dehumour1-7, Exercise 3: Loriot and the stereotype

Model answer (check the details):

For the stereotype (that Germans are stiff):
- His characters are formal, use titles and the formal "Sie", and cannot easily say what they feel. A viewer who already believes the stereotype will see it confirmed.
- The comedy is about correctness and restraint, so the stereotype is its raw material.

Against the stereotype (that Germans are humourless):
- The stiffness is the target of the joke, and the audience laughs, often in recognition of itself.
- Loriot is hugely popular and honoured in Germany, and his lines are everyday quotations. A people that revered him can hardly be said to lack humour.
- He shows a humour of understatement and irony, close to what is thought of as British.

Limits:
- One comedian cannot stand for a nation. The evidence needs to be set beside Valentin, cabaret, television comedy and others.
- It is possible for a culture to joke about its formality and still be formal.
- The stereotype is about foreigners' impressions; Loriot's work is aimed at Germans, so the question is whether outsiders see it.

Result: Loriot is strong evidence against "humourless", and ambiguous evidence about "stiff". A careful sentence would say that German comedy includes a major tradition that laughs at German formality.