Michael's English does not only have a German accent. He has the exact same Bavarian accent that he has in German! Which adds to the fun for a German who speaks English well 😅
I'm North German, when I care for pronunciation, I make the attempt to speak south state English, when I can't care, I sound like someone who isn't sure, is he Scottish or Australian
The genius strike no one seems to recognize is that Michael Mittermaier managed to transport his comedy into a foreign language. I bet his English teacher has a blast now!😂
The best German to English translation in comedy I've ever seen was Bodo Wartke perfoming "Ja, Schatz" as "Yes, dear". The translation is so damn perfect.
Same here. I love him since his first program "Zapped". I remember him being the very first standup guy in Germany with it, pioneering this whole thing here that had been going on for decades in the US already. And that's also the reason why he started to travel abroad, he once said that he just needed to get on an American stage as a standup comedian to experience the roots of it all. I also bought the cd of "Zapped" and I remember that me and my friends ended up being able to speak it word for word simultaneously because we heard it so often and loved it so much.
Michael Mittermeier is a beast. He really went to the US in the early 2000s and did stand up comedy over there, and he rocked it. People really enjoyed his program and thaught it was very funny. As a german comedian, who doesn't perform in his native language, that's a great achievement.
Yeah hes a legend. He picked up a lot within his time in the USA. This freshened up his German humor and now seeing him flipping all this influence melt together in a second language is genius. You never get bored with this man 😂
I feel like mittermeier had a point were he had achieved everything in germany and started to travel and to switch to another language. l really respect that.
I didnt think it possible but Mittermeier sounds exactly the same in English as he does in German. Same manner of speech, same delivery of the jokes, same physical comedy. This is peak bilinguality.
I went to stay in London in the early 80s. Met an older guy in a pub, looking suspicious at me and frowning. I immediately thought it was because of me being a German. In fact it was, but very different from what I thought. He asked me, wether I have any relations to Dresden. I denied and he showed great relief. Turns out, he was a young pilot in WW2 throwing bombs on civilians. He couldn’t get over his feeling of guilt. We had a long an good and long talk about guilt, responsibility and national stereotypes. And for the first time I didn’t feel guilty for being a German in a forein country.
As a non-Bavarian German, I can only say that we do not care about the Oktoberfest in general. It's a Bavarian thing. So naturally, we also do not care about the many foreigners coming to Bavaria for it. I guess the only feeling the typical German has towards Oktoberfest is mild annoyance because the whole world thinks that the Oktoberfest is a "German" thing, and every German must know about it and must have visited it. It plays into this general annoyance that people abroad think about Bavarian stuff as typically "German."
Every September hords of people in cheap Porno Dirndls and fake Lederhosen invade Munich from NRW. What you described are my feelings about the Rhineland Carnivals, especially Cologne.
Perhaps that "Bavararian=German"-thing has a lot to do with the Post-Nazi-Era when the American occupied zone was mainly Bavaria(?) The here stationed American soldiers brought their impressions of what they have seen of Germany - which means of Bavaria - back to the U.S. and spread it as typical German. To me that's kind of the same thing as the Mittermeier story joke about that ignorant girl in New York (6:47 min).
British stereotypes I heard when growing up: Brits are very polite, unless they are on vacation British food is disgusting (but all the celebrity chefs are British) Brits have very dark humor. They love football as much as we do in Germany They love their tea as much as we love our beer. This one is even reflected in our languages. The British say "not my cup of tea" and Germans say "not my beer"
Just wanna clarify that in German "Nicht mein Bier" (not my beer) is used to say that you're not responsible for something (e.g. "Die Wohnung zu putzen ist nicht mein Bier" - "Cleaning the flat is not my responsibility"; also works in the positive e.g. "Wie du nach Hause kommst, ist dein Bier" - "how you get home is your business"), while in English "not my cup of tea" means that you don't like (doing) the thing.
@@equolizer It also reflects the relationship of those two cultures to their "national beverage" For the British, tea is just a source of pleasure/enjoyment. (not my cup of tea= i don't enjoy it) For the Germans, beer means business. (nicht mein bier = none of my business)
@@ih6901 it's basically the opposite to the stereotypes I heard growing up. Well I already adressed the one about British food beeing terrible. And about British beauty I only ever heard this: Brits have crooked teeth
i am from bavaria too, i know Michael as an comedian since he started/became famous about 25 Years ago. his way of performing in english is the same as in german. that´s Michael. good guy. btw i also love the legnedary british humor. cant get enough of it. Monty Python, Mr. Bean, and so much more.
We were told to be as quiet as possible when we were in Poland as part of our advanced course in German History. That was 2002 and yes, it was neccessary. Some older people noticed we were German teens and started shouting at us. We all knew why but we were there to learn how to not make our grandparents‘ mistakes.
Shouting towards innocent teenagers is really f*cked up, tbh. I was born in poland, but grew up in germany and I never saw any animosity towards other germans or myself.
@@Watamel0n I know. Our guide refused to translate what those people shouted at us. It only happened once during our stay but it still was unnecessary.
As a German at about the same age as Michael Mittermeier I confirm that during my whole youth we all were taught to feel guilt and shame for what our nation (grandparents and greatgrandparents) did. An indeed: Even as kids (being in the Netherlands on vacation, or my brother in France on a school trip), some seniors in neighbour countries would be angry at us. My brother was even spit on by a French veteran when my brother was only 15. As an exchange student in the US in 1983 I felt pride for a nation for the first time in my life - but for the US! Singing the German National Anthem outside of Soccer Championship or Olympic Games? Having German Flags in your Garden? German Sticker on your car? Never experienced in those years, up to the 90s. I`m glad that today we are accepted in most countries again. And I am happy about having Michael Mittermeier as an Ambassador :-)) Love his satirical humor :-)
Yes i can confirm that. I also experienced it like that as a child. Our history as a child consisted of 99% crimes against humanity, war guilt and National Socialism. We would be insulted abroad, even in Italy...who was Mussolini again? Who was Franco, who was Stalin? There were other criminals in other countries and at other times, even nowadays. But when you throw dirt, you'd rather stay clean yourself because it feels better and is more fun. We've learned that now too - our country can't get anything right, except for a serial production of laughing nonsense, but isn't above telling others how things should be done properly. It's embarrassing, really embarrassing - but hey, we're pros at being looked at askance. Even the Austrians made Hitler the Austrian to a german citizen and had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the war or the other things. We were the orcs of the near past. That's why we lack national pride, we love the country and most of the people (there are idiots everywhere), we don't feel romantic about wars, we know the atrocities and we bear the blame. Now we are supposedly cowardly and tremble with fear. We want neither war nor dictatorship, but we have learned. Do not confuse responsible action with the truth of the rampant misjudgement of our state of mind. Our politicians are so embarrassing that we see the Muppets as educational television for these fools. We are Europeans, we are concerned about our future, we are allergic to stupid paternalism, but we are also disciplined, we abide (still) by the law and value our police, we believe in the good intentions of our representatives, but we also experience that often people who have bad luck in thinking have discovered politics as a career. We do not want to repeat history and therefore put up with more than is good for us.
Oh please, 99% is _slightly_ overstated. And don't forget - after the war a LOT of Nazis were found everywhere in the society, but nobody never talked about anything. In public everyone was in the resistance or at least hid some Jews in his cellar. But with some alcohol, late in the evening all the old songs were sung ("die Fahne hoch", "Wir marschieren gen Engelland") and suddenly everyone had a Ritterkreuz and killed 50 russkis singlehanded with a spade. The student protests in the 60ties shook all dirt up and suddenly things started to change - bit for bit. But the activist students were hated much more than the Klimakleber today, they were attacked, in the papers like BILD, verbally and physically on the streets, some were killed. This lead to the formation of the RAF and leftwing terrorism, but the peaceful majority of the leftwing activists tried to change society from its inside - by becoming teachers, working for the government, getting into politics. (On a personal note - my father was much NOT a left wing activist but he went through so much bullying/hazing by old Nazis in his first years working for the government in the 60ties he despised them very much - his revenge was a very successful career....)
In Germany we have the prejudice that Scottish people are exceptionally mean with money. Turns out my mother only made it through her apprenticeship because she was a servant in a restaurant with Scottish workers tipping her so well she actually made it. Every since I have loved the Scottish - also because of their super cool accent!
In 1987, I participated in a student exchange with a rather rural High School in the state of NY. And yes, we were indeed told upfront that "some reactions of US citizens towards us Germans might seem awkward but are not ill-intended overall". I'm still grateful for this preparation because, at the beginning of my very first class in said High School, I was greeted with "Heil H**ler!" by the entire room. According to the room's history(!!) teacher, it was meant to be "endearing and to make me feel somewhat homey". They also commended me on my "proper American clothing" (Jeans. They expected some guy in Lederhosen.) I genuinely don't know if history classes improved since then, but yeah, the late 80's were fun times for a German, especially in rural areas of the USA.
I did my exchange in England in 2005, but there weren't enough students from my part of the country going to the UK so I got lumped in with the ones going to the US for the info meeting. They only spoke about the US and how no one should be surprised if being asked if we had electricity or greeted them with "Heil H**ler". Needless to say, I was very glad not to go to the US.
I was a foreign exchange studen in Louisiana (smaller city but not rural) in 2010 and I experienced the excact same thing. Even my host father never called me by my name, he called me "little Hitler". In school I was called "Nazi whore". History class has not improved. In my high school in the entire 12 years of schooling there was only one year of mandatory history class and that was called "american history", which I also attended. They were only taught things that America was involved in. Meaning: "we freed Germany and the rest of Europe from the Nazi regime. Everything in Germany is Nazi and bad. So now lets talk about the Korean war...". At least ince per day I was asked why I voted for Hitler in the elections and if I like him as our president. One girl told me she would so much like to visit Germany because she liked Tokio Hotel (music band) but she was scared to be put in a concentration camp because she had dark hair. What can I say...there are a million more stories. I am tired.
@@aloeme true. I was taken to a normal supermarket and they acted like we were going to see Obama in the White House. Because "we know you don't have grocery stores overthere". Also they didn't believe I flew by plane, as apparently nobody knew we also had planes or cars :D CARS!! :D
When I was young sometimes people reacted negative to me as a german abroad. But in the last 20 years or so I can't remember any situations, where being a german was a problem. On the other hand there have been many times where peoples reaction was suprisingly positive. A lot ot "My Father/Brother/Uncle was stationed with the army in Germany, he tells so many great storys" when I was in the US, while in Europe many people have visited germany or met a lot of germans before me so they already learned the difference between germans and nazis. And these days there are Countrys in Europe with more Nazis than we have here in Germany... :(
@monster05yt57 it was the year the football world championship took place in Germany and it has been a really great party. The motto was "Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden". And it really was like that.😊
I don't know how it was in the 80s but I went to china in 2008 with an international group of 20 year olds. First thing I heard was "Hey german kid... are you a nazi?". Couple of days later I became tight friends with a kid from israel. Let me tell you that people were not able to process that level of irony ...
@lpschaf8943 Well no, the German kid who first got asked if he's a "Nazi" becoming good friends with the kid from Israel is indeed an ironic turn of events given the historical context and the situation. Yes it also broke the expectations but you could call it ironic in the best sense possible and I like it. It's both funny and a happy end what else do you want of a German joke honestly?
