Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3946-3950 (25th February - 1st March 2019)
Case:
--- Quote from: SpanielBear on 28 Feb 2019, 05:29 ---
--- Quote from: Case on 28 Feb 2019, 02:49 ---Srsly, though: Do we have a Germanophone equivalent to the Anglophone punning-culture? We do puns, too, but methinks it doesn't play that much of a role in German/Austrian/Swiss humor? .
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It's a very small sample I know, but I thought Rammstein lyrics were largely pun based. It feels* like German heavy metal in general uses a lot of wordplay. It's one of the reasons I like it, it takes a genre known for its aggression and violent imagery and uses humour to turn a gaze back on itself. It's self aware, playing up the pantomime. It can be downright clever sometimes.
(Also industrial bass riffs, oh my God take me now...)
--- End quote ---
My Heavy-Metal phase can be accurately summed up as 'short & unhappy', and the only German Metal bands on my radar at the time were Accept, Scorpions and Rammstein (Never really looked into Warlock, for some reason). Accept were pretty niche even in their heyday and Scorpions ... took cringeworthy and turned it into a printing press (Those poor, poor Russians ... ).
I'm not too familiar with Rammstein - back then, they had a strong following in the far-right and Neonazi-scene, and were regarded with suspicion in my social circle - but now that you mention it ... Yeah, I think you make a good point.
I mean, their name is a play on words of sorts to begin with - it's both a cultural reference to the tragedy during the 1988 air show at Ramstein Air Force base, as well as a neologism meaning 'Ramming stone '. I thought "Mann gegen Mann" was pretty clever - the title is a colloquialism for single (mortal) combat, but they turned it around into a homoerotic reference. The lyrics are a veritable double-entendre fest, pretty much in the vein you mentioned (The German Wiki has some good textual analysis). Yeah, you're probably right about Rammstein. I'm afraid that's the extent of my knowledge of German metal, though.
And yes, Germans do appreciate a good play-on-words, especially in artistic contexts - it's just that I have a feeling that Anglospherean punning is more of an un-selfconcious 'Fun for the whole Family'-thingy, while ours is a bit more 'verkopft' ("(over-)cerebral" ).
Could be completely wrong about that, though. Wouldn't be the first time. I also can't really speak for the Austrians and Swiss.
--- Quote ---My German is pretty bad, and this is definitely a perception from a foreign perspective rather than an objective observation.
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Whelp, mine is just an opinion, too, you know? And as I said, I think it's a good point. Also: Outside perspectives can be immensely valuable, in an 'Emperor's new clothes'-kind of way.
artag:
--- Quote from: cybersmurf on 27 Feb 2019, 23:32 ---Union robotics could offer melon a flatrate on work time, and a reduced prize on parts, since she'll probably be a returning customer.
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Do AIs get medicare ?
OldGoat:
I highly recommend Der Tatortreiniger ("The Crime Scene Cleaner").
SpanielBear:
--- Quote from: Case on 28 Feb 2019, 11:17 ---
My Heavy-Metal phase can be accurately summed up as 'short & unhappy', and the only German Metal bands on my radar at the time were Accept, Scorpions and Rammstein (Never really looked into Warlock, for some reason). Accept were pretty niche even in their heyday and Scorpions ... took cringeworthy and turned it into a printing press (Those poor, poor Russians ... ).
I'm not too familiar with Rammstein - back then, they had a strong following in the far-right and Neonazi-scene, and were regarded with suspicion in my social circle - but now that you mention it ... Yeah, I think you make a good point.
I mean, their name is a play on words of sorts to begin with - it's both a cultural reference to the tragedy during the 1988 air show at Ramstein Air Force base, as well as a neologism meaning 'Ramming stone '. I thought "Mann gegen Mann" was pretty clever - the title is a colloquialism for single (mortal) combat, but they turned it around into a homoerotic reference. The lyrics are a veritable double-entendre fest, pretty much in the vein you mentioned (The German Wiki has some good textual analysis). Yeah, you're probably right about Rammstein. I'm afraid that's the extent of my knowledge of German metal, though.
And yes, Germans do appreciate a good play-on-words, especially in artistic contexts - it's just that I have a feeling that Anglospherean punning is more of an un-selfconcious 'Fun for the whole Family'-thingy, while ours is a bit more 'verkopft' ("(over-)cerebral" ).
Could be completely wrong about that, though. Wouldn't be the first time. I also can't really speak for the Austrians and Swiss.
--- Quote ---My German is pretty bad, and this is definitely a perception from a foreign perspective rather than an objective observation.
--- End quote ---
Whelp, mine is just an opinion, too, you know? And as I said, I think it's a good point. Also: Outside perspectives can be immensely valuable, in an 'Emperor's new clothes'-kind of way.
--- End quote ---
That's really interesting. Thinking about it, I think you have a point about British wordplay being... classless? Insofar as anything here is. But you're as likely to find stupid puns in light entertainment like Ant and Dec or The Paul O' Grady Show, as you are in some Oxbridge double act like Mitchell and Webb or Fry and Laurie. A bit of that is also connected to our attitudes towards sex- Although it's relaxed, there's still some taboo so there's a lot of double-entendre. Puns are used to turn innocuous phrases into salacious ones.
In contrast, talking about German puns being over-cerebral... Well, off the top of my head I can't think of many English heavy metal songs that turn on a phrase like Du Hast or Mein Teil. Not only that, but you seem to have bands that use more word-play in general (Eisbrecher) or reference back to literary classics (ASP, Rammstein again (Dalai Lama is a great track, and based around a Goethe poem)). Happy to be corrected though!
(As an aside, I know Rammstein have a lot of... unfortunate (shitty) fans, but in the bands' defence they have gone out of their way to repudiate that association as best they can, and on multiple occasions. They wrote a whole song about being left-wing, politically (Links 2,3,4). This is almost certainly common knowledge, but I like them so thought I'd mention it!)
pwhodges:
Cockney rhyming slang is also wordplay, and has given phrases to the rest of the anglosphere.
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