Cracking Up auf Deutsch

On Sept. 30, New York University's Deutsches Haus is starting a new film series called "A German Sense of Humor?!" Appropriately enough, the organizers used both a question mark and the exclamation point to express their shock and disbelief that there could ever be such a thing as a German sense of humor.

It's easy to understand the skepticism of the NYU film junkies. Germans are, after all, not exactly known as a nation of jokesters. Sure, they wear lederhosen, eat sausages and speak German, the yapping sounds of which are funny enough to begin with, but have you ever met anybody who's in love with the German sense of humor?

Germans seem to think differently. According to a shocking survey by the German magazine Brigitte, 55 percent of German men between the age of 14 and 60 said that a good sense of humor is more important than good sex. 72 percent of German men believe that a woman's sense of humor is as important as her looks.

What so funny about that?

Before we rush to judgment and proclaim that the Germans are the new Irish -- cracking hilarious jokes in the face of adversity while celebrating life with passion and spontaneity -- we should put things into perspective.

Another recent survey showed that only 15 percent of Germans said that the best sex to be had was "made in Germany." The overwhelming majority of Germans looked wistfully towards Italy for erotic inspiration (and probably thanked the EU for open borders).

The same study showed that Germans were considerably less needy in the sack than other Europeans. While 25 percent of Greeks boasted they needed sex at least five times a week, 65 percent of Germans were satisfied with getting wild twice a week -- or less.

To joke or not to joke?

So, if German men say that a sense of humor is more important than sex, what does that really mean? That they finds enough time in their busy schedules to laugh three times a week? Or that a few German jokes a week are enough to satisfy their appetites, since they daydream anyway about luscious Cicciolinas in the land of pizza, mozzarella, pasta and stracciatella? Or that they expect so little from sex that they want to be able, at least, to laugh about it?

One thing we've all learned from the recent German elections, however, is that we shouldn't trust polls. It is unlikely that the Germans will trade their traditional philosophical brooding for jolly carelessness any time soon, but we can't really be too sure.

After all, at least one political organization -- the German anarchist party -- is already working hard on spicing up German sex life. Or as DW-WORLD reader Emma Storr from London put it: "Some anarchy is needed to liberate Germans from the shackle of benefits and improve their sex life."

With a little luck and a lot more discipline, the anarchists may transform Germany into a blossoming landscape of erotic hilarity.