And it is wildly popular, about 1.7 million viewers (population ~5 millions), around 80% of those watching TV at that time are watching it. And it always aired at 21:00. In 1992, NRK tried to air it earlier, but they received so many calls from the public that night that they re-sent it later in the evening
Some yeas back a DR2 made a satirical parody of it called the 80 years birthday (in Danish it is called "the 90 years birthday") where all the characters was played by a series of Danish comedians https://youtu.be/H07O6j6-6vQ
Thanks for sharing! I didn't know Dinner for One is a thing elsewhere in Europe, and even had parodies.
There are also some German adaptations, like the one with Anette Frier and Ralf Schmitz (two well-known comedians). It's in _kölsch_, the dialect spoken in the Cologne area - which is quite fun to listen to, at least for Germans:
A lot of famous comedians have played one version of it (often live ans Theater plays, which I believe is also true for the original). Here is a version with Otto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4iCGdURpd4
There are also several platt versions (a dialekt spoken in the north which is actually more like a separate language)
I‘m sure some people are drinking along with James the Butler (quite a feat) but that is not widespread. It is on TV each year but I would be surprised if many people aren‘t watching via YouTube.
Several years ago, some friends at my then uni started organizing a special sittning [1] on the New Year's Eve, where the idea is simply to watch Dinner for One when it's broadcast and to drink the four served drinks in sync with Miss Sophie. For added challenge one can decide to go either "half" or "full James". It's something of a hilarious deconstruction of the entire concept of sittning, normally a three-course dinner party lasting several hours and featuring plenty of drinking songs and often other entertainment.
And lest we forget: The hackneyed Disney Christmas Show at 1600 hours sharp on the 24th of December. In this household, Christmas officially starts when the mouse from Cinderilla squints and runs the thread through the giant needle's eye.
These are generally the only two times of the year I have anything to do with live TV.
Godt nytår!
Whereas in Sweden it starts at 15 and, for some reason[0], is titled “Donald Duck and his friends wish you Merry Christmas”, despite Jiminy Cricket being the presenter.
[0] The reason is obviously his popularity in Sweden
I was surprised to discover that Mickey Mouse was more popular and well-known in the US than Donald Duck. Come on, Donald Duck is a much more fun and interesting character!
Interestingly, having only ever introduced to those characters through comics, I never pictured any particular accent and instead imagined them speaking normally.
I'll contribute another anecdotal data point; I've never known anyone even to consider that point of view. It's more that Donald Duck comic books just didn't catch on here the way they did in other countries. But people do recognize Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
I grew up thinking the Warner Bros. characters were the superior cartoon stars (and that Daffy is better than Bugs; my wife and I still argue about that). Disney is more like Apple...the people who like them really love them and get sucked into the rabbit-hole, but everyone else sees them as a cult.
In Scandinavia, the older generations mostly know these characters from comic magazines rather than the animated cartoons, as those was rarely shown on TV. The Disney magazines was called Donald Duck but also had stories with other Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy etc. If you ask a Scandinavian about Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse, they will most likely think of the comic magazine rather than the animation.
Disney artists like Carl Barks created new stories in a genre quite distinct from the animated cartoons. While the cartoons are mostly slapstick humor, the Barks stories were longer narratives where the characters went on various adventures. A lot of the stories were produced in Europe for the European market, since the magazines were never as popular in the US (where I believe superhero magazines were more popular, for whatever reason).
WB and Hanna-Barbera and other studios also tried to publish comic magazines, but didn't manage to adapt to the medium as successfully, so they are less well known.
This was a favorite of mine growing up. But I made the mistake of trying to watch it with my kids once, and behold, it had turned from showing the best of the Disney classic cartoons into running trailers for upcoming Disney movies.
Don’t forget that while this is broadcast on NYE in Denmark and Sweden, in Norway it’s broadcast on Christmas which is something you should definitely bring up on a mixed Scandinavian family dinner.
It’s also quite fun since there’s a joke relationship between Swedes and Norwegians calling each other stupid, so it’s quite fun to insinuate that Norwegians simply do not understand that the movie is set on NYE.
Here in Norway every year on Christmas eve we also show Karl-Bertil Jonssons jul, a Swedish cartoon from 1975, where a underage postage worker steals packages from the rich and gives it to the poor.
