Explaining German Humor

 I generally divide German humor into six categories:

1.  Schadenfreude.  This is usually when the guy doing the joke/act....has a moment of fake meanness (glee would be appropriate here as well).  This is usually where an event has occurred, and civil behavior has been dumped.....things then happen which would not be the norm.  

If you can find any of the sketches of Loriot (probably over 10,000 of them)....he's a five-star artist at these.  One of his better ones is the trip to Italy with his new girlfriend, and how he drops her at some Italian coffee shop.

2.  The other nationalities gimmick.  Generally, any joke about Brits, Dutch, or Italians is acceptable.  In the past decade, Turk humor has edged into society.  

3.  Governmental bureaucracy jokes.   These used to be just fake situations where a city planning office was joked about.  In the past decade....several German comedians have gone to collect actual true stories....which are true, but also dampen trust with the public.  

4.  Man-jokes.  These are usually working class humor situations where guys all agree that five guys at some pub....drinking....will get into some kind of trouble.

5.  Political satire humor.  These usually touch on real-world events....where such-and-such politician or party....made a major screw-up, and the explanation is incorporated into a comical routine.  Politicians hate these, but the general public enjoy the punch-lines.

6.  Kabarett situations.  I would best describe these as a Jerry Seinfeld nightclub, where various comics come out and offer up routines.  Some dressed in special clothing....some toting a prop....some talking about intellectual things, and so on.  

Some American comedies failing to make it in Germany?  I might go and suggest that 50-percent of these shows fail.  But you could take a similar number of German comedy shows....attempt them with translations into the US and they would fail as well.

If you asked for the 'better' of German humorists/comedians?  My list would be:

Kaya Yanar (who does a lot of Turk-German humor)

Mario Barth (picks continually on government ineffectiveness or wasted money projects)

Bulent Ceylan (Tukr-German comedy)

Dieter Nuhr (intellectual comedy)

Hape Kerkeling (puts on clothing to fit the joke)

Kurt Kromer (does interesting interviews with real people)

Christoph Maria Herbst (could step into the Office show and play Michael Scott easily)

Gerd Dudenhoffer (if you can find 'Heinz Becker' shows on Youtube, you can settle back for 20 minutes of Saarland humor....the 'I'm going to buy a car' episode is the best one).