Why do many people think that Germans are unfunny?

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I'm not exactly saying that I'm a comedic genius, in fact understanding certain aspects of comedy can be a bit difficult for me. But there seems to be this belief that surrounds us all being extremely unfunny for some reason. Is it just because we're a bit more introverted? I mean, we do at least have a pretty long tradition of political humour and stand-up caricatures. Some of the most successful "German-language" movies are of the comedy genre. Some high grossing films:

Der Schuh des Manitu (2001 - Comedy)
Traumschiff Surprise (2004 - Comedy)
Otto - Der Film (1985 - Comedy)
Fack Ju Göthe 2 (2015 - Comedy)
Fack Ju Göthe (2013 - Comedy)

I once saw a German sketch comedy on YouTube that really averts that stereotype. One of the sketches was simply things you shouldn't do in a church, and it shows a guy suddenly yelling out what might have been the German word for "Boring!" during the sermon, and then he's dressed up like the Pope, and then like Jesus, and everyone's staring at him and he's like, "What?"

This article might help explain why the stereotype arises https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... features11

They have not met or seen funny Germans.

Danke.

I know my sister and her friends did when I was 11 or 12. I would say something that I thought was really funny. My sister and her friends would be standing there and one of them would sarcastically say, "That was so funny, I forgot to laugh." I didn't joke about around them much longer. I couldn't stand the pain. It was bad enough that I was rejected by my peers in Elementary school. I didn't need to be rejected by my sister and her friends as well. I never was like the rest of my family to be honest. They were all a bunch of funny little Brits. Not really....we were all born in Canada. They took after the Brits and I took after the Germans.

Maybe it has to do with people still thinking the Germans are kind of like Natzies. People really do NOT want to laugh about that kind of stuff.

I have encountered some heavy-handed humor in the German-speaking world. Here is an example from Austria 45 years ago. For context, Austria had a PM (Bruno Kreisky) who was widely disliked because he was a.) Socialist and b.) Jewish on his father's side (sort of the Barack Obama of late 20th Century Austria). Anyway, here is the joke.

Joke Teller: Kreisky is lying face-down in the street with a knife handle protruding from his back.
Audience: So what's the punchline?
Joke Teller: There actually isn't any, but that by itself is already amusing enough!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... treat.html

A smiling Hitler.......I did nazi *that* coming

(also very ironic considering what he did)

One can still visit remaining nazi bunker in Oslo albeit only by appointment.

The guy from Trollhunter used to play a character named Nazi Per back in the 90s

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t7v_TYQmAsI

A few decades ago a TV comedy portrayed a German Prison camp as funny. I am referring to Hogan’s Heroes.

Actual footage of Germans being funny!

The Germans DID give us the Beatle haircut.....

Now that is funny. Kraftiekortie.

I sometimes forget the Beatles spent a log of their early career in Germany.

Though a musician I forget a lot of music trivia and names of songs.

I have never really thought about it..

Actually, though I find the harshness of the language to be amusing....and the length of some of the words. Like frankenwords made of more than one word mushed up together, seems there are a lot of those in German.

Germans are funny. My aunt who is German, says she comes from what is seen as the rudest part of Germany. She says she is rude even there.

She went to a class reunion and couldn't find her class, just a room of elderly people. She kept on looking and finally said, "Are you sure this is my class reunion? It's filled with old people"

That's funny.