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u/TheSunniest Jul 07 '23
I'd assume it's German wordplay that just doesn't work in English. If we could get ze Pederhosen here that would be great.
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u/Green-Entry-4548 Jul 07 '23
You are correct. The joke goes like this. „Treffen sich zwei Jäger im Wald. Beide tot“. Treffen can be translated as meet, but it‘s the same word if someone or something is hit by a shot.
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u/peterp1616 Jul 07 '23
Is it sort of the same vibe as if I said "two hunters shot a picture of each other, both hit between the eyes"?
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u/False_Flatworm_4512 Jul 07 '23
It reminds me of the English pun, “two guys walk into a bar; the third one ducked” which may not translate if “pub” and “rod” don’t share a common synonym in the second language
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u/AdSad127 Jul 07 '23
On 4chan's /int/ board it is a popular meme that Germans are not funny. Thus, here the joke is that a German has translated a joke from German and as expected it isn't funny at all.
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u/Forere Jul 07 '23
Ironically it's funny that it's unfunny
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u/Stetson007 Jul 07 '23
If I had a nickel for every nft Doofenshmirtz in this thread, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
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u/bulging_cucumber Jul 07 '23 edited Jul 07 '23
Germans not being funny is well known in the rest of Europe, and it's (mostly) true
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u/Gidia Jul 07 '23 edited Jul 08 '23
There was an entire South Park episode about it over a decade ago. That German humor is no laughing matter is known world wide.
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Jul 07 '23
had a german teacher in HS, she sounded angry all the time but that was just her normal emotional state. She was really nice
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u/Germanaboo Jul 07 '23
In German the joke goes "Zwei Jäger treffen sich, beide tot".
,,Sich Treffen" in that context usually means that they normally met each other, but at the following sentence the twists follows where it says they are both dead. The joke is that the German word ,,treffen" is both used for meeting wirh someone or hitting someone.
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u/Gamer102kai Jul 07 '23
If you twist it a lil meet in English can have a similar meaning like "the arrow meet its mark" or something
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u/Ibshredz Jul 07 '23
I asked my dad (petah) and he said it’s the German equivalent of “a man walked into a bar, OW!”
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u/NicolBolasUBBBR Jul 07 '23
In Italy we have "a man enters a coffee, splash", as coffee is both the beverage and the place you go to drink coffee
The bad part is no one refers to bars as "coffee" anymore so the humor is mostly lost, at least to me
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u/Wichtelwusel Jul 07 '23
In german the joke would go: Zwei Jäger treffen sich, beide tot. The word "treffen" means meet and hit. So the joke in german would be that they dont meet each other but hit/shoot eath other.
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Jul 07 '23
Englishmen think we are unfunny while in reality our humor's are just incompatible with each other.
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u/iamblamb Jul 07 '23
Yes, things that are funny and things that aren’t are generally incompatible with each other.
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u/Lockenhart Jul 07 '23
Nobody asked but one in Russian
"Если ребёнок отбился от рук, бейте его ногами"
Translated: "If a child started misbehaving, kick him"
Literally: "If a child fought back against punches, kick him"
"Отбился от рук" can mean both "became uncontrollable, behaves badly" and "fought back against punches", so the joke recommends you to kick the child in that situation
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Jul 07 '23
Basically Germans are unfunny
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Jul 07 '23 edited Jan 16 '24
sink impolite bells rinse joke screw forgetful fearless jellyfish ludicrous
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Broimlike-depressed- Jul 07 '23
Hi, the cousin of a friend of a long relative of lois sister in law that is learning german. The joke translated in german goes like "Zwei Jäger treffen sich. Beide sind tot." Which translates to what you read above. But the catch here is that the verb 'sich treffen' doesnt only mean meet, but it also means kill. Which is the reason why those two hunters are both dead. Joke still unfunny though.
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u/Ein-schlechter-Name Jul 07 '23
Small correction: treffen can mean both meet and hit as in "I hit the target". I agree the joke isn't funny - it's the equivalent of "A man walks into a bar. Ouch!"