Fritz here, biological turkish kurd. I never knew Michael was in so excellent command of the english language. Makes him even more sympathetic. Proud of him. Edit: yes, Germans are quite aware of their history. Actually I was fed up with all the "indoctrination" awareness thing, but nowadays with the political right wingers rising again here, I miss those days when Germans were more humble.
When the Germans bash themselves 😏 Yes Germany is the third largest arms supplier. USA 31%, Russia 28%, Germany 8%, China 8%, France 6%. The other countries between 1 and 3%. Switzerland and India each have around 20% small weapon parts...🤷
...es mag solche einseitigen Schreihälse geben politisch rechts wie links aber jeder intelligente Mensch bemerkt sofort, dass die Sylter Aufnahmen Fake sind. Es wurde sprachtechnisch überspielt. Der Großteil hat etwas völlig anderes gesungen. Ob die vordere eingeblendete Gruppe gekauft war...kann ich wiederum nicht sagen. Es ist ja allen bekannt dass zur Meinungsmache viel inszeniert wird.
I would like to recommend the comedian Torsten Sträter. He has a dry humor with a lot of linguistic wit. Maybe someone can recommend a video of him with subtitles.
@@alicemilne1444 Yes, that may be true, but he should still give it a try. Unfortunately, I haven't found any of his good shows with English translation.
@@tosa2522 I can tell you as a professional translator myself that his puns (which I love) and his multi-layered references wouldn't work in English. I just watched one of his older shows on UA-cam ("Als ich in meinem Alter war") where right at the beginning he says: "Ich hab' im Kicker gelesen München spielt gegen Porto. Mein erster Gedanke war: Das ist ja wenig Geld. Was sind das? - 80 Pfennig?" That only works if you know that Kicker is a German football magazine and that Porto is not only a Portuguese football team but the word "Porto" is also the German for postage stamps, and the word Pfennig refers to the pre-Euro currency. So there are several things going on there in less than 10 seconds. Impossible to subtitle that density of puns and allusions. How are you going to get all those references into the subtitling space.
As An expat Aussie who has lived in Germany for the past 20 years, I have learned to love Michael Mittermeier. I enjoy the English shows, but the German ones where he gets a bit political (and there is plenty of subject matter) are even better.
@@mittelschwerekatastrophe3042 Yes, there were comedians before him, but they rarely did, what is called "stand up comedy" - a direct interaction with the viewers from a stage. Before him, it was sketch comedy or speeches with jokes, also satire. But nothing in the same line as Mittermeier's performances.
I didn't know Mittermeier did gigs in English. If you know his German shows (and you should probably watch some for comparison) it's quite interesting that it has the exact same feel to it as his German routines (as in the way he talks, the same bavarian accent, etc.)
His "Scottish-Acsent", is just how a Southgerman sounds like, when he has no experience in speaking English, just in School. The most Southern Dialects are rolling the "R". As a Swabian Guy, the Scottish Acsent, is one of the most understandable for me. 👍
Listening to Scotch I always think they sound a lot like Franconians (northern Bavaria), with the rrrrolling R - and not really pronouncing a difference between D and T and B and P 😂
The Swabian accent is much closer to the Scottish one than the Bavarian. Basically all Alemannic German varieties like Swiss, Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein, Alsace... German would sound pretty Scottish to a native English speaker.
Mittermeier speaks English with a clear Bavarian accent. Especially for Germans it is well recognizable, when Bavarian or Austrian people speak English. I'm not sure if I could identify other german dialects so well when the people speak English.
Excellent idea to present German comedians from a Scottish perspective! In my personal opinion (I am German AND Bavarian), you picked the very best guy, so Michael is first choice really, considering those who have the guts to perform using English in the first place… But anyway, there are literally dozens of outstanding comedians here in Germany. Some of them are mistaken to be politicians though. 😀
The German political parties may have thought years ago 'When Americans chose an actor for President or another one for Senator, so why shouldn't we use comidians as politicians?' And this is tradition since the 80ies. 😂
All I know is that Michael's special named Zapped was the first place I ever seen him and was one of the funniest comedy specials I've ever seen. Period.
Having been a teenager in the 80s I can confirm: guilt and shame were my two middle names. I didn't only know from school but was frequently reminded both in France and in England, although even my parents were born after the war. And I still think - just as well. Meanwhile I've changed my middle names to responsibility and consideration though.
You should definitely watch: "Brexit: Lutz van der Horst verkauft den Briten Schmuggelware" ("Brexit: Lutz van der Horst sells contraband to the Brittish"). The short introduction is in German, but the content is not that important. The rest is in English. Overall, the video is really funny.
I was in Glasgow Scotland a few years ago, in a karaoke bar. When it was my turn I sang flower of scotland, after that I made a lot of new friends. So, sing the right song when you are a german guy in a karaoke bar in scotland. 😂😂😂🇩🇪❤🏴
About German Humour and the reputation it has, a little anecdote: During an outing on my recent vacation, we had a Chinese American couple in our group and I got chatting with the wife. As I made a couple of little jokes, she asked me where I was from. When I answered that I was German, she professed some amazement about the, to be sure meagre, witticisms I engaged in earlier and remarked something along the lines of "Common wisdom is that Germans don't have much humor." Now, this is a selfreplicating meme, used as bottom drawer crowd pleasers by every anglophone humourist, TV personality and whatnot and it got my dander up. The anglophone way would have been something along the lines of "Yes, I know we're a bit sh*it at humour...“ and let it slide... I answered "When was the last time you read a novel about German topics in German and understood the underlying cultural subjects and memes? German humourlessness comes from the firm anglophone, both US and UK, knowledge that USAians and Brits have humour. It's in their cultural DNA. Now imagine an anglophone making some sort of joke. The German, who has English as a second language and possibly is not quite up to snuff with the cultural aspects of the joke, doesn't get it and has to have the joke explained. The anglophone knows he is funny so the German not getting the joke must be down to lack of humour. Now imagine the German is trying his hand at a joke, possibly translating a German joke into English with the proficiency of a 2nd language speaker ignoring the fact that cultural references oftend do not map. The anglophone doesn't get the joke but he know with utter certainty that he has humour. So the joke is bad, which must be down to German lack of humour. Of course he ignores all the intricacies of language, cultural background, national memes, emotional resonances of words, phrases and concepts of hundreds of years of cultural development and history, because he knows that he understands humour. And after the war, enough USAians and Brits had this experience, the Germans were in no position to respond and of course it was chewed and regurgitated in movies and TV in the US and the UK ad nauseam... That is where you heard that Germans have problems with humour." It was actually a bit more elaborate, but that was the gist. I think her eyes glazed over, since she certainly didn't expect a detailed lecture. I think I successfully introduced her to two more German traits. We don't do smalltalk and we'll take any opportunity to lecture at the drop of a hat. And it'll probably be a long time before she tries that line on another German.
Born in 1969. The whole guilt and shame thing is 100% spot on for my generation. Experienced it in France in 1982. We were saved by the fact that my father (born in 1937) went to a French school in the French zone after the war (Saarland) and is pretty fluent in French. The French have respect for people who don't make their ears bleed when trying to speak French 😊
But it dont work anymore so effektiv like then. As pupils thought: dont give a fuck. It was before we could do anything wrong. And you teachers, parents you have an ass open....thats what me pupils thought. Nothing to do with your past bullshit.
It is very interesting to hear Mittermeier Jokes you never heard before. I'm german and I'm a big Mittermeier Fan. I even got a ticket for one of his shows last Christmas. I never heard this jokes before, I mean he speaks about his journeys in Germany too, but he tells different stories.
I know he - like myself - studied American Studies (an even wrote his maters thesis on stand-up comedy) and I suspect he speaks English (American English) much more authentically than he does here. I suspect he actively uses his heavy Bavarian inflection for comedic purposes. I mean, I love his *Bavarenglish* but have hunch he can probably speak English without an accent if he wants to…
@@robfriedrich2822 I think, like most dialect speakers, he is well able to tone his accent down if he wants to. Speaking with his heavy Bavarian accent is much of his comedic personality. It sets him apart from most other comedians. So is his heavy Bavarian inflection in English. I think, it is largely a willfull act as a stage persona as much as a feature of convenience to speak as one‘s beak is grown…
@@dorisw5558 yes, I also have colleagues with dialect inflections in the English department at which I teach. Maybe. Some people can‘t shed it. With him however, I really don‘t think if you met him at some NY bar and would involve him in a discussion in English, he would have quite such a heavy accent… Part of it, I am certain, is an act to make him more authentic, more German, more Bavarian because, especially among an English-speaking audience, it will make him quite exotic as English speakers love any accented English… BTW: among the many German students I have in my more than 20 years of teaching, they may all have mispronounced this or that word and some may have had a slight dialect inflection from any part of Germany, but I have never, yet, met a student with such a heavy dialect inflection, not even Bavarian or Saxon students…. They all have to pass pronunciation exams early in their studies as you probably also did.
I am not sure if his strong accent is just for stage. I had a classmate from Thuringia, he quickly established a proper high German. But speaking English, he fell back into his dialect. Also, you can easily identify every Swiss person in an internal gathering.
Oh my. As a German, i never knew about this guy... funny that. He is so hilarious. Thanks for this video. Now let me watch the other half... im an honest, i almost peed myself. 😂😂😂
Mert, I just found your channel by coincidence and saw the Michael Mittermeier in English. I never liked him very much with his German show, but the English show with the international touch, talking about Germans, Americans, the Japanese, the comparisons, I was really dying laughing! And the "shame and guilt" during school is SO true! Michael is more or less my age. Wonderful!! Then I saw your take on Volker Pispers, heute Show and other. Wonderful approach, wonderful channel! Congrats! If you like Volker Pipsers try Hagen Rether. He is really heavy stuff!!! Keep going! Thank you!!
You just give me a heartfelt laugh, even though I already knew this program…lol…..Thanx Yes, as a German one sometimes has to navigate the depth of hatred the older generation still harbours…. After school before starting at Uni I visited my former exchange student in France, we had kept in touch and I worked at a local Pony and race horse stable … and became friends with the trainees there. We even went up to the Bretagne for a 5 day vacation and camped in the trailer of Clair‘s family. Her grandparents were living nearby in a very traditional cottage that only recently had running water installed. She had told me that it might not be the best idea to fess up to me being German when her grandfather was around, so we had put together a story of my being British because after a High School Year in Michigan I somehow had acquired an English accent in my French. But when her granddad showed up at 7.30 a.m., unannounced the next day and started laying into her for not having shown up yet, she got so angry she introduced me as her ‚German friend‘. He looked me up and down, said…. _You suppose we are friends now?!_ , spit at my feet, turned around and left without another word. The guys were just looking out of the tent at this stage and so we didn‘t get to visit her grandma, unfortunately. That was 2000. I think there is still a lot of resentment present because when people found out a friend and I who were talking English during our 5 week Australia trip were not indeed Irish and American, but two Germans we always got uncomfortable reactions where people were being awkward at first.
Als meine halbe Klasse Interrail machte, sagten sie immer, sie kämen aus der Schweiz. Ja, traurig. Aber vielleicht sind diese alten Leute, die so reagieren, wirklich schlimm traumatisiert und nie behandelt worden.
