American Reacts 'Allo Allo' General von Klinkerhoffen Compilation 

As you said early, whole episodes are needed here to understand the context. Fabulous spoof of all nations in WWII.

'Allo, 'Allo is a British comedy set in Nazi occupied France in World War 2. Gorden Kaye plays René Artois (pronounced art wah), a French cafe owner who acts as a middleman between the French Resistance and the Nazi officers. The video you were watching was a compilation of the character General Klinkerhoffen. I highly recommend that you watch entire episodes starting with the first.

This is an example of English comedy at its finest. It did extremely well all over Europe yes even Germany.

There was a drama series called Secret Army. It was the story of the French Resistance helping British airmen escape back to Britain when France was under occupation. 'Allo 'Allo is a spoof of the series, which adds to the humour after watching Secret Army. A lot of scenes took place in the bar, frequented by German officers, and the owner and his wife were in league with the Resistance. Renee plays the part of the bar owner in this comedy version.

One of the funniest characters doesn't feature in this compilation. He was officer Crabtree, an Englishman under cover as French policeman. The problem was he couldn't speak French properly, and the way they demonstrated that was genius. All the dialog is in English throughout the show, with different nationalities identified by exaggerated accents (including the British), but Crabtree's lines were littered with the "wrong words", and especially the wrong vowels, leaving him speaking a mixture of gobbledegook and unintended _double entendres_ . Check him out if you can. You do really need to see several full episodes to get many of the jokes, since there are a lot of callbacks and contextual gags.

As others have already mentioned, you really do need to watch full episodes to understand the interactions of the various characters and the situations they get into. Context is vital to get the humour of this show.

one of the greatest comedy shows ever - a brilliant collection of stereotypes, catch phrases and 'in' jokes - you should really watch the whole series (or at least the first 3 seasons).

This show was actually really popular in Germany. Which surprised me to learn.

What the General said was 'aniseed' balls, they were/are round hard sweets/candy flavoured with aniseed. a little like liquorice in flavour. I enjoyed them over the years.

This is one of my all time favourite comedies. Got the dvd boxset of whole series from my family one Christmas. I still dig it out and rewatch it from time to time 😂

@13:11 the guy with the beard is a Swiss art museum director (the gag being that, after the war, Switzerland seemed to have been the destination for a lot of looted and stolen art from these days).

Allo Allo is one of those British classics that young people would be very offended by and I love it.

You need to see whole episodes. Allo Allo was basically from the French point of view (the central character was a cafe owner in a small town in France), but had characters from France, Italy, Britain, and Germany. Allo Allo was so fun that it was actually sold to TV stations in both France and Germany. It made everyone out to be idiots equally. Oh, and "aniseed balls".

Definitely a British classic comedy. The trouble with watching these sort of compilations is that some of the jokes are related to other bits of the full episode, so difficult to get anyway.

Fun fact - The lady who plays Helga is called Kim Hartman, and is married to Jonathan Nolan who is director Christopher Nolan's uncle. Jonathan has appeared in several of Chris Nolan's films, and Kim appeared in Dunkirk.

This is the only show that I (a portuguese born citizen) have seen, enjoyed and even today know by heart some of the lines I enjoyed the most like the ones with the french girl who always said;- 'Listen very carefully. I will say this only once'... And the fact that they're all british actors disguising their accents to be either french or german characters! I love it!

Almost every character has their own catchphrase, so it can feel a bit like in-jokes for a new watcher. Perhaps the best character to watch a compilation of is Officer Crabtree, an Englishman posing as a French policeman who thinks he can do a fabulous French accent but simply changes the vowels, it's almost like a puzzle trying to work out what he means.

There was a serious TV series in 1977 called "The Secret Army" about a Belgium resistance cell run out of a restaurant. David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd took the same situation, moved it to France and turned it into a comedy series in 1982.

