2015年经济学人 德国幽默 闻所未闻的幽默培训

German humour

Get thee to an Institute

Germans concede that in humour they need professional help

EVA ULLMANN took her master's degree in 2002 on the part that humour has to play in psychotherapy, and became hooked on the subject.

In 2005 she founded the German Institute for Humour in Leipzig. It is dedicated¹ to “the combination of seriousness and humour”.

She offers lectures, seminars and personal coaching to managers, from small firms to such corporate² giants as Deutsche Bank and Telekom.

Her latest project is to help train medical students and doctors.

There is nothing peculiarly German about humour training.

It was John Morreall, an American, who showed that humour is a market segment in the ever-expanding American genre³ of self-help.

In the past two decades, humour has gone global. An International Humour Congress was held in Amsterdam in 2000.

And yet Germans know that the rest of the world considers them to be at a particular disadvantage.

The issue is not comedy, of which Germany has plenty.

The late Vicco von Bülow, alias⁴ Loriot, delighted the elite⁵ with his mockery of German pretension⁶ and stiffness.

Rhenish, Swabian and other regional flavours thrive—Gerhard Polt, a Bavarian curmudgeon⁷, now 72, is a Shakespeare among them.

There is lowbrow talent too, including Otto Waalkes, a Frisian buffoon⁸.

Most of this, however, is as foreigners always suspected: more embarrassing than funny.

Germans can often be observed laughing, uproariously. And they try hard.

“They cannot produce good humour, but they can consume it,” says James Parsons, an Englishman teaching business English in Leipzig.

He once rented a theatre and got students, including Mrs Ullmann, to act out Monty Python skits⁹, which they did with enthusiasm.

The trouble, he says, is that whereas the English wait deadpan¹⁰ for the penny to drop, Germans invariably explain their punchline¹¹.

At a deeper level, the problem has nothing do with jokes.

What is missing is the trifecta of irony¹², overstatement and understatement in workaday conversations.

Expats in Germany share soul-crushing stories of attempting a non-literal turn of phrase,

to evoke¹³ a horrified¹⁴ expression in their German interlocutors and a detailed¹⁵ explanation of the literal meaning,

followed by a retreat into awkward politeness.

Irony is not on the curriculum in Mrs Ullmann's classes.

Instead she focuses mostly on the basics of humorous spontaneity and surprise.

Demand is strong, she says. It is a typical German answer to a shortcoming: work harder at it.

1 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

2 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

3 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

4 alias   

n.化名；别名；adv.又名

参考例句：

• His real name was Johnson,but he often went by the alias of Smith.他的真名是约翰逊，但是他常常用化名史密斯。
• You can replace this automatically generated alias with a more meaningful one.可用更有意义的名称替换这一自动生成的别名。

5 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

6 pretension   

n.要求；自命，自称；自负

参考例句：

• I make no pretension to skill as an artist,but I enjoy painting.我并不自命有画家的技巧，但我喜欢绘画。
• His action is a satire on his boastful pretension.他的行动是对他自我卖弄的一个讽刺。

7 curmudgeon   

n. 脾气暴躁之人，守财奴，吝啬鬼

参考例句：

• The old curmudgeon found a new scapegoat and that let me out.那个老守财奴找到一个新的替罪羊，这样我就脱身了。
• The old curmudgeon was talking about the smothering effects of parental duty on creative lives.那些坏脾气的老人们喋喋不休于父母生儿育女之责任的妨碍性效应。

8 buffoon   

n.演出时的丑角

参考例句：

• They pictured their manager as a buffoon.他们把经理描绘成一个小丑。
• That politician acted like a buffoon during that debate.这个政客在那场辩论中真是丑态百出。

9 skits   

n.讽刺文( skit的名词复数 )；小喜剧；若干；一群

参考例句：

• One of these skits, "The King of Beasts" resembles a traditional frontier prank. 一出滑稽短剧《兽王》酷似传统的边疆闹剧。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
• Kids can develop ad campaigns, commercials and skits to illustrate character traits. 孩子们会发动宣传运动，制作广告宣传片和幽默短剧来说明性格品质。 来自互联网

10 deadpan   

n. 无表情的

参考例句：

• Some people don't catch his deadpan humor,that makes it even funnier.有些人不能了解他那种无表情的幽默，因此更有趣。
• She put the letter on the desk in front of me,her face deadpan,not a flicker of a smile.她把那封信放在我面前的桌子上，故意一 脸严肃，没有一丝的笑容。

11 punchline   

n.（笑话、故事等的）结尾警语，点睛之笔

参考例句：

• Even then,the magical pause can strengthen the punchline.即使这样，有魔力的停顿依然可以增强笑点。
• A good joke or a mystery novel has along wind up to the final punchline.好的笑话或神秘小说都是一路曲折，直至最后的笑料或真相。

12 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

13 evoke   

vt.唤起，引起，使人想起

参考例句：

• These images are likely to evoke a strong response in the viewer.这些图像可能会在观众中产生强烈反响。
• Her only resource was the sympathy she could evoke.她以凭借的唯一力量就是她能从人们心底里激起的同情。

14 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

15 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。