Johann: You look very glum, Hans. Why so?
Hans: I've lost my milk cow.
Johann: That's terrible. Where did you last see her?
Hans: She was in the barn last night, but this morning she is not there.
Johann: You should place a notice in the newspaper.
Hans: That won't do any good. She can't read!
Johann: But you could offer a reward.
Hans: How does that help? A cow doesn't need money. Grass is free! Besides she can count. She knows how much money I have.
* * *
Karl: Funny things have happened in this war. The other day I heard of a corporal who lost his right hand and did not know it was gone until he tried to take a package of cigarettes out of his pocket!
Walter: That's not so bad. Someone told me about a Lieutenant what got his head shot off but didn't know it until he tried to scratch it!
Walter: That's not so bad. Someone told me about a Lieutenant what got his head shot off but didn't know it until he tried to scratch it!
* * *
Josef: It's a very hot day and we've been walking on this road a long time. Want to make a bet that I'm dirtier than you are?
Franzl: Why not? That's an easy win. You got to be filthier, you are three years older than me.
Josef: Did you know a man could get drunk on water?
Franzl: That's impossible! Water can't make you drunk!
Josef: Sure thing. If a sailor can get drunk on land, he can get just as drunk on the water!
* * *
The first postcard is a photo of two comical men, one an older gentleman looking a bit down in his cups, and the second a country yokel with big nose, small cap, and a soup bowl haircut. The card was sent from Augsburg through the German soldiers' free Feldpost on 2 September 1917. The comedians' names are unknown, but a caption on the backside may be the name of their theatrical agency.
Münchner Singspielgesellschaft
~
Munich Singing Company
Gustav Weinschenk
~
Munich Singing Company
Gustav Weinschenk
* * *
The second postcard is two merry fellows dressed liked tramps and poking a thumb at each other. One wears a derby and the other a top hat. This card has a German caption that is difficult to read without flipping the white to black.
Die lustigen Brüder
~
The funny Brothers
~
The funny Brothers
Verpflegungstrain IV Div. 1917
~
Meal Train IV Division 1917
~
Meal Train IV Division 1917
It's unclear if the pair of men are soldiers or entertainers, but I think they have the look of music hall comics. On the back of the card is written Januar 1917, with two other words that are less clear. Maybe Aesch, Vichdepot (?)
* * *
The third postcard shows two characters dressed as country bumpkins. They are Die G'scheerf'n a Germanic dialect slang phrase that doesn't show up in any German dictionaries. Perhaps an occupational title like "sheep shearers", though I don't think I'd trust them to run with scissors without hurting someone. In two vignettes are the sober faces of the G'scheert'n character actors, G. Finn and K. Warter. The postmark is faint but the handwriting seems to indicate it was sent from Leipzig on 23 October 1913.
The short bits of comedic dialogue were borrowed from vintage joke books and rewritten to fit skits that I imagine these characters might have played. The German people, both then and now, have a reputation with other nationalities as having collectively a poor sense of humor. As stereotypes go that might have some very broad justification, but the number of postcards of comic entertainers I have collected argues that Germans and Austrians enjoyed laughter as much as anyone. And in Germanic culture the comedy of the rustic rube, the village bumpkin, or the foolish country boy as pictured by these duos had a long history in German fables, literature, plays, and opera.
I think every language creates its own style of ironic story telling that can easily get lost in translation. And certainly the variation in regional dialects adds a layer of fun that is hard to discern for foreigners not in on the joke. But even a funny face will always be recognized as laughable no matter what the native language is.
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where laughter is contagious!
where laughter is contagious!
5 comments:
Some of the old-time jokes are pretty cornball, but I think I might take them over some of the garbage that passes for 'funny' these days! Fun post. But I wonder why the jokesters in the vaudeville era were so often portrayed as yokels or bumpkins and the like? Didn't they think a sophisticated gentleman sort could be funny? Thank goodness for the George Burnses of the world!
Cool post - you're always so good at finding images completely apropos to the prompt!
I think I heard a drum at the end of each joke! Great match for the prompt!
In teaching English as a second or other language, I learned early on that humor is awfully tricky to get. If my students can make or understand a joke in English, I figure they are well on their way to fluency. On the other hand, they try to tell me a funny story in English from their culture and I am usually completely befuddled.
I imagine it would be hard to find a musical group laughing out loud, so these are good substitutes. My grandmother and her siblings were third-generation German-Americans and they had a pretty good sense of humor...though that may have come from living in upstate New York, which has its own unique regional sense of humor, rather than their heritage. On the translation, I have had some success with the German Genealogy Facebook group by posting the phrase I need help with. Might be worth a try.
These are great! And the jokes do seem fitting.
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