The jokes run through the whole series. The French loved it too especially as it’s basically a comedy about the French Resistance

Yeah what those guys said- you won't understand all the while you just watch clips. It's that simple

They are in France. Rene (French) has a Cafe and is trying just to get through the war. Undermining this hope is the fact the Germans come to stay in his area and are always in the Cafe. Added to this is the French Resistance, who keep coming to Rene's cafe asking all sorts of aid from him under the German's noses. His troubles are increased even more because the Resistance bring him English Airmen to hide until they can get him away. Enter the Gestapo. Throw into the mix the German officer, Gouba, who is attracted to Rene - who unimaginably has women falling at his feet (for some reason), and the antics everyone gets up to and you have a very British Comedy. Don't worry about understanding everything. The episodes build upon each other and you will then get the jokes. Most of these scenes are out of numerous episodes and, if you haven't seen them, it's a puzzle. Wondrous of all, is everyone's nationality is portrayed in English, but just with an added accent and yet somehow they get away with it and even that's funny. Go on Connor give it a go and play a few whole episodes if you can. All the Nationalities get sent up - none more than the British.

Absolute gem, watch a few episodes start to finish, clever funny writing from yesteryear 👍❤️👍

I miss that show..its been years since I have sen it...

Just watch the first few episodes and you'll see if you like this type of humor or not. Compilations won't tell you that. Overall, the series is probably a classic in most European countries :)

Allo Allo was the most expported show even surpasing fawlty towers. A parody on the ww2 resistance series life line . it shows all sides of the war , resistance germans english . italians french . the budget for allo allo was larger than most drama series back in the day . Well worth to watch from the pilot to the end .

I love Allo Allo. Brilliant parody taking the piss out of every side!

'allo 'allo is my favourite comedy of all time. It's bawdy, silly and takes the piss out of everyone, and you should definitely watch the whole thing.

Allo, Allo, if you didn’t know is a play on a french way of saying Hello, Hello. This is from the perspective of a french Cafe owner and his involvement with the French resistance, the British and the German Forces. As you can imagine, farcical events ensue.

There's so many running jokes through Allo Allo. I absolutely love this series. No one is "safe" from the comedy. The French are randy, the British incompetent, the Germans are ridiculous. To get a clearer picture, watching whole episodes would help such a lot.

I used to watch it as kid. 😂

I was at the Haworth 1940s weekend in May, and the actors who played Gruber and Helga were there signing autographs and posing for selfies. Of course, they're old now.

The thing to remember is that the accents determine what language is being spoken rather than the words, this is important because some people dont know whats happening because of the language barrier ( especially the british) leading to a lot of comedy

If you do ever do whole episodes you have to start at series 1 episode 1 and watch them in order. The story continues from one episode to the next.

'Listen very carefully. I will say this only once.' Please watch every episode. They are all such fantastic characters but lots of the jokes don't make sense unless you see each episode in order from the start.

When I was a kid here in the UK there was a serious tv drama series called Secret Army it was all about the French resistance movement during the German occupation of France. Then a parody called Allo, Allo came along as a comedy version not too loosely based on Secret Army instead of Albert it was Rene as the Cafe owner. It became more popular than its serious predecessor and lasted for years longer.

The Best bit is that we sold the TV program to a number of countries in Europe including Germany :)

The episode that features the scene you showed where the cooked chicken ended up on the generals helmet spike, is probably one of the most hilarious of the series. All these years later and i still reel off the "gateau from the chateaux" line 😂😂😂

This was such a staple of our household on a Sat night , Cafe Rene felt like part of our home ,the series took up so much of my childhood lengthwise at the end I felt like I'd been through the War! I keep meaning to go through it all again , sure its broad humour that we aren't meant to like now but I can't help love it and its saving grace in a way is it takes the mickey our of all the nationalities involved. And a gay character who is properly gay , at least by sitcom standards, that was quite something for the time. Ah the theme tune takes me straight back there.

I think you need to start at Episode 1, Series 1. It is all based on relationships AND exaggerated national characteristics. It IS very funny! 😄

"insert pockets and a seed balls" = "in their pockets aniseed balls" (a stereotypical bait for dogs apparently).