It's hard to imagine it would be well received in most other countries, especially as a tradition.
Don't forget Tre nøtter til Askepott, an old communist Czech movie that's somehow so critical to Norwegian heritage they had to send a Norwegian team to another country to make sure it was preserved and restored.
Yup, and a remake was released last year, featuring one of our main pop stars. It is apparently an annual Christmas movie in 14 other countries too though, unlike Karl-Bertils, which likely due to the political subject matter is only tradition in the Nordic countries.
To be pedantic, it was an East German / Czechoslovakian coproduction (called "Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel" here), and it's still huge in Germany too (browse German TV channels at any time between Christmas and New Year, and it's very likely that the movie is running on at least one of them).
Thanks for pointing out. I was confused by parent calling it „communist Czech movie“. It’s a fairy tale FFS, what does it have to do with communism? I never understood that obsession some people have with communism to see everything in the world through their iron curtain glasses.
It's important to understand that everything, even fairytales went through censorship / ideology conformity reviews, especially in those years ("normalisation", after the events of 1968/9). Many movies were either not produced at all or banned after production, others were heavily cut.
Yes, even fairytales had to adhere to the communist ideology - for example the poor were usually shown as being morally superior, while the rich were decadent and mostly stupid, etc.
It's also important not to forget that West Germany wasn't immune to the censorship either, and bans, beside what realistically was a Soviet propaganda, also included some really good documentaries and artwork even by today's standards.
Not sure why are you singling out West Germany here since the same applies to many other countries and tbh there is no particular issue with filtering content coming from totalitarian enemies interested in destroying you.
The very important distinction here is that were the same policies as in Czechoslovakia applied in West Germany, people like Rainer Werner Fassbinder would not be able to create their movies. Not distribute, create.
> tbh there is no particular issue with filtering content coming from totalitarian enemies interested in destroying you.
Both sides were very much interested in destroying each other (and worked actively on that), but problem is that whenever you have bureaucrats doing censorship in the name of the national or social interests, it ends up affecting far-wider circle of (innocent) people than officially intended, and often can be misused for other (political) purposes. The main reason I even commented on this is that few days ago I've seen an East-Germany documentary on German nazis working as mercenaries in South Africa, which was banned in West Germany, even though it had nothing "communistic" or anti-western - but it touches some not-so-popular subjects on nazis and nazi supporters in West and particularly W. Germany that (although true and well documented) they didn't want people to hear about. So they censored it as "communist propaganda", no questions asked...
Eastern block certainly had a lot more censorship and oppression than West, but it's important to be aware that lots of dirty s** happened in the West too, things were never as black and white as some people like to simplify it now.
My favorite part is how it's all dubbed into Norwegian by one guy doing all the voices, but he sorta starts giving up distinguishing the characters about half way through.
Spending Christmas with my friend's Norwegian family was just getting one "tradition" after another explained to me for a week while I continuously got more and more confused.
The guy doing the voices were improvising as he went along, as he was under the impression that it was a test. That this ended up being the track they used is, in itself, really odd. It's a funny track, though, so I guess that could be the reason?
Robin Hood is pretty well recieved in the broader west, and Ned Kelly is an Australian icon. I think the theme is pretty universal. For Christmas tradition the west has Scrooge which reveals the inherent disconnect between Christmas and wealth.
It's a frequent misconception that it is set on NYE, since one of the guests (Mr. Pomeroy) says "Happy New Year Miss Sophie" in one of his toasts. But this is intended to be a joke, that the butler James is drunk enough to believe for a moment that it is NYE.
In Switzerland too and it's also shown on national television! And on christmas morning it's tradition that the movie "Drei Nüsse für Aschenbrödel" (Cinderella) is broadcast on national television.
It‘s British actors, but was filmed in Hamburg by the public broadcaster NDR. It is a tradition which is not that funny unless you are already shitfaced. Loriot, on the other hand…
The recording shown on TV is a German Production, but the sketch itself originates from British theater and later TV. The origin story is even somewhat interesting. Seems there is not one, but two people who are involved and mainly known for this little sketch. The original author, and the comedian who made it famous around Europe and is the actor from the recording. And in some way it also kinda sad, as it seems to be the only work for which they are now remembered.
