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I know what you mean about watching programmes in a foreign language. I was in Ibiza last week and had to watch some of the games on Canal Plus and La Sexta in Spanish. Both had summarisers sat along a table and it is quite amusing when you can only really recognise players names and the occasional cliche amongst conversations. Anyone watching the games in Spain do you reckon Michael Robinson dies his hair?

Having just come back from the world cup, luckily 3 games visited and was sitting 10 meters from Price William! the frankfurt fanzone all in german was providing a great deal of universal language humour!

All photos are up here:

Try spot Price William and Posh Spice!

I can relate, I am a Brit living in the Sates and I have my 13 inch tv in the office but the only channel carrying the games (I don't have cable) on regular TV is the Spanish channel. With the interfreence from the weather (yep, we had ten inches of rain this week and Tornadoes) and the fast paced commentary in Spanish these have proven to be interesting games! I have already been warned (in a nice way)about taking sick leave for any England matches.....Here is to a speedy recovery to Michael Owen..!
Malcolm
Houston TX

Hi Mandeep,

so you were watching "WM Total" on ProSieben TV hosted by Stefan Raab (several-times German Eurovision song-contest hopeful).

It is quite a funny show. Stefan starts off the show with some media clipping where he takes real BILD-newspaper or TV show clips and adds his comments to those rather bizarre situations, making it even more funny. Actually the fact that the Beckhams appeard on that show was a rather rare one. Their usual victims are the likes of Lukas Podolski, Klinsmann himself etc.

The other part you were mentioning is called Blind Kick. The host and one of his late nite celebrity guests have to verbally direct blind-folded players across a mini football field to score.

On tonite's show one of the guests will be former Cameroon coach Winfried Sch盲fer.

I can't really add anything else to it but keep on watching! It's a good show!

Andreas

I used to watch German Neighbours in my student days, as we has German channels on our cable system, was better than in "English"

Language sometimes creates problem in the communication. So, though they were making fun with David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, you could not understand anything. There are lots of shows and funs are continuing with the present football craze around the world.

You must be joking. Germans and comedy? These things don't mix, dude.

Well as an Indian/English living in Portugal, it is very amusing watching the football on Portugese TV. Since I now understand Portugese it is delightful to hear the rubbish they say during those lulls in action ("fill-in conversation"). I think most of the statistics and social facts are invented or at least exaggerated. I was relieved to find an English pub in Lisbon to watch the England games which are broadcast from ITV so its all broadcast from the English studio. But the differences of support in the matches are vast. The portugese really do not encourage their team and really get angry and abusive if the team start to lose...where as the English are noted for bringing the spirit of the team up again.

Also, all pre-match, during half-time and post-match TV is filled with random shots of drunk fans in various parts of Portugal either celebrating or commiserating. I miss the match analysis and the post-match banter that happened in the UK. But that is a real represtation of Portugese TV.

The other things I really miss about being in England is that the terrestrial TV channels broadcast all the games, here its only the Portugese games (and some Angolan games). The cable channel quite unashamedly monopolised the other matches.

And I face the question "who to support" all the time from friends....and the most diplomatic is to say both England and Portugal...I dread the day they meet..if they do (which is a possibility in the Quarter finals!!!)...oh god!...that is a dilemma!

I think that the german television isn't such bad as you think This "shows" just make some fun about the high society and so on but it's never so brutal like in Britain where some news papers makes jokes that discriminate the german People and their live very very bad.
Germans are Nazis and life like in Bayern but this isn't true the germans dosen't wear leather trousers
thats just a prejudice.
The most germans live modern and friendly in great cities and respect all other peoples.

Sorry for misspelling but i am a german pupil ;) .

Germany is Germany. They have the Bundesliga, don't you know. Of course, they're a formidable team. No doubt about that. I watched many matches on their league and I say, amen, they're a top giant, a juggernaut that is truly a threat to other Titans of Football.

Well, there you go again, Britzzzzzzz.

What is it with your eternal compulsion of vilifying German humour?
"These things don't mix", "even though I don't understand anything, I can see that it's not funny", and so on.

"I can't believe they're taking the mickey out of events in the World Cup" - Why not? Anyone else does it, no? What EXACTLY is it that you're trying to say with this article?

