For all the German speakers saying this is just gibberish. The joke as said in this documentary is written so that the true joke could not be determined so as to prevent an accidental release of the fatal comedy.
Derek Bateman "60000 times as powerful as Britains Great Pre-War Joke" ~footage of Chamberlain's 'Peace in our time' speech 2 years before the war~ Me: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@Brian Loughran Just in case you're serious...They are saying it like you would say a war had started but it's peace, the opposite of what you'd expect, so it's funny. The speech was about a promise/expectation of peace that was given right before ww2 broke out. Contradiction from what is expected creates irony which is funny. They are satirizing the political speech by calling it the prewar joke. I hope I didn't explain away the joke for you or insult your intelligence.
@Brian Loughran It's fine to have missed the joke as long as you get it in retrospect. It was a subtle sassy comment like a lot of British humor. But, it can be fun to watch. Monty Python jokes are often dull and tedious, but they do have a lot of good ones. I recommend Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the Ending scene of The Life of Brian. The life of Brian isn't that great, but the guy who avoids getting on a cross and the absurd ending of Brian's awful life both amuse me. I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it.
My Grandpa used to hear this joke back when he was fighting in Dunkirk back in WWII. He fortunately survived but he had PTSD and spent the rest of his life getting flashbacks of soldiers dying laughing with painful smiles on their faces. He was in so much pain. Fortunately he passed away peacefully with a chuckle.
I am a German. So if you really want to know the genuine translation of what the joke is, here goes: "What do you call a man who. .. ha ..haha..hahahaha...hahahaha......ahhahaha .... urgh!!" Thud.
I have a serious form of depression that makes me so sad that nothing can make me la- *Hears the joke* HAHAHAHAHA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHA HA HAHA O-OOOH GOD HAHAHAHAHA HA HAHA HA HA HAA- Thud
A German once told me a joke: "Q. What are the two shortest books in the world? A. The book of Italian war heroes and the British cook book." I replied "You're telling the joke wrong, these are the three shortest books in the world: the book of Italian war heroes, the British cook book and the German joke book." He didn't get it.
Oh my fucking god. This is amazing. The joke in German is "Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput" When you put it into google translate it returns [FATAL ERROR]. Get it? FATAL error? Even google dies when you try. It's an actual google Easter egg. That's fucking amazing.
Monty Python were the kings of mixing slapstick with multilayered intellectual dry humor. I've watched this sketch maybe 10 times over the years, and I'm still finding little bits that I didn't "get" before. Genius.
On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching the "Kung Fu Kapers" episode of The Goodies, featuring a kilt-clad Scotsman with his bagpipes battling a master of the Lancastrian martial art "Eckythump", who was armed with a black pudding. After 25 minutes of continuous laughter, Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and died from heart failure. His widow later sent The Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments of life so pleasant.[16][17][18][19][20] Diagnosis of his granddaughter in 2012 of having the inheritable long QT syndrome (a heart rhythm abnormality) suggests that Mitchell may have died of a cardiac arrest caused by the same condition. wikipedia but still fun fact xD
Imagine Light Yagami actually sending letters containing this joke to all the convicted criminals written on a self-destructing paper so that it can essentially been read only once...
Not only was I not expecting there to be a guy up a tree, but the timing and execution is perfect with the comedy laugh cut short by the "thud" at the bottom.
The soldier's reaction at 3'38" is just so brilliant... that this is the fisrt time I notice how a red car that's definitely NOT from the WW2 era passes by behind him :-)
My favorite Python sketch after "The Spanish Inquisition". What I never noticed until now, is how, starting at 7:46, you can see through the crack in the door, the German soldier balancing around waiting for his cue to burst through the door.
As the most humorless man in the world, I was the only one able to survive the joke... I will now post it in the comments for everyone to read... **tries to recall the joke** Ha.... Haha... HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA!!! HAAAAAAAAA!!! **dies**
Tony James Gilpin this man was truly a survivor, he had the boringness of 2 men. We should all strive to be as boring as he was. Let this message not inspire you to be anything......meh later.
The joke in German is "Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!", which doesn't translate into English because many of the words in the sentence aren't actual words in German, like "Nunstück" and "Flipperwaldt". If you put the sentence in Google Translate, it will translate to "[FATAL ERROR]" which is most likely an intended easter egg.
I was ALMOST close to finding out the real joke. I could've died laughing, but I didn't, more laughed in agony for a good two minutes. In case you're wondering... A man walks into a bar and sees a tiny man playing a piano; he asks the bartender "Where did you get him?" The bartender answers, "Oh, there's a genie in the back." The man quickly hurried to the back and said to the genie, "I'd like a million bucks!" All of a sudden, one million ducks quickly filled the bar. Very confused, the man asked the bartender what happened. He replied, "Oh, he's slightly deaf. Did you really think I wanted an 8-inch pianist?"
Wanna know a potential alternate ending that could really work? Have the narrator speaking at the grave of the last copy of the joke while being oblivious to a guy digging it up. He only notices what's happening when he sees the digger laughing like a madman before falling dead. Then the wind picks up and the narrator ducks as the paper flies at the screen.
I almost died of laughter watching this sketch for the first time. No seriously, monty python was ahead of it's time Pre dating Gen Z humor as early as 1969...
No it's not. That was Germans own joke. The one the British made was different and has no translation as it's just gibberish. Most of the words or complete nonsense where as others are just random german words like Und meaning and. Google Translate has a nice little easter egg though where if you do try to translate it it says {Fatal Error} where as any other sentence you type wrong just spells out the same word you typed.
This is "Eroica" of Pythons. This skit set up their entire legacy. They had plenty of phenomenal skits, but this is the magnum opus they needed at the time, their first episode, in show that nobody knows thats gonna work. Probably the most importat of all the skits. Anthem of british humor. Thank you MP, thank you for all
I had this idea but in my version the writer was the only who lived past the punchline. Nobody believed his story until they were told the joke and died. After much trouble the government got control of the joke but censored the punchline as a matter of world health and safety. Much to my shagrin, I discovered Monty Python had done this a few months later. That's comedy for ya!
Fun fact: The joke is nowadays used as an encryption code in the windows file "system32". If you delete that file, the joke is decrypted and the computer can no longer function, because it has seen the joke.
Russian joke: Kolya has returned home to his mom after a war. K: Mom, I was serving the army! M: Good, what were you doing? K: I was carrying ammo to artillery! M: And what did they said to you? K: Gut, wunderbar, gut!
- Mom, I want to be a soldier. - How so? - I want to defend my country. - That's a very good aspiration, to defend the own country, but I would be so scared. The enemy might kill you! - Fine, I've changed my mind. I will be the enemy!
Considering this was the closing sketch of their debut episode, I’ve always considered it to be the Pythons’ declaration of intent, or at least ambition: humor that kills
