dehumour1-8, Exercise 3: Monty Python in German

Model answer (check the details):

What makes it work: the Python team's comedy rests on absurd logic, parody of national types and clear visual gags, which travel better than puns. Performing in German, even phonetically, made the humour part of the joke: the sight of British comedians struggling with German, and a sketch built on well-known German clichés. A German audience could enjoy comedians who had clearly taken some trouble (check how the episodes were received).

What is lost: much of the Python material depends on British references, accents and class, and on the English language. The German episodes were specially made, so they adjusted to the audience, but wordplay and cultural references had to be rewritten, and the group's usual density of jokes was reduced (check).

What it shows about the stereotype:
- A German broadcaster commissioned and aired the programme, which suggests an appetite for absurd comedy in the audience.
- The Pythons were invited to make the programme and agreed to perform in German, which suggests mutual interest and not an assumption that Germans would not laugh.
- Cross-border comedy works best when it is visual or built on a shared type of humour, and it is a good test of whether two countries share a sense of the absurd.

Result: this is a small piece of evidence against the stereotype, with the usual limits on a single example.