Carnival Episode

We are in the middle of carnival or fasching season in Germany.  Among the number of events that will occur, are 'parties' where a carnival-committee will arrange with catered drinks, musicians, and comedians (usually from the local town or city).

For comedians, there's not too many rules or things that you can't insult or make a joke out of.  All politicians are usually a fine target.  Religious figures and customs are ok to insult, with the exception of Muhammad.  International figures like Trump, Putin, or Macron can be easily insulted with jokes.  Up until this past weekend, I would have said that PC (politically correct) was not something that existed with carnival parties.

So it came up in Koln, at a major carnival-party....with the noted comedian Bernd Stelter, and a joke which got PC-problems.

As comedians go....I would rate Bernd Shelter as a pretty clever guy....in his late 50s, and fairly well known on German TV (he's been a guest, presenter, moderator, etc).  Rating him in the top hundred German comedians?  A decade ago, I would have said he was in the top ten.  Today....he's probably in the top hundred but closer to one-hundred, than one.

So, he got on the bad boy list this weekend for a joke that had to do with women with double-names (like of course AKK, our CDU Party chief).  In this case, as he wrapped up the ten-minute comedian presentation and exited....some woman came to the stage and basically told Bernd....no, that joke slamming double-name women was NOT polite.

Stelter's reaction?  If some folks were going to take to shunning or banning actions, then you'd have to draw up a list.

The chief problem here is that jokes like the double-name commentary would have been fine jokes in the 1970s and 1980s.  Today, in an audience of 500 people.....you likely have forty women with this double-name situation, and probably five guys who've adapted to double-name situations.

The act of setting up rules for comedians?  You see a lot of this in the US, and some comedians who've fallen a great deal because of PC behavior.

The odds that Bernd will be back in 2020?  One-hundred percent chance.  I suspect he'll even go and invent a new joke about women with a double-double name, meeting up with a guy who has a triple-name.

The odds of forty women walking out of the hall?  More than likely.

Here's the thing, if you turn fasching and carnival parties into some kind of controlled theme, and allow 'rules' to exist, then the whole thing might as well be flushed down the toilet.  An American sitting there could easily get furious that ten anti-Trump jokes were used, and demand that these have to end.  Someone could come to defense of stupid people.  Politicians might get up and stamp their feet over jokes slamming their parties.

UPDATE: Well....WDR (the public network from NW Germany recorded the entire evening event, and was supposed to air it this week.  A debate has started up.....if they will cut the joke out.  If they cut it.....a number of comedians are probably going to ask public TV network leadership what the list is....of approved topics to joke about.

UPDATE: (27 Feb 2019) WDR announced that the scene with the complaint lady and the comedian will be cut (part of this relates to the sound quality of the lady complaining).  I heard the two-minute piece of her confronting the comedian on the floor, and you can barely hear anything she says.  No reaction yet by the comedian.  Show will be broadcast on Monday night, 8:15 PM.