Part of the fun comes from seeing it every year. You know all the jokes and look forward to them, but can’t remember their exact order. So you sit on needles every time he approaches the tiger head, wondering. Will he jump it this time, or bypass it unexpectedly? I can’t explain why this makes it funnier, but it does work for me.
In Sweden, it has been shown since 1969 on New Year's Eve. The distribution rights were bought 1963, but since there was so much drinking involved it took 6 more years before it was broadcast. We use the Swiss version that is 11 min long, not the 18 minute German version.
Also here in Austria, usually broadcast shortly before midnight.
Not sure if the author confused it with Australia, which is confusingly mentioned under "Popularity across Europe", or lumps us up with Germany, which misses the fun factoid that we split up again in 1945 (and also tends to get people over here surprisingly pissy).
> The short 18 minute long movie has also managed to delight audiences in Australia and South Africa, though it is less popular there than in Europe.
Considering they mention Australia and South Africa together, then later in the same sentence say it is “ less popular there than in Europe,” I would say with 100% confidence that the author meant to say Australia, not Austria.
After all, Australia is not in Europe so if they had meant Austria then it would be strange to say it’s less popular there than in Europe.
There are also many European countries not mentioned so I don’t think anything is being lumped together.
Some of these continental orgs are quite flexible about what countries they permit to join. For example Israel is also in Eurovision, but it’s not in Europe. Similarly Australia are part of the Asian Football Confederation rather than Oceania’s Football Confederation (and Israel is a member of UEFA rather than AFC, for obvious reasons)
I don’t think anyone is saying “Australia is part of Europe” with a straight face though :-)
Saying, no, but feeling, yes. Keating's "Asian Century" version of Australia never took strong cultural hold. Our nearest neighbours PNG & East Timor are ignored except by our NGOs and spies, and few visit Indonesia other than the Bali beach resorts. A brief 1990's spurt in Mandarin teaching in schools is in decline, with European languages remaining the most popular. Australia is still by far the most Eurocentric of the post-WW2 immigration nations. And it's literally the whitest, which is why it's been the destination of choice for so many South Africans since the 1990s.
This is changing to some extent with demographics (immigration from China and India, and some generational change). But surprisingly slowly and shallowly. Few Australians know much about Asia, or even the Pacific, let alone feel theirselves to be part of it.
I wasn't suggesting it was part of Asia, rather highlighting that it was not unusual for Australia or indeed other countries to be part of continental organizations (Israel/UEFA and Aus/AFC/Eurovision) that are different from the continent they're usually considered to be a constituent of (Israel/ME, Aus/Oceania). Regardless I do not think skin tone should come into it.
My "Asia" comment wasn't really a response to you - it's been a part of internal Australian debate since the 1980's. Keating crowned the 21st the "Asian Century", and claimed Australia should turn towards Asia. My point is that never really bit culturally. Australia is geographically Pacific, economically Asian, and culturally European/American Despite self-perception, there isn't really much non-derivative Australian culture beyond some small Indigenous influence, though we're probably a century behind NZ in that respect.
> I do not think skin tone should come into it
It shouldn't, but it certainly does. Little can be understood about Australia without it (well, ethnicity at least - broader than 'skin tone'). A large part of Australia's Europe-longing comes from a historical fear of China (as a kind of stand in for people of Asiatic ethnicity).
I can confirm that in Australia SBS (a government owned TV channel) has played the show every New Years Eve at 6.10pm for 30 years and everyone I knew always watched it before heading out to celebrations.
That’s cute. It’s been a while, but last I checked, there were 10s of broadcasts of it on the different stations throughout the afternoon, evening and night in Germany ;)
Well, you have to scale everything down by a factor of 10 to map German scales to Austrian ones ;)
We have like 2 or so (?) public broadcasting stations. One of which makes a heroic sacrifice for the audience that wants to see Silversterstadl, so we need to compromise a bit.
Typical Austrian tradition is to get unreasonably shitfaced with friends/relatives throughout the day (same as every other holiday), until you have a sufficiently positive outlook on the new year.
In that state you're then able to bare the presidents new year speech for the purpose of sarcastically mocking it, actually find Mundl's antics afterwards funny and can round it off with "Dinner for One", right before going outside and playing with explosives. If you survive, you get to listen to the final parts of The Blue Danube afterwards.