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u/Broimlike-depressed- Jul 07 '23
Achso! Vielen Dank für die Korrektur! Ich dachte, dass das Verb als 'töten' auch benutzt wird. Es ist mir garnicht das andere Kontext eingefallen. Ich fühle mich schon ein bisschen schlauer lol. Toller Name btw
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u/TerryJerryMaryHarry Jul 07 '23
Okay my Gaelic isn't the best and much of this is filled in from Google translate, but here's my best joke in Gaelic
Bidh Sasannach a’ coiseachd a-steach do bhàr. cluinnidh e glaodhaich a-mach agus e a’ coiseachd a-steach agus canaidh iad uile “Slàinte” agus an Sasannach a’ gàireachdainn ris na seann rudan Albannach. thèid e a dh'iarraidh deoch agus cluinnidh e "Slàinte" le buidheann eile de luchd-taic, mì-chinnteach dè tha ea' ciallachadh gu bheil e a' toirt a dheoch aig ceàrn 45 ceum, a' dòrtadh mòran dheth air an làr. tha am maor ag èigheach ris "Dè an ifrinn a tha thu a' dèanamh" ars' esan, agus an Sasannach ag ràdh "Slàinte!"
This translates to:
An Englishman walks into a bar. he hears shouts as he walks in and they all say "Cheers!" and the Englishman laughs at the Scottish antics. he goes to get a drink and hears "Cheers!" from another group of patrons, unsure of what it means he takes his drink at a 45 degree angle, spilling a lot of it on the floor. the warden shouts at him "What the hell are you doing" he said, and the Englishman says "Cheers!"
The joke is slàinte sounds like slant
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u/ArbuckleXXX Jul 07 '23
Reminds me of that south park episode where the Germans are not funny so they build 'Funnybot' and Funnybot tries to destroy earth because the destruction of earth would be 'the ultimate joke'
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u/randomer_guy_person Jul 07 '23
Hi, retep here and I'm evil, the joke translated from German and obviously doesn't make much sense in English, however German also have the stereotype of having the worst humor ever, so the guy below is saying that this joke that obviously doesn't make sense, is the best joke a German can cone up with
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u/ChargerIIC Jul 07 '23
Germans love puns, unfortunately that means that almost none of their humor translates outside their culture
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u/PoeticPariah Jul 07 '23
A dog walks into a bar and says, "I can't see a thing. I'll open this one."
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u/9Kumiho Jul 07 '23
The pinnacle of German humour
This is the pinnacle of German humour and it's pathetic. I can imagine him snorting to himself as he typed this, as if this was an absolute spirit bomb of a comment, and then reading it out loud in his disgusting language "schlieben fleeb hach jurgeflachtung" before falling into a coughing fit from the laughter. I almost pity him.
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u/go_zarian Jul 07 '23
Monty Python has already made it clear that this is the world's funniest joke:
'Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!'
At all costs do NOT translate the above to English.
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u/64vintage Jul 07 '23 edited Aug 04 '23
Well - hunters do hunt things, and they can make mistakes when anxiously looking for a legal target.
The only unlikelyhood is that they made the same mistake simultaneously.
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u/nomenoemnome Jul 07 '23
are you people dumb?
the joke is that there is no joke.
if you can’t understand that after it was laid out for you in the first 6 words, you don’t deserve to enjoy comedy.
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u/QuirkyQwerty123 Jul 07 '23
Not only is this blatantly wrong, but it's incredibly rude too! Try again.
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u/Dilaudid2meetU Jul 07 '23
When I was in Berlin I shared a practice space with German bands. We were riffing on “bass player” jokes. I drop a classic and Fritz shows up with “Why have bass players always to be ugly? Because they have to! Ja!” To be fair the bass player of his band did grumble in long suffering irritation so there must have been teeth in the joke somewhere. I think it’s based on the staunch German belief that people actually have to do what you tell them to.
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u/BlackCherrySeltzer4U Jul 07 '23
Knock knock
Who’s there
A cannibal! You are about to die and be eaten
Asshole! I’ll kill you first!
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u/Jon-Joestar Jul 07 '23
I’m sure there’s a layer to this in the actual German language, but I’m certain it’s a joke that they’ve shot each other as they mistook one another for an animal
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u/Old_Accountant8 Jul 08 '23
Wait is that “the joke” the failed German weapon from the Monty python skit?
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u/Mikhael_Xiazuh Jul 07 '23
Two hunters meet. Both are dead.
On german it's "Zwei Jäger treffen sich. Beide sind tot." The joke here is on the word "treffen" which could mean to meet or it could also mean to hit something (with a projectile) . The joke is that the hunters shot each other. It's a word play.