@@susannemuller6681 I have yet to lie about being from Germany, since Claire didn't go through with it. I think lying about being Austrian or Swiss robs other international acquaintances of an opportunity to rethink their own perceptions. We had a lot of succes in doing that I believe while travelling in Australia, because we were both fluent enough to not create our own 'German bubble' so people approached us much more openly because they understood what we were talking to each other and gave us great tips of which sights would be amazing to visit, or where the most tourist groups were likely to be (so we'd rather go someplace less crowded). So if we were asked where we came from after having a nice chat most people had to close the one mental box and open another, reevaluate their preconceived notions... that always took a second longer.. But once you realize it is mostly positive surprise I knew we had given someone a nudge in the right direction. 😉
I am a year younger than Michael. Nobody told me to behave differently in other countries. I did it on my own, because I felt guilty about what happened during the Nazi time. Nobody ever said something bad to me, but as I visited neighboring countries that were invaded, I felt bad knowing the history. People did not say something bad to me, but sometimes talked about it, after hearing that I am German. It was the World Cup 2006 in Germany when things changed. I helped in Frankfurt and in the beginning I was a bit sad….the other fans of other countries were showing their flags in town and I wished we could do that, too. Than younger people (often migrants living there) started using our flag, too….wearing it as skirt, painting it on the cheek. Somehow we got our flag back ….without feeling guilty or having to explain that we are not nationalists or Nazis. It was a great feeling 🙂
I'm from Germany, even from Bavaria, but never attended the Oktoberfest. Yet I think the foreigners couldn't be worse than Germans on Mallorca... so it's probably fine. ^^
I‘m just 3y older than Michael and when we young (70s/80s) we couldn’t resist British comedy. Monty Python literally was our Holy Gral. And some of us, as a revenge maybe, became comedians. 😂
Wenn man selbst nur das Zeug dazu hätte! Aber erstens fehlt die Spontanität und zweitens, und man glaubt es wohl kaum, ist es ein sehr, sehr anstrengender Job, das über so viele Jahre hinweg zu machen. Ich habe ja auch eine komische Ader, ich bin wahrscheinlich nicht political korrekt!
It's true: when I was fourteen, they shouted at me in France: Raus, boche! becauce of a simple question...that gave me the same feeling of hiding my nationality and guilt for years! It was a Trauma for me.
Bruno Kreisky, a famous Austrian chancelor shall have said this: "I like being in Bavaria, because I am not in Germany yet and not in Austria anymore."
My hypothesis is that the prejudice about Germans with no sense of humour originated in work relationships. There was a strict separation between work and leisure time. And Germans took their work very seriously and would not respond to any jokes in a work-related meeting. Germans always enjoyed telling jokes in their free time though. Nowadays, everything is more relaxed and the typical Germans are hard to find, at least in the younger generation.
As a German I was being scolded by my parents for making Nazi jokes as a teen. Me and my friends did them just because they were edgy then. I moved to England when I was 17. In a pub I told a Nazi joke (against the Nazi officer) to my English friends, the neighbouring table, who had been listening to why this "big German is talking so loudly", cracked up in laughter. "I never thought Germans can laugh about themselves". Great night with a lock-in til 10am after that.
I wasn’t alive in the 80s but I have always heard the stories from a good family friend, who had travelled and lived in plenty of European countries in the 80s. She had many negative experiences and reactions to her saying she’s German, so she started opting for “I’m just European” and charmingly turned down further questions. I always found this a bit sad and I’m glad that my own experiences living abroad in the past decade have been different.
I was born in the 90ies and I was still told to not tell people that I am German when travelling. Has been a good advice. My family is half egyptian and half czech but we are basically very German. I was beaten and bullied in the US for being German, when I was a forgeign exchange student. They called me "Nazi whore" when I was 16. I love Germany and being German for what it means today, but when travelling I always say I am from Spain. Tired of being called a Nazi everywhere I go. It does something to your selfesteem when constantly being equalised with the worst of human beings.
Bin auch in den 90er geboren und mir ist etwas ähnliches bei einen Schüleraustausch in England passiert. Wir spielten gegen 4 gleichaltrige Engländer Fussball und haben deutlich gewonnen. Danach gings dann los: Fuck off Nazis, Heil Hitler, fucking Nazi Bastards.... Werd ich nie vergessen.😑
I can feel for you, sorry 😞 As a czech been held as a german, is painful. I would take it just as foolishness or not educated in reading world maps from the other side of this our wonderful round planet, rather knowing craters on the moon.
@@neokio.f Well, you have to consider that over the past 1,000 years, borders have changed frequently. One of my grandfathers was born in Silesia when it was German. Today, it's part of Poland and nobody in my family would ever argue that we are part Polish. Franz Kafka was born in Prague and is considered German by many. Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, Russia. He's clearly considered to have been German. In other words, nationality is quite a blur.
I feel sorry for you. I was born in the 70s and never hid my nationality. I made some experiences similar to yours, but they were quite rare and didn't truly bother me, including when I was an exchange student myself. After all, I didn't want to make the narrowmindedness of other people my problem. I also always had an answer to remind them of their own past - be it British Colonialism or American Slavery - and asked them whether they identify with that which usually ended the issue. However, the daughter of a friend of mine, living in the US, still had such experiences quite recently and suffered immensely from them as she was called "Hitler's daughter".
As a German guy, Michael is one of the best, and this channel is even better❗️ And yes, we have this line, “Gnade der späten Geburt” which comes from Canceler Helmut Kohl meaning, one was NOT part of WW2 because of later birth.
I remember when I was a teen and went to london with school class, the teachers told us exactly what michael said. Teachers always telled us that most british whould hate germans because of WW2. and this was like 2009.
Different feelings as a german: First Michael is totaly right about the reactions on us germans in the world. By the way his german shows are mostly not political but his english ones are excellent and hit the point bullseye! The shame and guilt issue is complicated indeed! When visiting sweden I was sure not to be in trouble with my german being, because there was no german invasion. We met the owner of the house we lived in and she asked where we were from. We said "from germany" and she reacted were friendly. She said: "I've been to germany, too. My mother and I were deported in the war from ukraine to work in germany..." She was so nice to us and we felt so bad about it. I was ashamed and couldn't do anything about it.
@@eisbaellsche175 oh My god, das meinst du doch jetzt nicht wirklich ernst oder? Ich bin ein freundlicher Nazi ist schon wirklich unterste Schublade! Aber das kenne ich von Mittermeier noch nicht diesen Spruch. Aber will halt den ganzen Märchen über uns, die in der Nachkriegs Zeit geboren wurden, mal irgendwo einen Riegel vor schieben. Ich bin jetzt 66 Jahre alt und musste mir die ganze Scheiße auch mein ganzes Leben anhören. Irgendwann muss ja auch mal gut sein oder nicht? Ihr lebt anscheinend alle schon lange nicht mehr in Deutschland, seid froh! Die Welt schüttelt nur noch den Kopf über unsere ach so tolle Politik. aber politische Vollidioten gibt es überall auf der Welt! Hätte ich doch bloß noch mal eine Chance… ich glaube halt nicht an Wiedergeburt…
What he says is true. I was born in Bavaria in 1967, just like Michael, and started school in 1973. From secondary school onwards, we were bombarded with this Nazi theme. When we were 12 years old, we had to watch the horrible concentration camp films that were made by the Americans during the liberation of these camps. At that time, the question of hereditary guilt was dealt with excessively. It's burned into your mind for a lifetime. I think Michael felt the same way as I did and many other children of these years.
You are very nice. My mother is an England fan. She lived there for one year and worked in Germany as an English teacher - British accent. My mother and I like the kindness
I was born in1964 and a lot of what Michal told us was passed on to us by our parents, which is typically german and english. some things still apply to both sides today. In 2006, the football world cup was held in our country under the motto "the world as a guest with friends"! (Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden). Four weeks of sunshine and everyone was in a great mood. After that, the world saw us with different eyes. Suddenly we were the most popular countries in the world. Only when you get to know people can you form an opinion! Next year europe is "visiting friends" for the European Champioship and we hope it will be a happy and great spectacle again! Greetings from Germany, Olli.
Even in the middle of the 1990s, my best friend who was travelling a lot to England told me that the first information he got from the family where he was staying at that time was: "Never tell anybody, that you are from Germany. That will be not very good for you. Better if you say, that you are from Netherlands..."
I’m german, born 1968 and grew up with BFBS and SSVC TV. Both provided the most successsful programmes to british army personnel, some germans listened in. BFBS was the best radio station. For SSVC you needed a multi system TV living near a UK military base. Remember back then there was no internet, no satellite reception for the average joe. It was a blast. I still love Allo Allo, Blackadder, Spitting Image, Cuddly Kenny to name a few. Also iconic radio presenters like Richard Allinson and Tommy Vance as well as the lunchtime radio show with 2 presenters they got from capitol radio.--- I also like Michael Mittermeier and especially Volker Pispers. Today, two of the finest german comedians are Lisa Eckhardt and Thorsten Strāter. But that’s just my 2 cents. And don't mention the war ! 🙂
As a German I think that there are a lot of similarities between british and german humor. I always have a great time when I am around british people, laughing my head off 😁.
Honestly even when I went to school in the 2000s and early 2010s, shaming our history was a very frequent occurence during History class. But I feel like it moved away from "you guys should feel guilty" towards "you guys should know wtf can happen and work towards making sure it does never ever repeat itself", which frankly I find alright. With our History Leistungskurs we did a trip to Kraków and from there visited Auschwitz. Frankly I think that should be mandatory - if not a visit at least a documentation of the tour they do nowadays. The impressions that left were the strongest anti-nazi feelings I ever felt and it's probably impossible to get this anywhere else. Visiting this place in person doesn't compare to anything else. I just hope that going forward we can some day be openly proud of our country again, without being branded a nazi or fascist.
yes and what did that lead to? that the Afd politicians openly speak of the gassing of foreigners again without receiving painful objections. I've never seen it as a personal fault either, but people forget everything and the hate starts all over again!
I remember going to Spain for holiday when I was young. Our camp leaders: "We are lucks, there is a British camp next to us. This year, we will nether be the most drunk nor the worst behaved." 🤣
Michael Mittermeier is awesome... you should definitely check out his special that he did right after returning from his US tour, the cockroach bit is an absolute banger. I'm not entirely certain what the name of the special was, maybe something with jungle? oh, no it was 'Paranoid' - idk if there's a subtitled version out there but it's amazing
The part about "guilt teaching in school/universities is pretty spot on. Half of my total time in history class was spend on "ww2 germany bad". Everyone did visit an concentration camp with the class at least once. We called history class "Erbschuldlehre" (translates to something like "school of inherited guilt")
Einfach nur furchtbar, und immer wieder wird ein neuer Kranz und ein Gedächtnis oder sonst irgendwas nieder gelegt. Es ist nicht mehr nachvollziehbar für selbst schon sehr alte Generationen!
Actually the whole guilt part during my time in school (over 20 years ago) did actually come up during history lessons and especially related to WW2. Personally I never felt any guilt or shame because I always said to myself that I was never part of that (happened decades before I was born - so how can I ashamed of that) and I never would've supported it neither. And especially that second aspect is very important to me.
@@Cornu341 This does also apply to every other human being on this planet, not just Germans. Everyone is responsible for preventing that s**t or something comparable to happen.
yes and what did that lead to? that the Afd politicians openly speak of the gassing of foreigners again without receiving painful objections. I've never seen it as a personal fault either, but people forget everything and the hate starts all over again!