I am from The Netherlands and I had never seen it until I started dating my now-wife. I got the impression that many Germans believe it’s a well-known sketch since it is in English.
That's funny. I'm Dutch too, and it was a big part of new years eve in my childhood. We watched it every year and loved it. I don't think I got the final joke about the 'procedure' that happens upstairs after the dinner :)
I always thought that almost all Dutchies had the same experience but maybe I was wrong
However, it suffered from extremely unfavorable conditions: it ran on a newly introduced digital channel that people would have to fiddle with their TV's settings to receive at all, and competed with some extremely popular series running at the same time.
Yeah, well, I’m married to a German, and if there is anything I’ve learned, it is that Germans respond to jokes not by laughing, but by correcting you.
A little know fact is, that the swiss TV produced their own version with the same actors, but subtle (and not so subtle) differences: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP7Q8B8YB5k
Funny, I just checked on Youtube: all the copies (that are not specif "new" versions with other actors, or dubbed, etc) are this swiss version. And almost noone seems to notice.
The NDR version can be watched on their site [0], but it might be region locked. The only notable differences I saw in the Swiss version is they removed the intro and the "Must I?" before taking the admiral's drink.
And furthermore, presumably poor old James has to perform the duties of all the four deceased friends of Miss Sophie that night. Same procedure as every year, James.
For anyone outside of Germany who's wondering, the introduction mostly has the function of explaining the setting and the key repeating line to people who might not be completely familiar with the English language. It's usually shown without subtitles.
A laugh track on top of the original laughs (the whole set was filmed in front of a live studio audience)? The audience laughter is an important part of the show, with the person having the most prominent audience laughter being interviewed about her experience 50 years later ("Today I'm rather embarrassed about my laughing" https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/dinner-for...)
What to keep in mind: It is one of the few pieces of German television tradition that are shown entirely in English - without subtitles. The English is intentionally made so simple that many people without good language skills can understand it. In 1963, however, when the sketch was recorded, a great many Germans knew only a few scraps of English. The explanation is mainly meant to make sure that the following sketch is understood anyway.
Germans stereotypically have a conceptual intelligence. If something is good, they will like it. This is why they like badly-translated US sitcoms so much when there's a laugh track. This is why the French sell so much bad-tier wines in fancy bottles (even if you know the producer and the wine, don't buy it in Germany unless you've tasted it or it's certified like AOC). This is why their sense of humour is so...strange.
That said, I like North German humour and Flachwitze.
I’m German-American, and I would say I am culturally much more American than German, but I find German comedy quite funny. I think it is much more observational and satirical than US standup comedy, but it’s also more biting, which makes it funny in a more self reflective way.
German comedy seems to play the role of a court jester speaking uncomfortable truths through humor. American comedy to me is much more surface level by comparison — there are a few comedians like Carlin who seem to have embodied the German satirical spirit.
I think another aspect of German comedy that is very hard to translate is the linguistic structure of it, where the structure of the language often plays a key role in the funniness of the joke.
Being German I think our political satire is really good. Kabarett/Cabaret is huge and has a long tradition and it's often uniquely dark and has a lot of gallows humor compared to other places. We also I think have one of the largest poetry slam communities. Everything that comes out of the performing arts scene really is pretty solid.
But popular television type comedians here are really bad and cringeworthy. Much worse than in Britain or the US. Kind of like music in that way. Popular music in Germany is bad compared to across the pond and most of the good stuff is more niche.
I think German improv is generally better than German sitcoms. I have the disadvantage of mentally translating and overanalyzing as I watch in a way that a native speaker wouldn't, but Schillerstraße, for example, strikes me as funny.
That is embodied very well in the Fastnacht (Carneval), especially of the Mainz and southern German variants (Cologne is a little bit more "Kokelores"), with many acts with biting political satire and commentary.
I'm torn between believing that Germans have a good sense for the absurd, and thinking they just experience joy when they find a good source of randomness with which to re-seed their internal PRNGs.
Oh, i thought it was people between teen and early twenties, as it looks like a combination of these words.
I misused the word, thanks for pointing that out. Really confusing when you stumble upon such a total misconception about the meaning of a word in your own vocabulary.
