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November 23, 2005
update on those (scientifically proven) funny Germans...
so after i hit save/publish on my whaddya-know-Germans-are-a-(scientifically proven)-laugh-riot post, i finally left the house to do the big Thanksgiving shopping thing. there is no other time in the year when you can walk off with 16 pounds of delicious turkey for a paltry couple of bucks, so i always take advantage of this, even if i won't be cooking the thing until after T-Day. of course this means dodging old ladies stocking up on canned vegetables ("oooh Harriet, look! canned beets are only 10 for $10!") and battling one's way through cadres of harried mothers with demanding toddlers ("put back that toy car now! it is NOT going home with us!"), but it's worth it. if you can get over the crowded mayhem factor, the entertainment value is pretty high. actually, i have to relate a conversation i overheard, just for kicks:
Boy Kid (clearly in the I Read Everything stage): "mom, what's a tor-till-lah?"
Mom: "it's tor-tee-ya, and it's like bread."
Boy Kid (ignores pronunciation correction): "mom, what does grande mean?"
Mom: "it means large."
Boy Kid (ponders this): "mom, my brain is grande."
clearly, this child will most likely grow up to surpass Stephen Hawking.
but i digress. after loading my Super Turkey Bargains into the car, on my way to battle the hordes at Trader Joe's (a.k.a. Ultimate Grocery Store Of All Time), i was listening to NPR's Marketplace, and their Berlin correspondent filed a shocking story: workers in Germany are required to be happy on the job! required! company policy makes complaining at work verboten, and laughter supposedly boosts the bottom line so it is "encouraged."
what? don't these Germans know that they're already the developed world's (scientifically proven) funniest people? they clearly need to visit HadashiWorld, because then they'd know that mandating laughter in the workplace is unnecessary, since they're so (scientifically proven) intrinsically funny. sure, complaining is often a waste of time, but really, this story doesn't exactly help that whole Humourless German Reputation Thing.
so i told T.T., my own personal In-House (no need for scientific proof) Hilariously Funny German, about all this.
he shrugged dismissively. "well," he said, "Germans are freaks."
Posted by hadashi at November 23, 2005 10:12 PM
Comments
spoken as only T.T. could. Too funny.
Posted by: Marti 
at November 29, 2005 10:51 AM
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