You're right, you'd be better off just watching the pilot episode to get a sense of the show. I grew up watching 'Allo 'Allo with my dad, I still love it

This is my favourite all time sitcom. It's just so good with so many amazing catch phrases. Comedy at it finest.

In the late seventies there was an acclaimed TV series about a part of Belgian resistance called Secret Army. It featured a female operative who ran an organisation who smuggled people, including British Airmen out of occupied Europe with the help of a cafe owner. This show is a spoof of that show. The central character is Rene the cafe owner, who is unaccountably attractive to all women, and who is reluctantly stuck between the resistance (French, because everyone forgot the original was Belgian) and the Germans. There is always a British Airman to hide in a rediculous way. The resistance are all attractive young women identically dressed, the Germans are useless, the Gestapo weird and a bit kinky. The Italian, well you saw him. Its a very funny, very silly show, and yes to get it you need to watch episodes as there are lots of recurring jokes, so that just hinting at them gets a laugh. General Von Klinkerhoffen is actual a rather minor character, he isn't around most of the time, he is the threat hanging over the rest.

Connor - was he Soviet/Russian Everyone else - he says he's from Geneva. He's Swiss 😅

Rene (the one in the mustache) is the lead character and although he and all of the others are speaking in English it is done with a French, German and in later episodes Italian accents to make out they are actually speaking those languages. The one who sounds like he is saying "Club" instead of Hitler is say 'tler. Allo Allo was written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft with the latter producing and sometimes directing the show up until the 90s when he was succeeded by Mike Stephens and later John B. Hobbs.

The art expert was supposed to be Swedish. You wouldn't have seen a Soviet as they were at war with the Germans by this point - hence the threats to send officers to the Russian Front.

You need to watch full episodes, and they need to be in order. It's not the sort of comedy that you can dip in and out of. Each episode's plot follows directly on from the last.

Allo allo is genius

Possibly based on a drama called " the secret army", which is very good.

One of the cleverest things the show does is use exaggerated accents to depict what language the characters are speaking. So in the first scene, the "Germans" are speaking German while the "peasant" is responding in French. Meanwhile, everyone involved is a British actor speaking English to the audience. It's a really clever trick that is really easy to pick up on. So you get scenes where two actors are yelling at each other in English, but with different accents, saying they can't understand each other.

I grew up with this. The whole premise is on the accent, pure comedy and taken to the extreme. On the same vein as Hi-De-Hi at the time, a played down version of 'The Carry On' films which are worth a review. This type of comedy at the time was taken over by Kevin Turvey Presents - The Comic Strip - The Young Ones which you should review. Kevin Turvey - Leisure is brilliant.

I think there was a serious tv-series about French resistance during World War II, and then later this comedy spoofed that with great humor, funny is the English spy dressed as police officer and trying to talk French, which is English with some wrong words. And the secret radio under the bed of the old mother, and the German Lieutenant Gruber who takes a fancy at cafe owner Rene.

This is one of the greatest comedy shows ever made but why on earth would you watch this particular video without any context?

Norm Macdonald had a great joke about Germany taking on the world. And he said, who do they think they are? Mars? 😂😂 RIP Norm Macdonald

Rene runs the local hostelry which is frequented by the occupying German troops. The premise is that all accents denote the language spoken. It is all in English, but the accents and misunderstandings are due to the usual difficulties we have today in communicating "pigeon-english".

This seems to be a 'best of General Von Klinkerhoffen' compilation, a minor character in the series. Most of the clips are so short they miss out the set up and the.punchline.

15:40 “The Italian soldiers will have in their pockets aniseed balls”

Its a series of spoof programmes by the British, set in France during WW2, background René's cafe in the square with all the associated characters, the resistance, the Germans occupying the village, all the players are British, and the French loved these series., because the Germans were made to look like idiots. Wonderful characterisations-

British perspective, actually. I wonder what jerry thinks of it?