As I said, I made exactly the same mistake ;) Teen comes from ten, it only makes sense that tweens comes from twenty. IMO we are right and everyone else is wrong ;)
An earlier version of wiktionary had that definition. Apparently it was deleted for lack of citation other than Tolkien which might be an in-universe term.
> 1. A person in their twenties, between 20 and 29 years old. Possibly including 30-32.
> 1954 "The Fellowship of the Ring", J.R.R. Tolkien
> At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.
That's amazing, thank you. I just hit my wife over the head with it, and she's not amused. But I feel vindicated that Tolkien, 41*, and I all are ahead of everyone else ;)
I think this might actually be good. Always wondered what happened to her guests. Did she do them in her self? Did they trip on the lion while drunk? So many unanswered questions!
A sequel would be an episode of what happened between Miss Sophie and the butler in bed after dinner.
A prequel would be the life and times of her now dead guests.
Don't get me wrong, a sequel would be cool too! Perhaps we could get a glimpse into Miss Sophie's legacy after she passes away, and how her butler needs to contend with her snarky relatives who wants to get rid of that infernal tiger on the floor, only to replace it with an even larger bear pelt.
In the UK, "The Snowman" animation based on Raymond Briggs's picture book appears to have become a tradition on Christmas Eve - since the eighties at least anyway.
No child or most adults can watch without bursting into tears.
Book that does that for parents is "Love you forever". I was asked to read it to the children at church one sunday, by a childless woman in charge of the children's program. I refused. None of the parents would read it.
We didn't want to break down in tears in front of the entire congregation.
The woman was baffled. Maybe it has something to do with having children, I don't know. But after my kids wanted it read at bedtime repeatedly, I burned our copy and told them it was lost.
The Snowman is a tradition here in Finland as well but it airs in the midday just before the announcement of Christmas Peace[1] (which is aired live every year from Turku and watching that as well is a tradition for some).
Quite many Finnish (metal) bands have been covering Snowman song as well but they don't sound as good as the original, though. One example is the cover by Nightwish [2].
As a Brit deeply into comedy I can confirm my total ignorance of
"Dinner For One". How very strange what travels. Visiting the US I was
surprised how many Americans knew obscure and not terribly funny Monty
Python sketches word for word, and meeting a Chinese CTO once whose
first words were "Ah Mr. Bean".
For a long time I hadn’t either. It’s become much more well-known in last few years though - around this time of year a few places like BBC or Guardian run stories on this tradition.
Mr Bean travels well because it's universal humour requiring no translation. Has done well in British consciousness for a single 15 episode series too. For slightly related reasons, Norman Wisdom became absolutely massive in the Eastern Bloc because his apolitical slapstick could be portrayed as "struggling against capitalism" :D
Saw this a lot in Asia during the late 80s, never understood the hate for it, most of the jokes are on the old white men and he was a real gentleman in real life.
I think that was the highlight of the opening ceremony. Would be interesting to know if Rowan Atkinson was involved in developing the bit (not so much the video clip but the single note business was well conceived).
This is an interesting one and I’m going entirely off anecdotal evidence here: yes, you will be seeing David Hasselhoff posters and the like quite often throughout Germany. Me personally, I have yet to meet a single person who unironically likes his music or is a „fan“ (whatever that may mean to you) - and this holds true for the generation of my parents as well.
My working theory is that there’s some kind of reverse self-fulfilling prophecy at play here: It’s been imposed on Germans that “we love Hasselhoff” over and over again and at some point we just went with it, albeit it’s mostly and irony thing now.
Then again, I might be totally off and not realize that I’m looking at it from within a bubble of people not actually liking him.
I don’t know if there is a _current_ fanbase of The Hoff in Germany. But back then, Knight Rider and Baywatch were huge here and _I‘ve been looking for freedom_ was one of the most played songs. And then there is the Berlin Wall incident.
ah i see, well you cannot mix up his music and acting careers. his music career is usually perceived as funny and liking it as a bit ironic, that does not mean that his roles in knight rider and baywatch are not truly loved by many. Just play the opening scene of knight rider at a random party of 30 somethings and you will see the reaction.