@@AthlonFanatictogoin all fairness, bigotry, fascism and the far-right are an issue pretty much everywhere. We’re facing the division between two radicalized groups - the far left and the far right - everywhere on this planet. We will not open concentration camps again, but in every society, there’s liberal and conservative people, that’s just personality, once economical recession starts to creep up on people, and fear starts to flare up, people tend to look for culprits by nature, and mostly, it’s the people “from the other side” and by fighting each other, they scare each other into their respective corners. The frighteningly naive and radical illusion of a society, where conservative / right wing people are absent is a not the answer to “let’s never forget what happened back then”, the answer is finding common ground to not cause a specific group to become disenfranchised and radicalized. The existence of the AFD is not us forgetting what happened back then, it’s us trying too hard to push an agenda onto every single person while not understanding, that a nation with one single opinion is a totalitarian state/ a dictatorship, but not a functional democracy. Right wing does not automatically mean racist, left wing does not automatically mean violent. Until we understand and accept that concept, we will continue hating each other just for having a different outlook on life.
In the seventies we were in Oxford with a youth group, 14-17 years old. In south england entering a pub in the country they throw us out of the pub, throwing stones at us. Our american friend Bert saved us, he stopped them…
My observation about stereotypes: The English love to say "don´t mention the w*r" when any German is around, but they love to brag on it hours and hours how they beat us (and surely not the US or USSR...). There was a documentary about World Cup 2006 in Germany, and they showed a group of England fans constantly singing aggressively the "10 German Bombers" Song, trying to start a brawl, and no one really cared. Oh, and they think they are our biggest rival in Football, because of the w*r, but truly that is Holland, leading by far.
Thanks for sharing the show! First time is saw an English performance but was really great. Some plots really have been new to me although he was quite present on German TV for years. Now he seem to tour a lot. His German comedy i pretty much the same so well done Michael! Died almost laughing about the Lederhosen facts and scientific setup drunk experiment!
As a fellow Bavarian I sadly have to confess that I regard Mittermeier as a rather mediocre comedian. However, I have huge respect for his courage to pursue an international career from scratch after having established himself successfully in Germany.
Der Typ ist für mich einfach ein Crackhead der auf der Bühne zappelt. Ich hate ja nicht grundlos Leute, aber der hat weder was witziges im Programm, noch kann er irgendwas lustig rüber bringen. Katastrophe als er bei LOL mitgespielt hat. Da hätten die auch gleich einen katholischen Priester mit in die Serie nehmen können. 😅
@@Kommentiert_ Ich find seine Sachen (inklusive das hier im Video) ziemlich "cringe" wie die Jugend heute sagt. Manche Witze in diesem Video wären ganz gut wenn sie 'n bisschen anders rübergebracht worden wären, aber es kommt ja offenbar ganz gut an, also Jedem das Seine :D
Ich mag seine alte Show Zapp, die versteht man aber nur, wenn man in den Siebzigern Fernsehen geglotzt hat....aber bei Zapp schmeiße ich mich echt weg....
I utterly enjoyed myself with you watching one of the best! Watched a few more of your videos today, after stumbling over you. You have a new subscriber. Knowing both, USA and Bavaria, speaking both languages my enjoyment was actually doubled
We got told to be quiet and to hide that we're German as much as possible as teenagers on our class trip to France in the early 2000s, and we even got attacked by some guy with a knife when we were getting a tour in a church. Our French guide quickly opened a side door, told us to run and managed to fight him off. We later got told that at least part of his crazy reasoning was that we were German. That was an absolute shock to us. Meanwhile most French people we met were super nice and several happily offered to speak in pretty good German to us. Some years later my middle-aged driving instructor told me he always claimed to be Swiss when he and his French fiancee visited her home country. Waving German flags at sport events largely only came back in 2006 when the FIFA World Cup was held in Germany. Which we discussed this in our ethics class in highschool when our teacher brought in a newspaper with a front page picturing a sea of German flags with the title "Schrecklich schön".
I was born in Northern Germany in 1965. We had good self-confidence and anyone who would have called us Nazis would have been considered stupid. I didn't have any bad experiences in Poland, Bulgaria or Denmark in the 70s. Friends were called that in France. My mother and aunts sang in Spain in the 80s and different nationalities came and sang "Besame Mucho" together in their languages and were amazed by the Germans. A Brit begged her to sing the Christmas carol "Silent Night" because he had a German mother who had died. So in the middle of summer they sang this song for him. Wonderful memories.
As for German humor, I've heard UK former sailor and gaming UA-camr Jingles put it like this: German humor is often rather subtle. A German might be taking the piss on you, and unless you catch the ambiguity of his words or the inflection of tone, you might not even realize it. This, combined with the also quite common deadpan delivery means a lot of the finer humor might go completely unnoticed. So non-native speakers often only notice the cruder type of jokes, and think that is all there is to it. In turn, Germans often think that e.g. British humor is rather on-the-nose and forced, lacking finesse. {shrug} And yes, national pride was very much not on the school syllabus in the 70's and 80'. It still really isn't, and the Holocaust still features prominently. Unfortunately the effect seems to wear off (as could be seen by the rise of the new NSDAP, a.k.a. AfD).
The last sentence is the absolute trivialization of National Socialism! Why do people like you always have to make such extreme comparisons and thus play down the horror of the Nazi era?
@@ellipsis101 It's quite the opposite of trivializing anything. The AfD, like the Alt-Right in the USA, is anti-democratic, divisive, and fascist. Back in school we wondered how people could have allowed the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the like. Apparently we have to re-learn that lesson, and let's hope there is someone doing it for us if we're too stupid as a nation to do it on our own. The "horrors of the Nazi era" was not just the war and the extermination camps. It was being persecuted for being different. Having a different faith, a different sexual orientation, being of a different ethnicity, being of a different political persuation. The AfD is QUITE OPENLY hostile to all of those, while openly opposing the liberal democratic basic order of our nation. Not to even mention the complete disregard for actually providing answers to the pressing subjects of our time and instead actually enjoying taking in all the climate change denialists, anti-vaxxers, xenophobes and ultra-nationalists. Back then we looked on the NPD and the REP and felt safe in them never getting even anywhere near the 5% required to actually appear in parliament. Today the AfD enjoys 20% of the votes. The NSDAP dismantled our democracy at 33%. Apparently we *have* forgotten the lessons learned in the 1940's, thinking it too outrageous to happen again, allowing us to play with fire yet another time. And apparently those worried sick about it are already again "people like me" in the eyes of the apologetics and denialists. Let's hope that all those that had to die to show us the road back to democracy back then haven't died in vain, and that there need not be more dead to defend democracy *again*. I am afraid the USA in its current state won't save us a second time, and most of our European neighbours are fighting their own extremist spectres.
Sehe es ähnlich. Wenn immerzu Nazi geschrien wird, stumpfen die Leute ab. Und wenn die echten Nazis kommen, interessiert es keinen mehr. Das ist wie in der , Geschichte mit dem Hirtenjungen und dem Wolf.
I also remember the "guilt-lessons" we had in school in the 80's. It sounds like a funny joke, but it's actually very true. I had a teacher who told us we should pretend we were from the Netherlands when travelling in foreign countries where Germans are hated. He obviously really believed that nobody would hear the difference in the accent. Today, I don't live in Germany anymore, but I've never tried to hide my heritage.
Does anyone else remember Harry Enfield’s sketch character “Jürgen the German”? He would go to a public place, such as a bus stop, and start a monologue, usually prefaced with the catch phrase: “I would like to apologise for the war”. Usually, the Brits around him would look terribly uncomfortable, which was how I felt during my first trip to Germany when the grandfather of the lad I was staying with started grumbling about Hitler 😂
Michael's English does not only have a German accent. He has the exact same Bavarian accent that he has in German!
Which adds to the fun for a German who speaks English well 😅
I'm North German, when I care for pronunciation, I make the attempt to speak south state English, when I can't care, I sound like someone who isn't sure, is he Scottish or Australian
because bavarians are the best part of germany :P
@@Carlicious-Parts are they now?
@@donnikthejedi2222 Yes they are.
@@korbikiefl according to who? The Bavarians? Lmao
The genius strike no one seems to recognize is that Michael Mittermaier managed to transport his comedy into a foreign language. I bet his English teacher has a blast now!😂
Meanwhile i Like His english stand ups more than the German ones
@@dullikulli8984 The same for me and that you can hear his bavarian accent in his german accent, when he speaks english.
well his "comedy" usually is very trivial, so it's not as much a surprise that it's easy to translate.
@@silkwesir1444 Exactly, hence his genius. 🤓
The best German to English translation in comedy I've ever seen was Bodo Wartke perfoming "Ja, Schatz" as "Yes, dear". The translation is so damn perfect.
Unser Michi. Bin sehr stolz auf ihn. One of the greatest. LG aus Minga
I'm from germany and not Bavaria. I have never been to Oktoberfest, but I really love Michael in German or English, doesn't matter
Same here. I love him since his first program "Zapped". I remember him being the very first standup guy in Germany with it, pioneering this whole thing here that had been going on for decades in the US already. And that's also the reason why he started to travel abroad, he once said that he just needed to get on an American stage as a standup comedian to experience the roots of it all.
I also bought the cd of "Zapped" and I remember that me and my friends ended up being able to speak it word for word simultaneously because we heard it so often and loved it so much.
@@Reani71 with a brown Inconspicuous plastic bag 😅
U6uuu6uu66u6660
@@Reani71Finde ich auch und Zapped ist verdammt lang her
Scheiß aufs Oktoberfest
Michael Mittermeier is a beast. He really went to the US in the early 2000s and did stand up comedy over there, and he rocked it. People really enjoyed his program and thaught it was very funny. As a german comedian, who doesn't perform in his native language, that's a great achievement.
Yeah hes a legend. He picked up a lot within his time in the USA. This freshened up his German humor and now seeing him flipping all this influence melt together in a second language is genius. You never get bored with this man 😂
He does perform in German though or are you referring to yourself?
He does perform in German. To sold out arenas.
I feel like mittermeier had a point were he had achieved everything in germany and started to travel and to switch to another language. l really respect that.
I didnt think it possible but Mittermeier sounds exactly the same in English as he does in German. Same manner of speech, same delivery of the jokes, same physical comedy.
This is peak bilinguality.
I went to stay in London in the early 80s. Met an older guy in a pub, looking suspicious at me and frowning. I immediately thought it was because of me being a German. In fact it was, but very different from what I thought. He asked me, wether I have any relations to Dresden. I denied and he showed great relief. Turns out, he was a young pilot in WW2 throwing bombs on civilians. He couldn’t get over his feeling of guilt. We had a long an good and long talk about guilt, responsibility and national stereotypes. And for the first time I didn’t feel guilty for being a German in a forein country.
As a non-Bavarian German, I can only say that we do not care about the Oktoberfest in general. It's a Bavarian thing. So naturally, we also do not care about the many foreigners coming to Bavaria for it. I guess the only feeling the typical German has towards Oktoberfest is mild annoyance because the whole world thinks that the Oktoberfest is a "German" thing, and every German must know about it and must have visited it. It plays into this general annoyance that people abroad think about Bavarian stuff as typically "German."