You have to be British to fully get this, especially if you are just watching clips. One of the best ever comedy shows

you dont get the jokes because its out of context, you need to watch full episodes to understand this

It's a spoof of a very serious drama called Secret Army, which was brilliant and is the context to understand it at the start. After a few seasons it became a panto

A great comedy that stands on its own but is even better if you saw the Secret Army drama. Allo Allo is right up there with Dads Army, the British taking the Micky out of a serious situation that happened in the war because humour keeps up moral

Its based on a satire of the serious French Resistance dramas in the 70s. Von Klinkerhoffen isn't the funniest character. In the context of an episode you'd have understood the jokes more because, being a farce, the situation builds & builds along interconnected complicated plots.

You won't get the jokes without watching the full episodes. Like the fallen Madonna with the big boobies, which is often mentioned. Also Grubers little tank. It's loosely based on European stereotypes

As suggested, you really need to watch the episodes in full as the General was an incidental character so choosing a compilation of him as a starting point isn't actually a good choice. The principal characters are the owners and staff of the cafe, the German officers (excluding the General), the Resistance and other locals and the Brits, a couple of airmen in hiding in the cafe who are also minor characters and a spy posing as a gendarme who is, in my opinion, the funniest character 😂😂😂

This programme is so fun! 🤣Nine seasons, we saw them in Sweden some time around 1980- 1990 i think. I loved it. 😊 it is a parody of the 1970s drama serie The Secret Army. A very good serie too.

I forgat to give you, McJibbin; thanks for this one! 😎🎩👍💯

I used to love watching this show as a kid. Still makes me laugh.

A great show from the 80´s. You should watch it. Best brittish humor and you will understand the black humor describing the war.

YAY!, Allo Allo 👍🤗 You will really enjoy it I think, if you watch the whole thing( or some of the first ones if the whole thing is too much for you) This show kept us laughing and longing for the next episode 😄 Thanks for sharing 😊✨

9:19 No, the second front. Yes, in general a lot of context is needed. E.g. The top button and stockings have a second (and a third, maybe a fourth) deeper layer.

This comedy is actually a spoof of a drama that was on UK tv a few years before called Secret Army, about the French Resistance helping allied soldiers, RAF get back home.

Hi Conner, I think, may be wrong here, but I think that when people are speaking with a German 'accent' then non-German speakers don't understand and so on... French accents then, Germans and English don't understand. Also the Pickelhaube (German First World War helmet- lit. 'spiked hat') was humorously known as a pickle-spear. By the way, Captain Bertorelli has a medal which is a FIAT car badge :-)

It's a hilarious long running series , set in occupied France and full of stereotypical humour with the Germans , French collaborators and resistance also Italians a looted painting , fugitive airmen and spies - the Brits being the most ludicrous , the but you are never going to appreciate it unless you watch a full episode with Rennee' s introductions .

If the bbc will let you maybe try watching Dad's Army , still being shown regularly today, nothing better really . I expect they will get blocked through.

You have to watch all of them at so point.

Saw live tv show on West End show! Dad 1940s, was at arnheim, normandy, malaya. As a teenager had French excursion visitor... This lady hated school visit to new house, thought cheap.

There is an English Police man who speaks fluent French and goes to help the resistance and the bar owner Renee to send the 2 English Airman back , be3for they get caught by the SS

I think I recommended that comedy show to you. It's a (British) view of occupied France's resistance during WWII. The occupying Germans in the area depicted are rather cool, whilst those posted in other areas aren't, neither is the Gestapo. René is a French café owner whose establishment is mostly frequented by the occupiers, whilst it also is a base for the local French Resistants. He must endlessly compose, sitting between the two parties. I found that show hilarious (though the false laughters get on my nerves ...) but - true - some veteran French Resistants found it offensive.

To get the storyline You should watch the episodes in order..This series is sooo goood... :D

The show is a parody of the brilliant "Secret Army", which was about Belgians who helped stranded Allied soldiers and downed airmen escape from occupied Europe. It mocks generations of actors and their struggles with representing foreign languages and mannerisms - which led to the stereotypes you see here. Watch "Secret Army" and you'll get it. Thus the dreaded Gestapo become an S & M cosplay couple; The SOE Secret Agent has to speak English with a ludicrous accent when he is acting speaking French because the people who are supposed to be French people speaking French are speaking English with French accents. The funniest thing was that the script was almost the same every week, so the audience anticipated every line. Genius!

