By Ergongzi

Translation by Wang Xiaoke

Humor in Germany

By Ergongzi

Translation by Wang Xiaoke

“The two slimmest books in the world are a British cookbook and a book of German jokes.”

I used to ask some of my British friends, “Can you please show me your delicious food?”Those eloquent gentlemen suddenly lost their flowery way of speaking. Some of them replied politely, “That is a good question; however, you probably won’t like the answer.” Other times they said, “You’re actually trying to introduce your famous food in China, aren’t you?” Anyway, the limited contents of British recipes might have been proven.

But do Germans really have no sense of humor?

To be honest, the Germans I know do crack jokes. Once when I was asking to buy some deli salad in a supermarket in Frankfurt, a young salesperson behind the counter encouraged me to have a foretaste. I thought one of the samples was good, and then scooped up some of it with a tablespoon to settle the account. The guy swiftly packed and weighed my salad. When he gave the pack to me, he pointed to something on it. I was shocked to see a price tag of 100 euros.

“Oh, in this case I will pass,” I said.

“Come on. It’s worth it to pay for something you really like.”

“No, thanks.” The price was just ridiculous.

The young man did not give up. “You’ve tasted the samples and I offered my service of packing and weighing it. A good gentleman would buy it.”

I was kind of annoyed and prepared to argue, but the salesperson burst into laughter, and took out another price tag of 5 euros. Then I saw the other guys behind the counter laughing as well. Yeah,that was a good one.

不知道谁这么尖刻，说世界上最薄的两本书，一本是英国人的食谱，另一本就是德国人的笑话集。

关于第一点，我曾旁敲侧击地跟我认识的英国人求证：“快跟我说说，你们那儿有什么好吃的？”碰到这个问题，这些平时口若悬河、英文辞藻华丽的大不列颠人基本上不正面回答。他们有的很礼貌地说：“这是个很好的问题，但是答案可能你不喜欢。”或者反问我：“你是想告诉我中国有多少美食吗？”看来英国食物乏善可陈这个说法确实……可是德国人真的没有幽默感吗？

实际上，我生活中接触的德国人，还挺爱开玩笑的。有一次我在法兰克福超市，想买点即食色拉，柜台后面的一个服务员小伙子示意我可以几种都尝尝。我吃到其中一款觉得不错，就舀了几大勺子给他称分量算钱。服务员很快包好色拉、称好重量，递给我时特地指了指价格标签。我接过色拉不禁吓了一跳，这点东西要100欧元。算了，太贵，我表示不要了。可是服务员说：“你既然觉得很好吃，付出这个价钱是值得的。”“不，谢谢。”我心里说，超市再好吃的东西，卖上百欧元也太离谱了。小伙子温柔且坚持：“你尝过了，称好了，不买，这不太好。”我有点急了，于是拉起架势，想据理力争，抗拒强买强卖。看我认真起来，服务员扑哧笑了，又拿出个标签：5欧元。看到柜台后面的其他服务员都在“嘿嘿”地笑，我知道中招了，只好跟着笑了。看他给色拉贴上新标签的时候，我那紧绷的神经终于松了下来。

还有次在餐馆吃饭，我问卫生间在哪里。