Same. Never been to Oktoberfest in my life (43 Years). Living in NRW.
never been to Oktoberfest either even though I'm technically from Bavaria (pretty much the northernmost part of Bavaria though)
Same with thinking every german drives a german car.
Every September hords of people in cheap Porno Dirndls and fake Lederhosen invade Munich from NRW. What you described are my feelings about the Rhineland Carnivals, especially Cologne.
Perhaps that "Bavararian=German"-thing has a lot to do with the Post-Nazi-Era when the American occupied zone was mainly Bavaria(?) The here stationed American soldiers brought their impressions of what they have seen of Germany - which means of Bavaria - back to the U.S. and spread it as typical German. To me that's kind of the same thing as the Mittermeier story joke about that ignorant girl in New York (6:47 min).
Germans are too honest to be polite and brits are too polite to be honest.
That’s really true… 🙈
I love the UK especially Scotland. It’s so beautiful.
British stereotypes I heard when growing up:
Brits are very polite, unless they are on vacation
British food is disgusting (but all the celebrity chefs are British)
Brits have very dark humor.
They love football as much as we do in Germany
They love their tea as much as we love our beer. This one is even reflected in our languages. The British say "not my cup of tea" and Germans say "not my beer"
Just wanna clarify that in German "Nicht mein Bier" (not my beer) is used to say that you're not responsible for something (e.g. "Die Wohnung zu putzen ist nicht mein Bier" - "Cleaning the flat is not my responsibility"; also works in the positive e.g. "Wie du nach Hause kommst, ist dein Bier" - "how you get home is your business"), while in English "not my cup of tea" means that you don't like (doing) the thing.
@@equolizer It also reflects the relationship of those two cultures to their "national beverage"
For the British, tea is just a source of pleasure/enjoyment. (not my cup of tea= i don't enjoy it)
For the Germans, beer means business. (nicht mein bier = none of my business)
Brits: the beauty of their women and the taste of their food make them the best sailors in the world 😀
@@ih6901 it's basically the opposite to the stereotypes I heard growing up. Well I already adressed the one about British food beeing terrible. And about British beauty I only ever heard this: Brits have crooked teeth
also, the more north you go, the more their teeth go berserk
i am from bavaria too, i know Michael as an comedian since he started/became famous about 25 Years ago. his way of performing in english is the same as in german. that´s Michael. good guy. btw i also love the legnedary british humor. cant get enough of it. Monty Python, Mr. Bean, and so much more.
We were told to be as quiet as possible when we were in Poland as part of our advanced course in German History. That was 2002 and yes, it was neccessary. Some older people noticed we were German teens and started shouting at us. We all knew why but we were there to learn how to not make our grandparents‘ mistakes.
Shouting towards innocent teenagers is really f*cked up, tbh. I was born in poland, but grew up in germany and I never saw any animosity towards other germans or myself.
@@Watamel0n I know. Our guide refused to translate what those people shouted at us. It only happened once during our stay but it still was unnecessary.
Polish people is really something, they also learn history to avoid their past mistakes and current ones. Very fanatical and nationalistic.
Interesting Story
An welchen Orten ereignete sich das?
At which places did that happen?
Mittermeier didn’t say that Germans have a need to be „politically correct“, just the need to give correct (as in accurate) answers.
As a German at about the same age as Michael Mittermeier I confirm that during my whole youth we all were taught to feel guilt and shame for what our nation (grandparents and greatgrandparents) did. An indeed: Even as kids (being in the Netherlands on vacation, or my brother in France on a school trip), some seniors in neighbour countries would be angry at us. My brother was even spit on by a French veteran when my brother was only 15. As an exchange student in the US in 1983 I felt pride for a nation for the first time in my life - but for the US! Singing the German National Anthem outside of Soccer Championship or Olympic Games? Having German Flags in your Garden? German Sticker on your car? Never experienced in those years, up to the 90s. I`m glad that today we are accepted in most countries again. And I am happy about having Michael Mittermeier as an Ambassador :-)) Love his satirical humor :-)
Yes i can confirm that. I also experienced it like that as a child. Our history as a child consisted of 99% crimes against humanity, war guilt and National Socialism. We would be insulted abroad, even in Italy...who was Mussolini again? Who was Franco, who was Stalin? There were other criminals in other countries and at other times, even nowadays. But when you throw dirt, you'd rather stay clean yourself because it feels better and is more fun. We've learned that now too - our country can't get anything right, except for a serial production of laughing nonsense, but isn't above telling others how things should be done properly. It's embarrassing, really embarrassing - but hey, we're pros at being looked at askance. Even the Austrians made Hitler the Austrian to a german citizen and had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the war or the other things. We were the orcs of the near past. That's why we lack national pride, we love the country and most of the people (there are idiots everywhere), we don't feel romantic about wars, we know the atrocities and we bear the blame. Now we are supposedly cowardly and tremble with fear. We want neither war nor dictatorship, but we have learned. Do not confuse responsible action with the truth of the rampant misjudgement of our state of mind. Our politicians are so embarrassing that we see the Muppets as educational television for these fools. We are Europeans, we are concerned about our future, we are allergic to stupid paternalism, but we are also disciplined, we abide (still) by the law and value our police, we believe in the good intentions of our representatives, but we also experience that often people who have bad luck in thinking have discovered politics as a career. We do not want to repeat history and therefore put up with more than is good for us.
I can confirm this too.
Oh please, 99% is _slightly_ overstated. And don't forget - after the war a LOT of Nazis were found everywhere in the society, but nobody never talked about anything. In public everyone was in the resistance or at least hid some Jews in his cellar. But with some alcohol, late in the evening all the old songs were sung ("die Fahne hoch", "Wir marschieren gen Engelland") and suddenly everyone had a Ritterkreuz and killed 50 russkis singlehanded with a spade. The student protests in the 60ties shook all dirt up and suddenly things started to change - bit for bit. But the activist students were hated much more than the Klimakleber today, they were attacked, in the papers like BILD, verbally and physically on the streets, some were killed. This lead to the formation of the RAF and leftwing terrorism, but the peaceful majority of the leftwing activists tried to change society from its inside - by becoming teachers, working for the government, getting into politics.
(On a personal note - my father was much NOT a left wing activist but he went through so much bullying/hazing by old Nazis in his first years working for the government in the 60ties he despised them very much - his revenge was a very successful career....)
Same
Scho wahr
In Germany we have the prejudice that Scottish people are exceptionally mean with money. Turns out my mother only made it through her apprenticeship because she was a servant in a restaurant with Scottish workers tipping her so well she actually made it. Every since I have loved the Scottish - also because of their super cool accent!
Haben Schotten im Urlaub kennen gelernt ❤
Scottish people are great!
In 1987, I participated in a student exchange with a rather rural High School in the state of NY. And yes, we were indeed told upfront that "some reactions of US citizens towards us Germans might seem awkward but are not ill-intended overall". I'm still grateful for this preparation because, at the beginning of my very first class in said High School, I was greeted with "Heil H**ler!" by the entire room. According to the room's history(!!) teacher, it was meant to be "endearing and to make me feel somewhat homey". They also commended me on my "proper American clothing" (Jeans. They expected some guy in Lederhosen.)
I genuinely don't know if history classes improved since then, but yeah, the late 80's were fun times for a German, especially in rural areas of the USA.
Nicht dein Ernst 😂😂😂
I did my exchange in England in 2005, but there weren't enough students from my part of the country going to the UK so I got lumped in with the ones going to the US for the info meeting. They only spoke about the US and how no one should be surprised if being asked if we had electricity or greeted them with "Heil H**ler". Needless to say, I was very glad not to go to the US.
I was a foreign exchange studen in Louisiana (smaller city but not rural) in 2010 and I experienced the excact same thing. Even my host father never called me by my name, he called me "little Hitler". In school I was called "Nazi whore". History class has not improved. In my high school in the entire 12 years of schooling there was only one year of mandatory history class and that was called "american history", which I also attended. They were only taught things that America was involved in. Meaning: "we freed Germany and the rest of Europe from the Nazi regime. Everything in Germany is Nazi and bad. So now lets talk about the Korean war...". At least ince per day I was asked why I voted for Hitler in the elections and if I like him as our president. One girl told me she would so much like to visit Germany because she liked Tokio Hotel (music band) but she was scared to be put in a concentration camp because she had dark hair. What can I say...there are a million more stories. I am tired.
@@aloeme true. I was taken to a normal supermarket and they acted like we were going to see Obama in the White House. Because "we know you don't have grocery stores overthere". Also they didn't believe I flew by plane, as apparently nobody knew we also had planes or cars :D CARS!! :D
@@Sunshine27234 That's just sad man :D
When I was young sometimes people reacted negative to me as a german abroad. But in the last 20 years or so I can't remember any situations, where being a german was a problem. On the other hand there have been many times where peoples reaction was suprisingly positive. A lot ot "My Father/Brother/Uncle was stationed with the army in Germany, he tells so many great storys" when I was in the US, while in Europe many people have visited germany or met a lot of germans before me so they already learned the difference between germans and nazis. And these days there are Countrys in Europe with more Nazis than we have here in Germany... :(
The turning point was pretty much 2006
Why 2006?
@monster05yt57 it was the year the football world championship took place in Germany and it has been a really great party. The motto was "Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden". And it really was like that.😊
I don't know how it was in the 80s but I went to china in 2008 with an international group of 20 year olds. First thing I heard was "Hey german kid... are you a nazi?".
Couple of days later I became tight friends with a kid from israel. Let me tell you that people were not able to process that level of irony ...
@lpschaf8943 Well no, the German kid who first got asked if he's a "Nazi" becoming good friends with the kid from Israel is indeed an ironic turn of events given the historical context and the situation. Yes it also broke the expectations but you could call it ironic in the best sense possible and I like it. It's both funny and a happy end what else do you want of a German joke honestly?
I was 2011 in the USA and it was the same 😂🤣🤣
Fritz here, biological turkish kurd. I never knew Michael was in so excellent command of the english language. Makes him even more sympathetic. Proud of him.
Edit: yes, Germans are quite aware of their history. Actually I was fed up with all the "indoctrination" awareness thing, but nowadays with the political right wingers rising again here, I miss those days when Germans were more humble.
When the Germans bash themselves 😏 Yes Germany is the third largest arms supplier. USA 31%, Russia 28%, Germany 8%, China 8%, France 6%. The other countries between 1 and 3%. Switzerland and India each have around 20% small weapon parts...🤷
Our body has membranes that are permeable and membranes that separate. Both is important. Currently Europe's borders are too wide open...
@@wildesherz19222 Du bist wohl Mitglied im Sylter Gesangsverein.
Ich gehöre zu den empathischen Menschen, die völlig unpolitisch und unabhängig klar und weitreichend denken können. Es soll sie noch geben 😉
...es mag solche einseitigen Schreihälse geben politisch rechts wie links aber jeder intelligente Mensch bemerkt sofort, dass die Sylter Aufnahmen Fake sind. Es wurde sprachtechnisch überspielt. Der Großteil hat etwas völlig anderes gesungen. Ob die vordere eingeblendete Gruppe gekauft war...kann ich wiederum nicht sagen. Es ist ja allen bekannt dass zur Meinungsmache viel inszeniert wird.
I was born in the mid 70s. The subjects guilt and shame were a big part of education at school just to the point it got really annoying for students.