Sometimes yes, for a boost. But I mostly don’t need it anymore since I started addressing my microbiome (butyrate, phages, L Reuteri DSM 17938) and added a highly bioavailable copper that directly increases ATP supply and kills pathogenic bacteria, among other things (from a company called MitoSynergy though I think they‘ll rebrand soon - in case you‘re from Europe, it’s sold under „Cu1“ by a brand called Global Healing). Infrared light or curcumin (a bioavailable one, like longvida) do help if I need to be extra smart, but I‘ve since become more cautious when it comes to pushing performance short-term. There‘s no free lunch. So I‘m looking at improving health and metabolism in general.
If the light doesn’t do anything, you might lack some basic building blocks for whatever photobiomodulation does (stimulating cytochrome-C-oxidase seems to be only one of the effects), like copper or other trace minerals (selenium, iodine, zinc), or B vitamins. Hard to say really, energy production in the body seems to be really complex from what I‘ve read. If you have lots of money to spend on health, you could get a hair tissue mineral analysis and an organic acids test, and see what‘s lacking. Former will probably be $100, latter could be 300-500.
I finally heard David Hasselhoff sing - he is pretty good! I’m surprised his singing career wasn’t bigger in the US. All we usually get is T&A + auto tune or suggestive lyrics + shock value, very few people with actual talent for singing.
In Poland, the British comedy “keeping up appearances” is very popular for some reason. When I moved to the UK I was surprised it’s almost unknown here for anyone under the age of 60.
It was unusually popular in the US in the 90s because it was shown on the public educational TV network, along with "Are You Being Served?". Because low-brow jokes about Mrs. Slocombe's naughty bits are highly intelligent and sophisticated as long as the accent is British.
>Because low-brow jokes about Mrs. Slocombe's naughty bits are highly intelligent and sophisticated as long as the accent is British.
What 'naughty bits', all I rememeber are joks abut her pussy.
And, for any non-English, or ESL-speakers, 'it' is ithe funniest word in the English language. For any English speakers (mother tongue etc) - prove me wrong. You'll notice, the more you try, the harder it gets.
Fine, but it's a little jarring to go from Sesame Street to documentaries about Roman coins to "I apologize for being late, Captain Peacock, it was raining and I just had to stroke my wet and sensitive pussy. (laugh track gap)"
(Not going to object to "it"--I suspect you may be right.)
"It has become traditional viewing on New Year's Eve in European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia,[1] or on 23 December in Norway, and, as of 1995, was the most frequently repeated television programme in Germany ever."
Really nice to see this here. I'm in the Netherlands and it has been a tradition in my family and my mother's family to watch this (on tv) on new year's eve. It's been quite a while since I watched it, living on my own. I'm going to tune in tonight!
Fellow Dutchie here. This has also been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. My parents would actually act out parts of the sketch sometimes.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 141 ms ] threadIt has been broadcast by NRK on New Year's Eve every year since 1980.
https://serienytt.no/events/grevinnen-og-hovmesteren-2022/
https://www.nrk.no/kultur/alt-om-_grevinnen-og-hovmesteren_-...
Also, it _NEVER_ stops being fun*
[*] Legally required to hold this opinion.
There are also some German adaptations, like the one with Anette Frier and Ralf Schmitz (two well-known comedians). It's in _kölsch_, the dialect spoken in the Cologne area - which is quite fun to listen to, at least for Germans:
https://youtu.be/yGUo9VfbxnE
There are also several platt versions (a dialekt spoken in the north which is actually more like a separate language)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sittning#Student_sittning
[0] The reason is obviously his popularity in Sweden
I think it’s the accent. His voice actors are pretty hard to understand sometimes.
Disney artists like Carl Barks created new stories in a genre quite distinct from the animated cartoons. While the cartoons are mostly slapstick humor, the Barks stories were longer narratives where the characters went on various adventures. A lot of the stories were produced in Europe for the European market, since the magazines were never as popular in the US (where I believe superhero magazines were more popular, for whatever reason).
WB and Hanna-Barbera and other studios also tried to publish comic magazines, but didn't manage to adapt to the medium as successfully, so they are less well known.
https://slate.com/culture/2009/12/sweden-s-bizarre-tradition...
Thanks for destroying that tradition, Disney Inc.
It’s also quite fun since there’s a joke relationship between Swedes and Norwegians calling each other stupid, so it’s quite fun to insinuate that Norwegians simply do not understand that the movie is set on NYE.
