I‘m fluent in German and quite used to „the German way of things“. However, I still don‘t get what‘s so funny about the iconic sketch starring Didi Hallervorden. Please, explain.

Additional question: do you there‘s a generational difference in the reception of this kind of humor/joke(?)?

[Palim Palim sketch](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iZNOk7upy7A)

9 comments

  1. >However, I still don‘t get what‘s so funny about […] Didi Hallervorden

    Neither do I.

    Greetings from a german, born and raised here.

  3. I genuinely don’t understand what it is that some people laugh at when they watch this sketch :/ like what’s the butt of the joke or the punch line? Or a trigger word? Explain it to me like I’m dumb if you know what some might find funny here.

  4. Older (40+) person here. I think it’s funny. I mean not roll on the floor funny but mildly amusing. The joke is that the other second dude tries to teach the first guy how to “correctly” play shop but the first dude sabotages this by insisting on using a bottle for fries. Nonsense-dude beats Spießbürgerdude 🙂

  5. Oh boy, here we go again!
    I dare you to watch Fips Asmussen.

    NB: Palim Palim isn‘t funny. It‘s more the weirdness of the sound and facial expression that caused people to laugh in 1977. Nowadays people cheer it due to nostalgia. Same with „Dinner for one“ and all the other creeps.

  6. >Please, explain.

    Trying to:

    For one, it’s ‘only’ a little silly (or maybe childish) fun play. Didi was a master of this kind, so you can expect it right from start if you know him already.

    The scenario with these two elderly jailbirds adds to this expectation: these guys cannot be the brightest candles on your cake.

    They are bored. No wonder, sitting in jail. Your expectations get even lower.

    They are starting to play, and soon you can recognize that behind their actual play scene, they are also doing a competition in smartassing. Each one is winning a round by being the smarter one. In the end, you think it’s clearly over, the winner is decided, but then the other one gets one more turn and he unexpectedly wins the last round.

    That’s the point, and you are obliged to feel the fun because he is getting so much fun out of it, ‘down’ there in his own silly situation.

  8. The setting is pretty hilarious already:
    Two prisoners playing a childrens role playing game, “shop” because theyre being bored outta their arses while sitting in their cell.
    One character is reluctant, and thinks of it as an obviously dumb idea. Insert puns about “entering”, etc. (Children would like use the door of the room as shop door)

    The famous Palim Palim is onomatopoeic for the bell oldtimey shops had at the door.

    The unwilling character sabotages the game by ordering some nonsense, the bottle of french fries and later a small bottle of french fries for the second round, complaints about the bad choice of the imaginary store follow.

    The other guy wants to outsmart the saboteur and makes them switch roles resulting in the saboteur just turning his nonsense request inside out.

    That sketch would have been finished for german tv tastes of the 50-70s after the second round.
    Look for old Rudi Carell stuff as an example.

    Hallervorden and a bunch of others who had some smarter ideas on what to do with audience expectations were successfull later. Basically after the Flying Circus shock.
    Its very tame nowaddays obviously, but considered a cult classic and influenced a bunch of younger people. And you obviously had to educate a possible audience to get to the point where you can make totally meta or out-of-the-box gags without the audience being totally lost.

    Edit:
    Whats funny for me is that kind of bullshit barter would emerge on a pen&paper group i was part of decades ago.
    People snarking and trying to generally land stupid puns, riling up whoever was GM till they had enough and interesting shit started to happen.

    Btw. If you want to see sketches that are utterly cryptic for most non-Germans, go watch some Loriot.

  9. >there‘s a generational difference in the reception

    Absolutely. People who have lived in the 1950s to 70s can connect so much better to this than younger generations. There were many people at that time who were not exactly poor, but nearly. They lived a simple life full of very hard (and often extremely boring) work. This kind of comedy was made for them.

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