I would like to recommend the comedian Torsten Sträter. He has a dry humor with a lot of linguistic wit. Maybe someone can recommend a video of him with subtitles.
ua-cam.com/video/V2TdUayKyvY/v-deo.html
Sträter is really funny, but he does use a lot of puns that are untranslatable.
@@alicemilne1444 Yes, that may be true, but he should still give it a try. Unfortunately, I haven't found any of his good shows with English translation.
@@tosa2522 I can tell you as a professional translator myself that his puns (which I love) and his multi-layered references wouldn't work in English. I just watched one of his older shows on UA-cam ("Als ich in meinem Alter war") where right at the beginning he says:
"Ich hab' im Kicker gelesen München spielt gegen Porto. Mein erster Gedanke war: Das ist ja wenig Geld. Was sind das? - 80 Pfennig?"
That only works if you know that Kicker is a German football magazine and that Porto is not only a Portuguese football team but the word "Porto" is also the German for postage stamps, and the word Pfennig refers to the pre-Euro currency. So there are several things going on there in less than 10 seconds.
Impossible to subtitle that density of puns and allusions. How are you going to get all those references into the subtitling space.
@@alicemilne1444 Maybe you're right.😞
As An expat Aussie who has lived in Germany for the past 20 years, I have learned to love Michael Mittermeier. I enjoy the English shows, but the German ones where he gets a bit political (and there is plenty of subject matter) are even better.
Michael Mittermeier is a national treasure. He pretty much pioneered "stand up comedy" in Germany.
Oha! You seem to be very young. Stand-up has been pioneered by others before him for sure.
@@mittelschwerekatastrophe3042 Yes, there were comedians before him, but they rarely did, what is called "stand up comedy" - a direct interaction with the viewers from a stage. Before him, it was sketch comedy or speeches with jokes, also satire. But nothing in the same line as Mittermeier's performances.
Haha. Otto??😂
Pionier? Wie man auf so eine Aussage kommt 😂
@@ArschusRillusLochos Die Aussage kommt nicht von mir... such einfach mal bei Google und Co:
Mittermeier "stand-up-Pionier"
I didn't know Mittermeier did gigs in English. If you know his German shows (and you should probably watch some for comparison) it's quite interesting that it has the exact same feel to it as his German routines (as in the way he talks, the same bavarian accent, etc.)
His best stand up was "Zapped" that made him really famous in germany.
I don´t know if a translation is available or if it even holds up today
His "Scottish-Acsent", is just how a Southgerman sounds like, when he has no experience in speaking English, just in School. The most Southern Dialects are rolling the "R". As a Swabian Guy, the Scottish Acsent, is one of the most understandable for me. 👍
Listening to Scotch I always think they sound a lot like Franconians (northern Bavaria), with the rrrrolling R - and not really pronouncing a difference between D and T and B and P 😂
I can absolutely confirm this. I grew up in the Southwest and Scottish is like very bad German English.
@@ThorDyrden and what does the scotch tell you? something like - never dilute me with water ! 😅 😂 🤣
@@labelmail definitely not... I drink it on the rocks
The Swabian accent is much closer to the Scottish one than the Bavarian. Basically all Alemannic German varieties like Swiss, Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein, Alsace... German would sound pretty Scottish to a native English speaker.
Mittermeier speaks English with a clear Bavarian accent. Especially for Germans it is well recognizable, when Bavarian or Austrian people speak English. I'm not sure if I could identify other german dialects so well when the people speak English.
Excellent idea to present German comedians from a Scottish perspective!
In my personal opinion (I am German AND Bavarian), you picked the very best guy, so Michael is first choice really, considering those who have the guts to perform using English in the first place… But anyway, there are literally dozens of outstanding comedians here in Germany. Some of them are mistaken to be politicians though. 😀
Serdar Somuncu - Bester Mann!
The German political parties may have thought years ago 'When Americans chose an actor for President or another one for Senator, so why shouldn't we use comidians as politicians?' And this is tradition since the 80ies. 😂
@@konstantinrheker4671 "so why shouldn't we use comidians as politicians" - because Ukraine already beat us to it.
All I know is that Michael's special named Zapped was the first place I ever seen him and was one of the funniest comedy specials I've ever seen. Period.
Having been a teenager in the 80s I can confirm: guilt and shame were my two middle names. I didn't only know from school but was frequently reminded both in France and in England, although even my parents were born after the war. And I still think - just as well. Meanwhile I've changed my middle names to responsibility and consideration though.
You should definitely watch: "Brexit: Lutz van der Horst verkauft den Briten Schmuggelware" ("Brexit: Lutz van der Horst sells contraband to the Brittish"). The short introduction is in German, but the content is not that important. The rest is in English. Overall, the video is really funny.
I was in Glasgow Scotland a few years ago, in a karaoke bar. When it was my turn I sang flower of scotland, after that I made a lot of new friends. So, sing the right song when you are a german guy in a karaoke bar in scotland. 😂😂😂🇩🇪❤🏴
I keep laughing because you are laughing, it's just contagious
But Mittermaier is also brilliant
thanks, good job. i laughed A LOT. i am a kraut that lived in Texas and Canada, i can relate.
About German Humour and the reputation it has, a little anecdote:
During an outing on my recent vacation, we had a Chinese American couple in our group and I got chatting with the wife. As I made a couple of little jokes, she asked me where I was from. When I answered that I was German, she professed some amazement about the, to be sure meagre, witticisms I engaged in earlier and remarked something along the lines of "Common wisdom is that Germans don't have much humor."
Now, this is a selfreplicating meme, used as bottom drawer crowd pleasers by every anglophone humourist, TV personality and whatnot and it got my dander up. The anglophone way would have been something along the lines of "Yes, I know we're a bit sh*it at humour...“ and let it slide...
I answered "When was the last time you read a novel about German topics in German and understood the underlying cultural subjects and memes? German humourlessness comes from the firm anglophone, both US and UK, knowledge that USAians and Brits have humour. It's in their cultural DNA. Now imagine an anglophone making some sort of joke. The German, who has English as a second language and possibly is not quite up to snuff with the cultural aspects of the joke, doesn't get it and has to have the joke explained. The anglophone knows he is funny so the German not getting the joke must be down to lack of humour. Now imagine the German is trying his hand at a joke, possibly translating a German joke into English with the proficiency of a 2nd language speaker ignoring the fact that cultural references oftend do not map. The anglophone doesn't get the joke but he know with utter certainty that he has humour. So the joke is bad, which must be down to German lack of humour. Of course he ignores all the intricacies of language, cultural background, national memes, emotional resonances of words, phrases and concepts of hundreds of years of cultural development and history, because he knows that he understands humour. And after the war, enough USAians and Brits had this experience, the Germans were in no position to respond and of course it was chewed and regurgitated in movies and TV in the US and the UK ad nauseam... That is where you heard that Germans have problems with humour."
It was actually a bit more elaborate, but that was the gist. I think her eyes glazed over, since she certainly didn't expect a detailed lecture. I think I successfully introduced her to two more German traits. We don't do smalltalk and we'll take any opportunity to lecture at the drop of a hat. And it'll probably be a long time before she tries that line on another German.
Aber wir Deutschen HABEN keinen Humor!
Du sprichst mir aus der Seele! Danke! You speak to me from the soul! Thanks!
Born in 1969. The whole guilt and shame thing is 100% spot on for my generation.
Experienced it in France in 1982. We were saved by the fact that my father (born in 1937) went to a French school in the French zone after the war (Saarland) and is pretty fluent in French. The French have respect for people who don't make their ears bleed when trying to speak French 😊
Paranoid is by far his best Programm ever (Mittermeier)
As a German I can confirm that we still learn "guilt" and "shame" at school
I've learned about it 4 times as full classes during my school time
But it dont work anymore so effektiv like then.
As pupils thought: dont give a fuck. It was before we could do anything wrong. And you teachers, parents you have an ass open....thats what me pupils thought. Nothing to do with your past bullshit.
Then you have not understood anything of those thems. It is not guilt and not shame!
It is very interesting to hear Mittermeier Jokes you never heard before. I'm german and I'm a big Mittermeier Fan. I even got a ticket for one of his shows last Christmas. I never heard this jokes before, I mean he speaks about his journeys in Germany too, but he tells different stories.
I really like your accent. "The Möwies", a bunch of seagulls.
I know he - like myself - studied American Studies (an even wrote his maters thesis on stand-up comedy) and I suspect he speaks English (American English) much more authentically than he does here. I suspect he actively uses his heavy Bavarian inflection for comedic purposes. I mean, I love his *Bavarenglish* but have hunch he can probably speak English without an accent if he wants to…
He also doesn't speak proper, accent free German, so he transports it to English.
@@robfriedrich2822 I think, like most dialect speakers, he is well able to tone his accent down if he wants to. Speaking with his heavy Bavarian accent is much of his comedic personality. It sets him apart from most other comedians. So is his heavy Bavarian inflection in English. I think, it is largely a willfull act as a stage persona as much as a feature of convenience to speak as one‘s beak is grown…
Maybe, but I had professors of English and American studies at uni whose English was heavily accented and that wasn’t an act
@@dorisw5558 yes, I also have colleagues with dialect inflections in the English department at which I teach. Maybe. Some people can‘t shed it. With him however, I really don‘t think if you met him at some NY bar and would involve him in a discussion in English, he would have quite such a heavy accent… Part of it, I am certain, is an act to make him more authentic, more German, more Bavarian because, especially among an English-speaking audience, it will make him quite exotic as English speakers love any accented English… BTW: among the many German students I have in my more than 20 years of teaching, they may all have mispronounced this or that word and some may have had a slight dialect inflection from any part of Germany, but I have never, yet, met a student with such a heavy dialect inflection, not even Bavarian or Saxon students…. They all have to pass pronunciation exams early in their studies as you probably also did.
I am not sure if his strong accent is just for stage. I had a classmate from Thuringia, he quickly established a proper high German. But speaking English, he fell back into his dialect. Also, you can easily identify every Swiss person in an internal gathering.
Oh my. As a German, i never knew about this guy... funny that. He is so hilarious. Thanks for this video. Now let me watch the other half... im an honest, i almost peed myself. 😂😂😂
I love Michael. I'm from West Germany. Not from Bavaria 😊. But I love it there. And the people. Wunderfull.
I also can recommend Vince Ebert, german physicist and comedian, was living a year in NYC, also has some English UA-cam videos.
I concur. He is a real life physicist, so his comedy approach is different.
To be sincere and funny at the same time takes talent. Talent!
Mert, I just found your channel by coincidence and saw the Michael Mittermeier in English. I never liked him very much with his German show, but the English show with the international touch, talking about Germans, Americans, the Japanese, the comparisons, I was really dying laughing! And the "shame and guilt" during school is SO true! Michael is more or less my age. Wonderful!! Then I saw your take on Volker Pispers, heute Show and other. Wonderful approach, wonderful channel! Congrats! If you like Volker Pipsers try Hagen Rether. He is really heavy stuff!!! Keep going! Thank you!!
Look, Tiffany!🤣
You just give me a heartfelt laugh, even though I already knew this program…lol…..Thanx
Yes, as a German one sometimes has to navigate the depth of hatred the older generation still harbours….
