[HN Gopher] Dinner for One: British comedy Germans have been lau...
___________________________________________________________________
Dinner for One: British comedy Germans have been laughing at for
years (2018)
Author : Tomte
Score : 80 points
Date : 2024-12-31 17:23 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| Tomte wrote:
| No, it's not hyperbole. Every German can quote at least parts of
| the sketch.
|
| I've just seen it the first time tonight, and will at least once
| more. There are at least 14 broadcasts tonight across the public
| TV stations. And several variations (Cologne dialect etc.) on
| top.
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| Jesus Christ now it's on HN, too? I literally cannot escape
| mention of this on Silvester. /hj
|
| t. German
| diggan wrote:
| Never heard "Silvester" before and thought it was some new
| German social network. Turns out it's just "New Year's Eve" in
| German.
| riidom wrote:
| Named after pope Silvester I., who happened to die on 31.12.
| .. somewhere around 300 AD I think
| usrusr wrote:
| At this point I think it's a bit of an NYE tradition on HN to
| link and upvote that guardian article from 2018. I don't mind
| it, less confused blank faces when I accidentally recite parts
| of it to people who aren't German (or Norwegian, apparently)
| leipert wrote:
| Same procedure as every year.
| Tomte wrote:
| In general: You should upvote stories you don't like and be
| happy. Now you can click on ,,hide" and all further submissions
| will be dupes. Otherwise you'd see lots of similar submissions
| of other articles about it.
| vr46 wrote:
| Had never heard of it before meeting German spouse. Now I can't
| get away from it, they've all gone next door to watch it.
| twiddling wrote:
| Right up there with German fascination with David Hasselhoff
| mentalgear wrote:
| Not just in Germany - I was pretty amazed it was little known in
| the UK. But I guess every country has their supposed iconic
| cultural touchstones of outside countries the mentioned countries
| know little about.
|
| BTW: Go watch it if you can find it; it's actually pretty funny
| the first time around.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Most people who watch it will only understand the final joke
| after many viewings.
| latexr wrote:
| Full sketch, with the German introduction skipped.
|
| https://youtu.be/To8g9XxAdXs?t=147
| thinkingemote wrote:
| Ironically it's blocked in Britain!
| beardyw wrote:
| You are not missing much. It is amusing, but it's popularity
| is quite baffling.
| MoreMoore wrote:
| Alcohol and it's something you can have on while sitting in
| the living room with the family, talking about random shit.
| It's a vibe thing.
|
| I certainly wouldn't put it on to watch alone. But in that
| setting? It's fun.
| beardyw wrote:
| Yes, I can see that. But it's almost unknown in the UK so
| it wouldn't work for us.
| MoreMoore wrote:
| It's blocked here in Germany too, what the ...
| qwertfisch wrote:
| It's available on the Mediathek (streaming platform for public
| broadcast TV). Either from mediathekviewweb.de (search for
| Dinner for One), or direct links:
| https://mediandr-a.akamaihd.net/progressive/2024/1216/TV-202...
| (recoloured version)
| https://mediandr-a.akamaihd.net/progressive/2024/1216/TV-202...
| (original version)
| larusso wrote:
| Just this morning I complained about the a news article here
| listing all the times and channels it will be broadcasted. I mean
| as a German it's kinda normal to watch it at least once in life.
| My English teacher used it as a way to do role play (next to
| singing Whams last Christmas, the fact that I still know the
| lyrics speaks volumes how often we had to sing it ;))
|
| Back then one had to wait for New Year's Eve to watch it. But in
| the age of YouTube and Co the magic is lost for me. Yes people
| cling to only watch it on TV only on new years as a tradition.
| jccalhoun wrote:
| I guess the opposite of this is that in Austria and Germany they
| don't really know The Sound of Music. And Edelweiss is not a song
| everyone in Austria and Germany sing all the time.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelweiss_(song)#Austrian_atti...
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| Can confirm. All I know about that movie is that at some point
| a Nun says "What is it you can't face?"
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| If you have seen the sound of music a few times, you will
| surely enjoy Slavoj Zizek's brief analysis of it :)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiTum8eQ51E
| itronitron wrote:
| What does it mean in this context to be the opposite of this?
| em-bee wrote:
| opposite in the sense that everyone in austria and germany
| knows "dinner for one" and practically noone knows sound of
| music. while "dinner for one" is relatively unknown in other
| countries, despite being in english, but most know about
| "sound of music". i myself heard people talk about "sound of
| music" when i was travelling in europe and i only first
| watched it while in latvia. knowledge about "dinner for one"
| is only spreading in recent decades as it gets shared on
| social media and international discussion forums, as
| exemplified in this very thread.
| steinvakt2 wrote:
| Something like 50% of the people in Norway watch this on "little
| Christmas eve" - December 23rd. For a lot of people, this is what
| officialy starts off the Christmas vacation.