It's hard to imagine it would be well received in most other countries, especially as a tradition.
The 'movie castle' is Schloss Moritzburg btw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritzburg_Castle
https://film-history.org/approaches/not-approved-screening
The very important distinction here is that were the same policies as in Czechoslovakia applied in West Germany, people like Rainer Werner Fassbinder would not be able to create their movies. Not distribute, create.
Both sides were very much interested in destroying each other (and worked actively on that), but problem is that whenever you have bureaucrats doing censorship in the name of the national or social interests, it ends up affecting far-wider circle of (innocent) people than officially intended, and often can be misused for other (political) purposes. The main reason I even commented on this is that few days ago I've seen an East-Germany documentary on German nazis working as mercenaries in South Africa, which was banned in West Germany, even though it had nothing "communistic" or anti-western - but it touches some not-so-popular subjects on nazis and nazi supporters in West and particularly W. Germany that (although true and well documented) they didn't want people to hear about. So they censored it as "communist propaganda", no questions asked...
Eastern block certainly had a lot more censorship and oppression than West, but it's important to be aware that lots of dirty s** happened in the West too, things were never as black and white as some people like to simplify it now.
Spending Christmas with my friend's Norwegian family was just getting one "tradition" after another explained to me for a week while I continuously got more and more confused.
Is it? I don't recall anything to suggest that. The title in German in "The 90th birthday".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/european-new-y...
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKtqz4fzDQ
Bourgeois snobbery!
What's wrong with laughing about a drunk butler tipping over a tiger's head?
Zame procedure as every year, Feldmarsckalk.
kloph
I'll kill that Bear.
-- The Bunker Version.
Not sure if the author confused it with Australia, which is confusingly mentioned under "Popularity across Europe", or lumps us up with Germany, which misses the fun factoid that we split up again in 1945 (and also tends to get people over here surprisingly pissy).
Considering they mention Australia and South Africa together, then later in the same sentence say it is “ less popular there than in Europe,” I would say with 100% confidence that the author meant to say Australia, not Austria.
After all, Australia is not in Europe so if they had meant Austria then it would be strange to say it’s less popular there than in Europe.
There are also many European countries not mentioned so I don’t think anything is being lumped together.
Maybe not by geography, but by Euro♡ision, it is?
I don’t think anyone is saying “Australia is part of Europe” with a straight face though :-)
This is changing to some extent with demographics (immigration from China and India, and some generational change). But surprisingly slowly and shallowly. Few Australians know much about Asia, or even the Pacific, let alone feel theirselves to be part of it.
> I do not think skin tone should come into it
It shouldn't, but it certainly does. Little can be understood about Australia without it (well, ethnicity at least - broader than 'skin tone'). A large part of Australia's Europe-longing comes from a historical fear of China (as a kind of stand in for people of Asiatic ethnicity).
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2016/12/19/broadcast-sb...
That’s cute. It’s been a while, but last I checked, there were 10s of broadcasts of it on the different stations throughout the afternoon, evening and night in Germany ;)
We have like 2 or so (?) public broadcasting stations. One of which makes a heroic sacrifice for the audience that wants to see Silversterstadl, so we need to compromise a bit.
Typical Austrian tradition is to get unreasonably shitfaced with friends/relatives throughout the day (same as every other holiday), until you have a sufficiently positive outlook on the new year.
In that state you're then able to bare the presidents new year speech for the purpose of sarcastically mocking it, actually find Mundl's antics afterwards funny and can round it off with "Dinner for One", right before going outside and playing with explosives. If you survive, you get to listen to the final parts of The Blue Danube afterwards.
Our 8yo daughter thinks it’s hilarious :).
Certainly. I’ve now known for several years that it’s mainly popular here, but I’d never have guessed it.
> since it is in English.
As usual in Germany, dubbed versions are very common
Maybe I'm special, but I never heard of it before today.
However, it suffered from extremely unfavorable conditions: it ran on a newly introduced digital channel that people would have to fiddle with their TV's settings to receive at all, and competed with some extremely popular series running at the same time.
[0] https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/Dinner-for-One-Das-Original,din...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To8g9XxAdXs
I must admit that I was way to long already at adult age before I got the final joke.
https://www.ndr.de/kultur/dinner_for_one/Dinner-for-One-Hein...