After school before starting at Uni I visited my former exchange student in France, we had kept in touch and I worked at a local Pony and race horse stable … and became friends with the trainees there.
We even went up to the Bretagne for a 5 day vacation and camped in the trailer of Clair‘s family. Her grandparents were living nearby in a very traditional cottage that only recently had running water installed.
She had told me that it might not be the best idea to fess up to me being German when her grandfather was around, so we had put together a story of my being British because after a High School Year in Michigan I somehow had acquired an English accent in my French.
But when her granddad showed up at 7.30 a.m., unannounced the next day and started laying into her for not having shown up yet, she got so angry she introduced me as her ‚German friend‘.
He looked me up and down, said…. _You suppose we are friends now?!_ , spit at my feet, turned around and left without another word. The guys were just looking out of the tent at this stage and so we didn‘t get to visit her grandma, unfortunately.
That was 2000.
I think there is still a lot of resentment present because when people found out a friend and I who were talking English during our 5 week Australia trip were not indeed Irish and American, but two Germans we always got uncomfortable reactions where people were being awkward at first.
That's a shame, after all this time.....
Als meine halbe Klasse Interrail machte, sagten sie immer, sie kämen aus der Schweiz. Ja, traurig. Aber vielleicht sind diese alten Leute, die so reagieren, wirklich schlimm traumatisiert und nie behandelt worden.
@@susannemuller6681 I have yet to lie about being from Germany, since Claire didn't go through with it.
I think lying about being Austrian or Swiss robs other international acquaintances of an opportunity to rethink their own perceptions.
We had a lot of succes in doing that I believe while travelling in Australia, because we were both fluent enough to not create our own 'German bubble' so people approached us much more openly because they understood what we were talking to each other and gave us great tips of which sights would be amazing to visit, or where the most tourist groups were likely to be (so we'd rather go someplace less crowded).
So if we were asked where we came from after having a nice chat most people had to close the one mental box and open another, reevaluate their preconceived notions... that always took a second longer..
But once you realize it is mostly positive surprise I knew we had given someone a nudge in the right direction. 😉
I was born in 1963. Everything MM talks about resonates with my own memory of the 70/80ies. And he is funny imho. 😂🥳🖖
I am a year younger than Michael. Nobody told me to behave differently in other countries. I did it on my own, because I felt guilty about what happened during the Nazi time. Nobody ever said something bad to me, but as I visited neighboring countries that were invaded, I felt bad knowing the history. People did not say something bad to me, but sometimes talked about it, after hearing that I am German.
It was the World Cup 2006 in Germany when things changed. I helped in Frankfurt and in the beginning I was a bit sad….the other fans of other countries were showing their flags in town and I wished we could do that, too. Than younger people (often migrants living there) started using our flag, too….wearing it as skirt, painting it on the cheek. Somehow we got our flag back ….without feeling guilty or having to explain that we are not nationalists or Nazis. It was a great feeling 🙂
I'm from Germany, even from Bavaria, but never attended the Oktoberfest. Yet I think the foreigners couldn't be worse than Germans on Mallorca... so it's probably fine. ^^
I‘m just 3y older than Michael and when we young (70s/80s) we couldn’t resist British comedy. Monty Python literally was our Holy Gral. And some of us, as a revenge maybe, became comedians. 😂
Wenn man selbst nur das Zeug dazu hätte! Aber erstens fehlt die Spontanität und zweitens, und man glaubt es wohl kaum, ist es ein sehr, sehr anstrengender Job, das über so viele Jahre hinweg zu machen. Ich habe ja auch eine komische Ader, ich bin wahrscheinlich nicht political korrekt!
Ich komm nicht über den Akzent weg 😂 super!
It's true: when I was fourteen, they shouted at me in France: Raus, boche! becauce of a simple question...that gave me the same feeling of hiding my nationality and guilt for years! It was a Trauma for me.
Bruno Kreisky, a famous Austrian chancelor shall have said this: "I like being in Bavaria, because I am not in Germany yet and not in Austria anymore."
My hypothesis is that the prejudice about Germans with no sense of humour originated in work relationships. There was a strict separation between work and leisure time. And Germans took their work very seriously and would not respond to any jokes in a work-related meeting. Germans always enjoyed telling jokes in their free time though. Nowadays, everything is more relaxed and the typical Germans are hard to find, at least in the younger generation.
As a German I was being scolded by my parents for making Nazi jokes as a teen. Me and my friends did them just because they were edgy then. I moved to England when I was 17. In a pub I told a Nazi joke (against the Nazi officer) to my English friends, the neighbouring table, who had been listening to why this "big German is talking so loudly", cracked up in laughter. "I never thought Germans can laugh about themselves". Great night with a lock-in til 10am after that.
I wasn’t alive in the 80s but I have always heard the stories from a good family friend, who had travelled and lived in plenty of European countries in the 80s. She had many negative experiences and reactions to her saying she’s German, so she started opting for “I’m just European” and charmingly turned down further questions. I always found this a bit sad and I’m glad that my own experiences living abroad in the past decade have been different.
I was born in the 90ies and I was still told to not tell people that I am German when travelling. Has been a good advice. My family is half egyptian and half czech but we are basically very German. I was beaten and bullied in the US for being German, when I was a forgeign exchange student. They called me "Nazi whore" when I was 16. I love Germany and being German for what it means today, but when travelling I always say I am from Spain. Tired of being called a Nazi everywhere I go. It does something to your selfesteem when constantly being equalised with the worst of human beings.
Bin auch in den 90er geboren und mir ist etwas ähnliches bei einen Schüleraustausch in England passiert. Wir spielten gegen 4 gleichaltrige Engländer Fussball und haben deutlich gewonnen. Danach gings dann los: Fuck off Nazis, Heil Hitler, fucking Nazi Bastards.... Werd ich nie vergessen.😑
I can feel for you, sorry 😞
As a czech been held as a german, is painful. I would take it just as foolishness or not educated in reading world maps from the other side of this our wonderful round planet, rather knowing craters on the moon.
@@neokio.f Well, you have to consider that over the past 1,000 years, borders have changed frequently. One of my grandfathers was born in Silesia when it was German. Today, it's part of Poland and nobody in my family would ever argue that we are part Polish. Franz Kafka was born in Prague and is considered German by many. Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, Russia. He's clearly considered to have been German. In other words, nationality is quite a blur.
I feel sorry for you. I was born in the 70s and never hid my nationality. I made some experiences similar to yours, but they were quite rare and didn't truly bother me, including when I was an exchange student myself. After all, I didn't want to make the narrowmindedness of other people my problem. I also always had an answer to remind them of their own past - be it British Colonialism or American Slavery - and asked them whether they identify with that which usually ended the issue. However, the daughter of a friend of mine, living in the US, still had such experiences quite recently and suffered immensely from them as she was called "Hitler's daughter".
Leider scheinen die Deutschen tatsächlich Nazis zu sein. Nix gelernt die letzten 80 Jahre :(
As a German guy, Michael is one of the best, and this channel is even better❗️
And yes, we have this line, “Gnade der späten Geburt” which comes from Canceler Helmut Kohl meaning, one was NOT part of WW2 because of later birth.
I remember when I was a teen and went to london with school class, the teachers told us exactly what michael said. Teachers always telled us that most british whould hate germans because of WW2. and this was like 2009.
Never saw a German walking in Stechschritt because he or she is nervous. Michi, where have you seen this?
I agree with him, we Germans love punctuality, directness and accuracy.😅🤣👍
Then we should rename Deutsche Bahn
Great humor!
Different feelings as a german: First Michael is totaly right about the reactions on us germans in the world. By the way his german shows are mostly not political but his english ones are excellent and hit the point bullseye! The shame and guilt issue is complicated indeed! When visiting sweden I was sure not to be in trouble with my german being, because there was no german invasion. We met the owner of the house we lived in and she asked where we were from. We said "from germany" and she reacted were friendly. She said: "I've been to germany, too. My mother and I were deported in the war from ukraine to work in germany..." She was so nice to us and we felt so bad about it. I was ashamed and couldn't do anything about it.
MIchael taught me a very useful sentence when youre visiting foreign countries making fun of yourself: "Oh, relax, I'm a friendly nazi..."
@@eisbaellsche175 oh My god, das meinst du doch jetzt nicht wirklich ernst oder? Ich bin ein freundlicher Nazi ist schon wirklich unterste Schublade! Aber das kenne ich von Mittermeier noch nicht diesen Spruch. Aber will halt den ganzen Märchen über uns, die in der Nachkriegs Zeit geboren wurden, mal irgendwo einen Riegel vor schieben. Ich bin jetzt 66 Jahre alt und musste mir die ganze Scheiße auch mein ganzes Leben anhören. Irgendwann muss ja auch mal gut sein oder nicht? Ihr lebt anscheinend alle schon lange nicht mehr in Deutschland, seid froh! Die Welt schüttelt nur noch den Kopf über unsere ach so tolle Politik. aber politische Vollidioten gibt es überall auf der Welt! Hätte ich doch bloß noch mal eine Chance… ich glaube halt nicht an Wiedergeburt…
What he says is true. I was born in Bavaria in 1967, just like Michael, and started school in 1973. From secondary school onwards, we were bombarded with this Nazi theme. When we were 12 years old, we had to watch the horrible concentration camp films that were made by the Americans during the liberation of these camps. At that time, the question of hereditary guilt was dealt with excessively. It's burned into your mind for a lifetime. I think Michael felt the same way as I did and many other children of these years.
You are very nice.
My mother is an England fan. She lived there for one year and worked in Germany as an English teacher - British accent.
My mother and I like the kindness
Amazing. In English he is even more funny than in Bavarian. Unimaginable how he would sound in German ...
I was born in1964 and a lot of what Michal told us was passed on to us by our parents, which is typically german and english. some things still apply to both sides today. In 2006, the football world cup was held in our country under the motto "the world as a guest with friends"! (Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden). Four weeks of sunshine and everyone was in a great mood. After that, the world saw us with different eyes. Suddenly we were the most popular countries in the world. Only when you get to know people can you form an opinion! Next year europe is "visiting friends" for the European Champioship and we hope it will be a happy and great spectacle again! Greetings from Germany, Olli.
Even in the middle of the 1990s, my best friend who was travelling a lot to England told me that the first information he got from the family where he was staying at that time was: "Never tell anybody, that you are from Germany. That will be not very good for you. Better if you say, that you are from Netherlands..."
I’m german, born 1968 and grew up with BFBS and SSVC TV. Both provided the most successsful programmes to british army personnel, some germans listened in. BFBS was the best radio station. For SSVC you needed a multi system TV living near a UK military base. Remember back then there was no internet, no satellite reception for the average joe. It was a blast. I still love Allo Allo, Blackadder, Spitting Image, Cuddly Kenny to name a few. Also iconic radio presenters like Richard Allinson and Tommy Vance as well as the lunchtime radio show with 2 presenters they got from capitol radio.--- I also like Michael Mittermeier and especially Volker Pispers. Today, two of the finest german comedians are Lisa Eckhardt and Thorsten Strāter. But that’s just my 2 cents. And don't mention the war ! 🙂
As a German I think that there are a lot of similarities between british and german humor. I always have a great time when I am around british people, laughing my head off 😁.
That was fun: Mittermeier and your reactions. Very good.