Listen carefully I will say this only once. You vill vatch a whole episode. Do you understand, I will say this only once. You will watch a whole episode. 🤣🤣🤣

Great video, 👍 English comedy at its best watch from the start .

Conner if you liked a bit of ello ello which is really funny. Have a look at 'Dave Allen sketch, horses' 😂😂 you will laugh. Its only a couple mins long x

Aniseed balls are a type of sweet. Hard candy flavored with aniseed. There is an amazing connection between limpet mines and aniseed balls. There is a video some where on youtube. I will try to find it for you.

You need to watch several episodes to get it!

Read up on it then watch a full episode , very clever and funny 😂

He mentioned aniseed balls, they are a old hardboiled sweet they are still available now

I have watched all nine series from when it began in 1982 all the way to its final episode in 1992, I have also seen the stage production twice starring the same actors and actresses occasionally other actors and actresses substituting for the main characters. Gorden Kaye who plays Rene Artois (an e was accidentally added instead of the o he didn’t bother changing it back he kept it as it was according to an interview) before the cast left for a tour of Australia he was involved in an accident where a billboard came through his windshield and hit him in the head (25th January 1990) you can see in later episodes he has a scar on his head where the billboard hit him, he had memory problems his condition improved so he could join the rest of the cast and crew in Australia and he returned to film for the final two series, he died in 2017. Sadly some of the other actors and actresses are also no longer with us Jack Haig Roger Leclerc, Derek Royle Ernest Leclerc, Hillary Minster General Von Klinkeroffen, Richard Marner Colonel Von Strohm, Sam Kelly Captain Geering, Roger Kitter took over the role of Captain Alberto Bertorelli from Gavin Richards, Rose Hill Madam Fanny, Carmen Silveria Madam Edith, Robin Parkinson Ernest Leclerc took over the role from Derek Royle, John Louis Mansi Von Smallhaussen, writers David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd and other actors and actresses who appeared in cameo roles.

Its a comedy spoof of a 1970s BBC Drama called Secret Army which detailed how the French resistance fought against the German occupiers

Almost all of those snippets in that compilation were without context. So, if you haven't seen the show then no surprise you would miss most of the jokes. eg: The clip with the old mother-in-law in the coffin: She was asleep and only pretending to be dead so that Rene and rest of the gang from the cafe could use the guise of a funeral procession to try and get through a German check-point as part of a Resistance plan. When the General checks the coffin and sees the mother-in-law lying inside, he falls for the ruse as well as Rene's excuse that she died of the plague because of her looks (the show regularly made jokes about her being so old). As others have already mentioned, you have to watch the series from the start and in order as each episode follows on from the other with Rene giving a recap at the start of each episode.

The guy with the paintings taking them to Geneva was supposed to be Swedish. Anassed balls are a sweet. Larger ones are called gobstoppers.

This is one absolutely hilarious show, check it out if you can. It's called "Allo Allo", I believe. As for saying. "Nein" means no, if one wants to say "Yes" then they can use "Ja", but generally when soldiers answer to superior, they say "Jawohl!". Or well, used to, nowadays things may have changed.

Get to know the charactors mate. It WILL become one of your favourite comedys.

20 years before, there was a serious BBC series called Secret Army about the French Resistance (Maquis) during world war 2. Allo Allo was a parody of that programme.

You should really watch the show. I re-watch it once a year, and still laugh everytime I see any clips from the show. Grew up with watching it on the telly every saturday evening.

The art dealer mentions going to Geneva, I would guess he is Swiss and of course that means neutral.

To the posters talking about the drama series Secret Army, it was set in occupied Belgium not France.

Yes it is full of in-jokes and srereotypes. It doesn't work so well as clips without seeing the shows first. Actually a British show they did sell it to Germany!