Somebody, MCFA! (Make Comedy Funny Again!)

(Sorry about the flash)

As I may have mentioned a time or two before, I live in Germany and have been here for quite a while now. I’ve come to love and respect many things that Germany has to offer such as the beer, the history (I’m referring to pre-Nazi history), the old castles and churches which have stood over a thousand years. But regardless of how long I have been here there are somethings which I still, and probably never will understand or embrace. One of those being German comedy.

When I first got to Germany, my German friends tried to introduce me to a whole slew of German comedians. At first I thought maybe it’s just the language barrier, so as my German improved I watched them again. No that wasn’t it.

Maybe it was the cultural references, after all I didn’t get here until after the fall of the wall and in school they tended to revolve around Nazi German history when referring WWII. So I didn’t know much about Germany after the Marshall plan. So I made an attempt to learn about what the Germans watched on T.V. and what music they listened to primarily from the 60’s through the 80’s. No, I still did not find German comedy funny.

So I went back to watching American comedies, but unfortunately I could only watch them on German T.V. or in movie theaters dubbed in German. At this point, my German was good enough that I knew what was being said, but it was still really annoying because I knew how the actor’s real voice sounded, and if the Germans used a voice actor that sounded nothing like the original voice it was distracting. (Eddie Murphy was a prime example, as his “German” voice was very high pitched and shrill)

When the Big Bang Theory first aired in 2007, my family in the States told me how funny it was, so naturally I was excited when they finally started showing it in Germany. Except for Johnny Galecki, who I had last seen when he was a child in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the actors were all new to me. So I didn’t think I would have a problem watching it in German. But there was another problem…

I watch an episode with my wife and could not understand what my mother could think was funny here. There was a couple situations that were funny, but for the most part it really wasn’t. So we watched another one, same thing. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t until I saw an episode in English that I understood why.

The Germans didn’t understand the original jokes, they couldn’t get the cultural references, and they just ended up trying to rewrite the dialog so a German could understand a funny situation, and they failed miserably. I have since stopped watching anything from American television that has been dubbed in German. I only watch series in the English language on streaming services, but now it’s getting harder and harder to find something to laugh with or about. (Even in English)

Somebody, MCFA! (Make Comedy Funny Again!)

Have you ever had the feeling that something seemed to be 'Lost In Translation' in a movie or a show that you were watching?

Have you ever seen German funny comedy?

What was your favorite comedy series?

Do you still watch T.V.? and if not do you miss it?

Let me know what you think in the comments below :)

And please remember to recommend!