Honestly even when I went to school in the 2000s and early 2010s, shaming our history was a very frequent occurence during History class. But I feel like it moved away from "you guys should feel guilty" towards "you guys should know wtf can happen and work towards making sure it does never ever repeat itself", which frankly I find alright. With our History Leistungskurs we did a trip to Kraków and from there visited Auschwitz. Frankly I think that should be mandatory - if not a visit at least a documentation of the tour they do nowadays. The impressions that left were the strongest anti-nazi feelings I ever felt and it's probably impossible to get this anywhere else. Visiting this place in person doesn't compare to anything else.
I just hope that going forward we can some day be openly proud of our country again, without being branded a nazi or fascist.
yes and what did that lead to? that the Afd politicians openly speak of the gassing of foreigners again without receiving painful objections. I've never seen it as a personal fault either, but people forget everything and the hate starts all over again!
I remember going to Spain for holiday when I was young. Our camp leaders: "We are lucks, there is a British camp next to us. This year, we will nether be the most drunk nor the worst behaved." 🤣
Fritz?... Are we the baddies?
I am from Germany and it is the first time listening Mittermeier in English, in my opinion it is very good
Michael Mittermeier is awesome... you should definitely check out his special that he did right after returning from his US tour, the cockroach bit is an absolute banger. I'm not entirely certain what the name of the special was, maybe something with jungle? oh, no it was 'Paranoid' - idk if there's a subtitled version out there but it's amazing
Doom 😂
michael is such a friendly and funny dude - love em since decades and thanks alot for this vid :-) cheers from germany
Scottish stereotype: They can turn swearing into a piece of art. So colourful i'm just amazed.
Sadly, Oktoberfest has become more and more disguting by the year due to massiv beer consume, harrassment and secondhand-embarrassment.
The part about "guilt teaching in school/universities is pretty spot on. Half of my total time in history class was spend on "ww2 germany bad". Everyone did visit an concentration camp with the class at least once. We called history class "Erbschuldlehre" (translates to something like "school of inherited guilt")
Einfach nur furchtbar, und immer wieder wird ein neuer Kranz und ein Gedächtnis oder sonst irgendwas nieder gelegt. Es ist nicht mehr nachvollziehbar für selbst schon sehr alte Generationen!
Funny video! Thanks for sharing it with us :-)
Actually the whole guilt part during my time in school (over 20 years ago) did actually come up during history lessons and especially related to WW2. Personally I never felt any guilt or shame because I always said to myself that I was never part of that (happened decades before I was born - so how can I ashamed of that) and I never would've supported it neither. And especially that second aspect is very important to me.
We younger Germans are not guilty of what happened, but we are responsible to prevent it from happening again.
@@Cornu341 This does also apply to every other human being on this planet, not just Germans. Everyone is responsible for preventing that s**t or something comparable to happen.
yes and what did that lead to? that the Afd politicians openly speak of the gassing of foreigners again without receiving painful objections. I've never seen it as a personal fault either, but people forget everything and the hate starts all over again!
@@AthlonFanatictogo So do you have any proof for this claim? I haven't heard any AfD politician talk about gassing foreigners.
@@AthlonFanatictogoin all fairness, bigotry, fascism and the far-right are an issue pretty much everywhere.
We’re facing the division between two radicalized groups - the far left and the far right - everywhere on this planet.
We will not open concentration camps again, but in every society, there’s liberal and conservative people, that’s just personality, once economical recession starts to creep up on people, and fear starts to flare up, people tend to look for culprits by nature, and mostly, it’s the people “from the other side” and by fighting each other, they scare each other into their respective corners.
The frighteningly naive and radical illusion of a society, where conservative / right wing people are absent is a not the answer to “let’s never forget what happened back then”, the answer is finding common ground to not cause a specific group to become disenfranchised and radicalized.
The existence of the AFD is not us forgetting what happened back then, it’s us trying too hard to push an agenda onto every single person while not understanding, that a nation with one single opinion is a totalitarian state/ a dictatorship, but not a functional democracy.
Right wing does not automatically mean racist, left wing does not automatically mean violent.
Until we understand and accept that concept, we will continue hating each other just for having a different outlook on life.
That was the first time I saw M.M. comedy in English! And …. I love it!! 😍🎉🥳
British is what you call yourself when you don't want people to think you are English. 😂
In the seventies we were in Oxford with a youth group, 14-17 years old. In south england entering a pub in the country they throw us out of the pub, throwing stones at us. Our american friend Bert saved us, he stopped them…
My observation about stereotypes: The English love to say "don´t mention the w*r" when any German is around, but they love to brag on it hours and hours how they beat us (and surely not the US or USSR...). There was a documentary about World Cup 2006 in Germany, and they showed a group of England fans constantly singing aggressively the "10 German Bombers" Song, trying to start a brawl, and no one really cared. Oh, and they think they are our biggest rival in Football, because of the w*r, but truly that is Holland, leading by far.
Thanks for sharing the show! First time is saw an English performance but was really great. Some plots really have been new to me although he was quite present on German TV for years. Now he seem to tour a lot. His German comedy i pretty much the same so well done Michael! Died almost laughing about the Lederhosen facts and scientific setup drunk experiment!
As a fellow Bavarian I sadly have to confess that I regard Mittermeier as a rather mediocre comedian. However, I have huge respect for his courage to pursue an international career from scratch after having established himself successfully in Germany.
Der Typ ist für mich einfach ein Crackhead der auf der Bühne zappelt. Ich hate ja nicht grundlos Leute, aber der hat weder was witziges im Programm, noch kann er irgendwas lustig rüber bringen. Katastrophe als er bei LOL mitgespielt hat. Da hätten die auch gleich einen katholischen Priester mit in die Serie nehmen können. 😅
@@Kommentiert_. Ja, er hat jetzt inzwischen schon etwas den Zahn der Zeit verfehlt aber seine alten shows gehen immer noch finde ich👌.
@@Kommentiert_ Ich find seine Sachen (inklusive das hier im Video) ziemlich "cringe" wie die Jugend heute sagt. Manche Witze in diesem Video wären ganz gut wenn sie 'n bisschen anders rübergebracht worden wären, aber es kommt ja offenbar ganz gut an, also Jedem das Seine :D
Also ich finde ihn nice. 😊
Ich mag seine alte Show Zapp, die versteht man aber nur, wenn man in den Siebzigern Fernsehen geglotzt hat....aber bei Zapp schmeiße ich mich echt weg....
I utterly enjoyed myself with you watching one of the best! Watched a few more of your videos today, after stumbling over you. You have a new subscriber.
Knowing both, USA and Bavaria, speaking both languages my enjoyment was actually doubled
We got told to be quiet and to hide that we're German as much as possible as teenagers on our class trip to France in the early 2000s, and we even got attacked by some guy with a knife when we were getting a tour in a church. Our French guide quickly opened a side door, told us to run and managed to fight him off. We later got told that at least part of his crazy reasoning was that we were German. That was an absolute shock to us. Meanwhile most French people we met were super nice and several happily offered to speak in pretty good German to us.
Some years later my middle-aged driving instructor told me he always claimed to be Swiss when he and his French fiancee visited her home country.
Waving German flags at sport events largely only came back in 2006 when the FIFA World Cup was held in Germany. Which we discussed this in our ethics class in highschool when our teacher brought in a newspaper with a front page picturing a sea of German flags with the title "Schrecklich schön".
I was born in Northern Germany in 1965. We had good self-confidence and anyone who would have called us Nazis would have been considered stupid. I didn't have any bad experiences in Poland, Bulgaria or Denmark in the 70s. Friends were called that in France.
My mother and aunts sang in Spain in the 80s and different nationalities came and sang "Besame Mucho" together in their languages and were amazed by the Germans. A Brit begged her to sing the Christmas carol "Silent Night" because he had a German mother who had died. So in the middle of summer they sang this song for him. Wonderful memories.
As for German humor, I've heard UK former sailor and gaming UA-camr Jingles put it like this: German humor is often rather subtle. A German might be taking the piss on you, and unless you catch the ambiguity of his words or the inflection of tone, you might not even realize it. This, combined with the also quite common deadpan delivery means a lot of the finer humor might go completely unnoticed. So non-native speakers often only notice the cruder type of jokes, and think that is all there is to it.
In turn, Germans often think that e.g. British humor is rather on-the-nose and forced, lacking finesse. {shrug}
And yes, national pride was very much not on the school syllabus in the 70's and 80'. It still really isn't, and the Holocaust still features prominently. Unfortunately the effect seems to wear off (as could be seen by the rise of the new NSDAP, a.k.a. AfD).
The last sentence is the absolute trivialization of National Socialism! Why do people like you always have to make such extreme comparisons and thus play down the horror of the Nazi era?
@@ellipsis101 It's quite the opposite of trivializing anything. The AfD, like the Alt-Right in the USA, is anti-democratic, divisive, and fascist. Back in school we wondered how people could have allowed the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the like. Apparently we have to re-learn that lesson, and let's hope there is someone doing it for us if we're too stupid as a nation to do it on our own.
The "horrors of the Nazi era" was not just the war and the extermination camps. It was being persecuted for being different. Having a different faith, a different sexual orientation, being of a different ethnicity, being of a different political persuation. The AfD is QUITE OPENLY hostile to all of those, while openly opposing the liberal democratic basic order of our nation. Not to even mention the complete disregard for actually providing answers to the pressing subjects of our time and instead actually enjoying taking in all the climate change denialists, anti-vaxxers, xenophobes and ultra-nationalists.
Back then we looked on the NPD and the REP and felt safe in them never getting even anywhere near the 5% required to actually appear in parliament. Today the AfD enjoys 20% of the votes. The NSDAP dismantled our democracy at 33%.
Apparently we *have* forgotten the lessons learned in the 1940's, thinking it too outrageous to happen again, allowing us to play with fire yet another time. And apparently those worried sick about it are already again "people like me" in the eyes of the apologetics and denialists.
Let's hope that all those that had to die to show us the road back to democracy back then haven't died in vain, and that there need not be more dead to defend democracy *again*. I am afraid the USA in its current state won't save us a second time, and most of our European neighbours are fighting their own extremist spectres.
Sehe es ähnlich. Wenn immerzu Nazi geschrien wird, stumpfen die Leute ab. Und wenn die echten Nazis kommen, interessiert es keinen mehr. Das ist wie in der , Geschichte mit dem Hirtenjungen und dem Wolf.
You should see one of his first comedy tours called: "Zapped" back from the early 2000nds
I also remember the "guilt-lessons" we had in school in the 80's. It sounds like a funny joke, but it's actually very true.
I had a teacher who told us we should pretend we were from the Netherlands when travelling in foreign countries where Germans are hated. He obviously really believed that nobody would hear the difference in the accent. Today, I don't live in Germany anymore, but I've never tried to hide my heritage.
Does anyone else remember Harry Enfield’s sketch character “Jürgen the German”? He would go to a public place, such as a bus stop, and start a monologue, usually prefaced with the catch phrase: “I would like to apologise for the war”. Usually, the Brits around him would look terribly uncomfortable, which was how I felt during my first trip to Germany when the grandfather of the lad I was staying with started grumbling about Hitler 😂
well, comedy is subjective, i guess
Hauptsache es kommen nicht noch Mario Barth oder Oli Pocher 🤣🤮
first one to establish american stand up in germany. on top of the comedy olymp with many others for sure