected. The Humor Institute's Ullmann says Germans are funny, at least in private, which means the stereotype of the humorless German may be around for a while.

ULLMANN: So that's mostly a two-sided thing - yeah? - the world saying Germans are not fun and Germans saying, yes, you're right.

NELSON: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Bremen.

(SOUNDBITE OF DJANGO REINHARDT'S "BRAZIL")

1 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

2 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

3 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

5 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

6 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

9 skit   

n.滑稽短剧；一群

参考例句：

• The comic skIt sent up the foolishness of young men in love.那幅画把沉溺于热恋中的青年男子的痴态勾勒得滑稽可笑。
• They performed a skit to amuse the crowd.他们表演了一个幽默小品来娱乐观众。

10 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

11 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

12 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

13 insinuated   

v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入

参考例句：

• The article insinuated that he was having an affair with his friend's wife. 文章含沙射影地点出他和朋友的妻子有染。
• She cleverly insinuated herself into his family. 她巧妙地混进了他的家庭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

15 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

16 defamation   

n.诽谤；中伤

参考例句：

• Character defamation can be either oral or written.人格诽谤既可以是口头的也可以是书面的。
• The company sued for defamation.这个公司因受到诽谤而提起诉讼。

17 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。

18 diffuse   

v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的

参考例句：

• Direct light is better for reading than diffuse light.直射光比漫射光更有利于阅读。
• His talk was so diffuse that I missed his point.他的谈话漫无边际，我抓不住他的要点。

19 ethic   

n.道德标准，行为准则

参考例句：

• They instilled the work ethic into their children.他们在孩子们的心中注入了职业道德的理念。
• The connotation of education ethic is rooted in human nature's mobility.教育伦理的内涵根源于人本性的变动性。