* At 05:11 PM on 22 Jun 2006,
* John wrote:

""You must be joking. Germans and comedy? These things don't mix, dude.""

This is just a typical comment from someone who doesn't know anyting about other cultures nor languages..
Grow up,travel,learn and you'll find so much more in this world than what you see on tv..

Regarding the german humour:
I'm half german/spanish and been growing up in both countries where I learned the differences between the cultures and its humour..
German humour is somewhat more zynical than spanish humour. English humour is quite similair to german humour,exept that the english have satirical and the germans an arrogant
undertone in their jokes..But most jokes are based on the same principles(double meaning words)...they use this all over the world..
If you don't understand a joke,learn the language,the culture and the country's history..not only you will learn a lot by doing that,you might get a laugh out of it aswell ;)
peace

This only happens in the UK: Sending someone to a foreign country who hasn't got the slightest notion of the local language. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. The WC comedy show "Nachgetreten" (I would translate it as "kick them when they are down") is really funny, and sometimes even witty. Sorry to destroy another myth, but Brits have no monopoly on humour. And John of blog 7 is just a germanophobic idiot. Keep on reading the SUN, John.

One more thing:

Why is english homour so famous all over the world?

One of the major reason must be the fact that everyone speaks english and is capable to understand what its beeing said..
Never heared of the famous french,indonesian,german,russian humour?
Why is that? I guess most people dont speak these languages,thats why most dont understand the non-english humour..

Don't get me wrong,I love british comedy, I'm a big fan of Bottom and Lil Britain series :)

"German humour is somewhat more zynical than spanish humour. English humour is quite similair to german humour,exept that the english have satirical and the germans an arrogant"

well, I'd rather say that humour itself is always based on "arrogance", it's what makes it funny at all (mindless stereotyping, direspect and exaggeration).
The difference is the connotation. While the english is harsh-satirical and the american is very subtle-ironical, the german is blunt-cynical, more like that...

You all know, Germans don't walk on eggshells expressing their point of view, it's the same with the humour. (one of the reasons why lots of people think they don't have any).
They punch you directly in your face, quite a similarity to english humour I think, the difference is that germans just don't like to jacket it. Their humour is very straight forward, you could say "rude".

It's my firm belive that their reputation of being rude arises from that...

Mandeep

Get hold of an old analogue box and a defunct Sky satellite dish; point the dish at the still orbiting Astra satellite. And there you are! Access to German television for free in the UK. Not being an England supporter, I am hoping to watch England games this way, to get unbiased non-hysterical commentary and analysis.

During the regular season, you can get extensive coverage of Bundesliga games (seeing players no one cares about until they sign for Chelsea or Arsenal), and decent coverage of Champions League games (including some Wednesday games which are only on Sky).

It would also help you to learn German!

Regards,
James

A bit off topic but this is the best German World Cup football song I heard in Germany last week and the video is pretty funny. Well worth a watch and great for a drunken dance!

Sportfreunde Stiller - 54,74,90,2006

" John wrote:
You must be joking. Germans and comedy? These things don't mix, dude"

John,
you are a pretty humourless person it seems, because nothing is more humourless than ignorance combined with arrogance towards other nations.
Traits to be found in many Brits I am sorry to say.

Learn German! And if you are at it .. how about French, Italian, Spanish, Greek and a few others? They are all languages of countries which you might like to visit and being there you might like to enjoy their culture ... including their humour.

As an Englishman living in Germany, i just wanted to defend the German sense of humour a little...

German humour tends to be often more slapstick orientated than it's English equivalent - it seems often to me that the 'alternative comedy' scene so prevalent in Britain in the 80s and 90s was never really duplicated here...

However, shows like TV Total (or just now "WM (Weltmeisterschaft - World Cup) Total are the exceptions. Especially TV Total has very quick/sharp comments and the humour is actually quite similar to somebody like Graham Norton...

A 'new' German comedy scene is growing at the moment, pioneered maybe by Stefan Raab but others like Elton and Oliver Pocher on TV and Michael Mittermaier in theatres are making their mark too...

When I first arrived in Germany (before my time in the Volkshochschule learning the language) and watched TV Total for the first time I also didn't understand a word and, naturally, it didn't seem so amusing. I vowed that I would learn German and when I could one day watch and understand this programme then I would be happy - now I watch it several times a week and understand it almost always... :)

hallo