What to keep in mind: It is one of the few pieces of German television tradition that are shown entirely in English - without subtitles. The English is intentionally made so simple that many people without good language skills can understand it. In 1963, however, when the sketch was recorded, a great many Germans knew only a few scraps of English. The explanation is mainly meant to make sure that the following sketch is understood anyway.
This year I learned: there are dialect versions. Seen one in Hessian today.
That said, I like North German humour and Flachwitze.
German comedy seems to play the role of a court jester speaking uncomfortable truths through humor. American comedy to me is much more surface level by comparison — there are a few comedians like Carlin who seem to have embodied the German satirical spirit.
I think another aspect of German comedy that is very hard to translate is the linguistic structure of it, where the structure of the language often plays a key role in the funniness of the joke.
But popular television type comedians here are really bad and cringeworthy. Much worse than in Britain or the US. Kind of like music in that way. Popular music in Germany is bad compared to across the pond and most of the good stuff is more niche.
;)
It's almost as popular as watching Tatort on public viewing events in bars on Sundays.
I'm also legally obligated to like it, it comes with the citizenship :D
I have never even heard of anyone doing that, I’d say dinner for one is vastly more popular.
It's maybe clubs for tweens and even that's declining to my knowledge
I’m guessing I’m not the only one who thought that "tweens" meant people in their 20s. As a tip: Don’t say you are into tweens.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tween#Etymology_2
I misused the word, thanks for pointing that out. Really confusing when you stumble upon such a total misconception about the meaning of a word in your own vocabulary.
> 1. A person in their twenties, between 20 and 29 years old. Possibly including 30-32.
> 1954 "The Fellowship of the Ring", J.R.R. Tolkien
> At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/european-new-y...
A prequel would be the life and times of her now dead guests.
Don't get me wrong, a sequel would be cool too! Perhaps we could get a glimpse into Miss Sophie's legacy after she passes away, and how her butler needs to contend with her snarky relatives who wants to get rid of that infernal tiger on the floor, only to replace it with an even larger bear pelt.
No child or most adults can watch without bursting into tears.
https://youtu.be/ZE9KpobX9J8
We didn't want to break down in tears in front of the entire congregation.
The woman was baffled. Maybe it has something to do with having children, I don't know. But after my kids wanted it read at bedtime repeatedly, I burned our copy and told them it was lost.
No wonder the story has the vibes it has
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_You_Forever
Quite many Finnish (metal) bands have been covering Snowman song as well but they don't sound as good as the original, though. One example is the cover by Nightwish [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Peace
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nr-kdo6Lx0
He’s not “huge” but as a musician he is bigger in DACH than anywhere else.
Now I guess he's just a washed out actor, I didn't even realize he's still touring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoa9HfWIx6I
https://youtu.be/ZTidn2dBYbY
My working theory is that there’s some kind of reverse self-fulfilling prophecy at play here: It’s been imposed on Germans that “we love Hasselhoff” over and over again and at some point we just went with it, albeit it’s mostly and irony thing now.
Then again, I might be totally off and not realize that I’m looking at it from within a bubble of people not actually liking him.
If the light doesn’t do anything, you might lack some basic building blocks for whatever photobiomodulation does (stimulating cytochrome-C-oxidase seems to be only one of the effects), like copper or other trace minerals (selenium, iodine, zinc), or B vitamins. Hard to say really, energy production in the body seems to be really complex from what I‘ve read. If you have lots of money to spend on health, you could get a hair tissue mineral analysis and an organic acids test, and see what‘s lacking. Former will probably be $100, latter could be 300-500.
Consistering there is a large statue of Rowan Atkinson / Mr Bean in Yuexiu Park, the largest park in Guangzhou China. Mr Bean is very well known.
Mr Bean is more famous than Monty Python.
What 'naughty bits', all I rememeber are joks abut her pussy.
And, for any non-English, or ESL-speakers, 'it' is ithe funniest word in the English language. For any English speakers (mother tongue etc) - prove me wrong. You'll notice, the more you try, the harder it gets.
(Not going to object to "it"--I suspect you may be right.)
I always assumed it was just a thing among my parent's friend group
This was part of my childhood, and I presumed it must be a British influenced thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One