|
| Edit: Source: I'm norwegian and have watched this sketch with my
| family every single year since I was born.
| from-nibly wrote:
| AKA Christmas Adam
| kolektiv wrote:
| I'd heard of it as a thing some years ago, but never actually
| saw it "in the wild" until I was skiing in Norway over
| Christmas a few years ago. The hotel had it on in one of the
| lounges, which filled with a variety of nationalities to watch
| it, notably lacking the British. We're quite mystified.
| kasperni wrote:
| Everyone watches it in Denmark for new years as well. Probably
| one of my earliest tv memories. Only met a couple of brits (all
| of them older) who knew the sketch.
| cjs_ac wrote:
| I grew up in Australia; our Danish neighbours introduced this to
| us. SBS (the Special Broadcasting Service, a government-owned TV
| station that serves Australia's many migrant communities) shows
| it every New Year's Eve, although always at a different time.
| slwvx wrote:
| Why did this catch on in Europe? It's got some humor and hint of
| sex, and easy-to-understand English, but is there something more?
| chihuahua wrote:
| There's some Anglophilia among certain parts of the population.
| They like to create a certain idea of Britishness, and like to
| associate themselves with that mental image, hoping it will
| make them appear sophisticated and slightly quirky in a way
| that makes them superior to the common rabble.
| nick3443 wrote:
| Ours is watching A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
| No body else thinks it's so funny.
| bdz wrote:
| Watched it for the first time today.
|
| Horny men + women being the butt of every single joke. As if it
| was written by a horny teenage boy. Sure it's the product of
| its time but it's for the good "they don't make films like that
| anymore"
| klelatti wrote:
| Mystified as to why NDR (German TV station) would have wanted to
| record an English language performance of this sketch in 1963.
|
| Would they not have preferred a German version? Was there a lot
| of English language TV being broadcast in Germany at that time?
| mtmail wrote:
| (based on the German Wikipedia article) Freddie Frinton, the
| main actor, refused to make the performance in German. He
| worked for the British army in world war II and didn't like
| Germany much.
| qwertox wrote:
| I just watched it about an hour ago (same procedure as every
| year) and this time I was somehow amazed at how good the
| drunkenness is acted. I did quit drinking alcohol somewhat over 4
| years ago, and watching him stumble really reminded me of my
| worst days in my teens. For a second it made me want to feel that
| imbalance again, but then I remembered the rest that comes with
| it.
| tormeh wrote:
| The actor was a teetotaler as well!
| mongol wrote:
| Quite long takes as well. Skillfully acted
| mvellandi wrote:
| Yup, American expat in Germany here just watched it with family.
| I didn't understand the fascination but it's become funnier over
| the years, particularly with kids.
| krylon wrote:
| "The same procedure as every year" - the repetition, the ritual
| is a big part of it.
| itronitron wrote:
| You may want to suggest they watch this as well >>
| https://archive.org/details/hogans-heroes-s-01-e-01-the-info...
| quink wrote:
| https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/tv/dinner-for-one-sendezeiten-...
|
| Airs on NDR, WDR, MDR, SWR, BR, HR, RBB (the regional
| broadcasters, N stands for North, W for West, easy enough) a
| total of 11 times, plus 6 times in re-stagings in various
| dialects (no dubbing here).
|
| Then once on Das Erste (The First, run by the collaborative
| federal broadcaster ARD, of the above).
|
| And once on ORF's (Austria's public broadcaster) ORF 1.
|
| And the Swiss have their own recording of the same sketch,
| performed by the same two, but with variations of course, once
| each on SRF 1 and SRF 2 respectively, and the German version on
| SRF 2 once.
|
| In a nutshell, it's on the TV schedule 22 times. Probably a bit
| more than that if you properly count RB and SR (smaller
| broadcasters whose schedule is mostly affiliated with NDR and SWR
| respectively). If you count those separately, add another 7
| times.
| ulrischa wrote:
| See Google Today: https://www.google.com/search?q=dinner+for+one
| the_third_wave wrote:
| Same In Sweden where this has been a fixed point on television
| for decades. Christmas Eve - julafton in Swedish, when Christmas
| is celebrated here - means "Kalle Anka's jul" (Donald Duck's
| Christmas) on TV, 15.00, 1 hour long. New year's eve means
| "Grevinnan och betjanten" (the Countess and the servant) which is
| the Swedish name for this skit.
| vander_elst wrote:
| Literally watching it right now. The best part of the German
| sketch is that before the sketch there's a presenter explaining
| why it's funny.
| senthil_rajasek wrote:
| Speaking of little known shows in their own country becoming
| iconic outside,
|
| Are Germans aware how popular the "Didi's Comedy Show" was in
| India during the 80s?
|
| I grew up with that show and still crack up at Didi's antics.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-12-31 23:01 UTC)