this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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A solid 30% of posts in my feed are German memes. I don't understand the language, but I love the memes that I can't read.

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[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 year ago (2 children)

one of my fav light bulb jokes..

how many germans does it take to change a lightbulb?

one because they are efficient and without humor.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago (3 children)

MANY HANS MAKE LIGHT WORK!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks to you, I have overdrawn my Tageslachkontingent and will either have to compensate by laughing less tomorrow or filling out a Tageslachkontingenterhöhungsantrag.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Bevor sie ihren Tageslachkontingenterhöhungsantrag abgeben können müssen sie mit dem Formular 36A erstmal zu Frau Maier gehen und sich die Sondertageslachkontingentbewerbungsunterlagen ausstellen lassen. Damit kommen sie dann bitte wieder zu mir und wir schauen dann mal.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I am sad that I must uplike this comment

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just one? You underestimate german bureaucracy, Freundchen.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, funny story:

I work for the government and once during an inspection they noticed that a light on the roof our building needed to be replaced.

What should be a 5 minute task took many months. Why? Safety rules state that only roofers are allowed to enter the roof, but only electricians are allowed to work on anything that has to do with electricity which includes changing a light bulb. So we had to wait a couple of months for one of the electricians to get certified as a person that can enter the roof.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Last winter, in order to protect the ~~dwindling~~ completely full strategic gas reserves, the government issued an order for all govenment-owned office buildings to limit the central heating to no more than 19° C because that seemed to be the most pointlessly bureaucratic solution at the time.

This included buildings that don't even use gas for heating. Remote heat? Geothermal heat? Free waste heat that you have to actively vent to the atmosphere in order to lower the room temperature? Yep, all required to not exceed 19° C. The building I worked in at the time (for a company that rented some excess floor space) actually wasted energy adhering to this well thought-out rule.

 

So yeah, I'd say that in order to change a lightbulb you need at least 1000 Germans. You need both chambers of parliament to create and pass a new ordinance that applies specifically to this lightbulb (and several other contexts it has no business applying to but does because it's too vaguely worded). Then you need at least three different expert panels to advise the government, regulatory agencies to make sure the ordinance is adhered to, licensed trainers to make sure the people executing the job are formally certified to do so... Actually, we might have to get the European Parliament involved; the new ordinance might benefit from being propoted to a European standard.

I'll get back to you about this in about three to five years; we need to get this figured out.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If you could read them, you'd realize they're all just the same banal pun.

The Germans have one sense of humor, spread across the entire nation.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Stör ich dich gerade? cringe

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Okay but the "nett hier" joke only get better the more it is repeated, I enjoy every time it shows up

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Did they finally get over the "Stör" thing? Because after two straight weeks of that shit, I just blocked whatever "me irl" was in German.

German humor, it's no laughing matter.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I bet they're pretty efficient at making sure the German Sense Of Humour is properly distributed and every German gets allocated some of it at least some of the time.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In all seriousness, the notion that Germans lack humor stems from the times when English and American people last got in contact with Germans in larger numbers: In and after WW2. Allied propaganda did paint the Germans as humorless (because they can't be totally evil if they still have humor), and after the war, living in Germany was not exactly fun.

In reality, Germans have a lot of humor, its style being similar to the British, but a lot of it is hard to translate or is based on experiences that non-Germans don't share, like old German TV shows.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ha ha ja just the other day Hanz made a funny joke he was going to arrive at 13:00 for his 13:00 meeting. We all laughed so hard. Naturlich he was perfectly on time arriving at 12:45, but we still laugh about it. When the meeting started he mentioned it and everyone was laughing and laughing for a good 30 sekunden or even a minute.

That Hanz, such a jokester. And people say the German have no humor, ha that is a joke!

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think the stereotype also comes from Germans often not catching onto sarcasm in English

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Why should we? It's inefficient. ;-)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Which is a pitfall for anyone conversing in a language that isn't their first, I'd say.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Thanks for reminding me I could use Google Lens to translate the German Memes.

According to that this joke goes: My Dad asked me if I have a favorite fruit. I told him "Papa, ja!" Literally "dad, yes!" But also pun for "papaya," a tropical fruit.

A+, good joke and not too bad to translate.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It does annoy me that the Devs built in a system to let you set languages but everyone just sets it to 'duhhhhh I don't know what language I'm speaking?!'

But yeah I do like looking at the silly German words on pictures

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It would probably get used more if there was some way to set a default for your own posts.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Memes are ein serious matter. There is nothing to laugh about. Sprich Deutsch

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How do you love something you don't understand!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Tell us you've never been married without telling us you've never been married.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I love animals even though I can't understand them 🤷🏻‍♂️

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We have a frequent flyer patient at our hospital who has aphasia, a brain condition which causes nonsense words to come out instead of what the person was intending to say.

We have a NO idea what this person is saying, but his tone of voice and delivery are completely normal even though the content of the words are meaningless. So I can confirm, this guy cracks jokes and is hilarious (he laughs at his own jokes and you can't help but laugh with him.)

The German memes feel similar. I don't understand the words, but the intent is clear enough for me to enjoy seeing them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Let's hope we'll soon find the cure for the brain condition that makes people speak German 😔🙏

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I'm dutch, I just enjoy our neighbors

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How do I get these German memes?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Subscribe to [email protected] - it's the German me_irl.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And now I finally know what ich iel means, thank you

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Ich im echten Leben

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

When i was in university, a now fairly famous german comedian did a set. He comes on stage looking stern and unamused and tells us the comedy is starting now as he begins a timer on a stopwatch.

His first joke proper was "some people say we getmans dont have a sense of humour.... well i dont think that's very funny. "

I knew i was going to love that set immediately.

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