Onkel Baracks Hütte: are Germans funny?

The Berliner Tageszeitung said something that could never be said in America. Over a picture of the White House they put a headline titled, “Onkel Baracks Hütte,” or Uncle Barack’s Cabin.

That really crossed a line that cannot be used in America. Last night, Stephen Colbert used the headline as part of his story on foreign press coverage of the US election.

To call someone an “Uncle Tom,” especially a black man, is an insult of the highest degree. This comment is not even made in jest in the US.

 Watch the Stephen Colbert clip from June 11 titled “Un-American News – U.S. Election Edition”  here. The taz article is mentioned about 3 minutes into the clip.

The taz article is discussed further here.

Colbert’s comment: “As a rule, Germans shouldn’t do humor.”

 

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Stephen Colbert – Oliver Pocher is On Notice

 
 

American comedian Stephen Colbert breached the cultural divide between the US and Germany last Thursday when he put German comedian Oliver Pocher “on notice.” Note: WordPress can’t embed comedy central video yet, so here’s a link.

The reason? German GQ photographed Pocher in exactly the same way American GQ photographed Colbert for its cover. Colbert, in his on-air persona, accused Pocher of riding his coattails, and put him on notice, which means Pocher’s name goes on a list of people Colbert has put on notice, a nice humor schtick.

The interesting part of this? Pocher is apparently considered by many to not be very funny. Personally, what little I’ve seen of him, he reminds me of Conan O’Brien, who I do not care for.

Do a German Google search on Colbert Pocher, and see what Germans are saying. He may be the heir apparent to famous talk show host Harald Schmidt, and their team show appears on the first German TV channel on Thursdays around 22.45. Watch for yourself.

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