I wonder whether German TV depicts U.S. politic matters in an appropriate way? What would you say: [To the video](https://www.veed.io/view/1de9b4e4-2067-4cf8-8123-c915e780262a?sharingWidget=true&panel=share)
Background: taken from a late-night satirical program, comparable to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
28 comments
I had never heard of it, but anything about the US coming out of German media should be looked at as suspect at best. There’s nothing more Germans seem to love than salacious depictions of America, and German media loves to provide it. Facts be damned.
Many of them are quite old. People like Feinstein need to retire. If you want to see younger people in elections, look to the House.
How would it be inappropriate? People are allowed to make fun of our elections even if they don’t live here.
Germans are well known to not have the best grasp on American politics and culture. We tend not to trust your media when it comes to anything related to us.
[deleted]
In the 2008 election, the media made a HUGE deal about John McCain being 71 years old, especially after choosing Sarah Palin as VP. Now two 80 year old’s are going at it. I think that’s an apt description. Just absolutely ridiculous.
Geriatrics Theatrics is a good one too.
I don’t know of many governments that couldn’t be described as a nursing home, politics is usually a game for the old. Under 35s are rare in the “important” positions
It’s typically German, a bit overwrought, a bit exaggerated. It might be satire but not particularly high quality or clever.
Looks like their source is Reddit’s front page
——
But appropriate? Sure, why not
Germans don’t understand American politics or culture, this is well known.
I more or less stopped paying attention to what German media says about America when that one reporter from *Der Speigel* who’d been lauded for his reporting on America – usually depicting it as a complete hell hole – had fabricated almost all of it without ever actually being here. Some local American journalists in Montana read about their supposedly horrible town in *Der Speigel* and exposed him. No editor or reader ever caught it. Too good to check.
Media produces what its audiences want to see and hear, and Germans seem to have a preference for reporting that denigrates America.
I think they should be most concerned with their own politics instead. I think they should pay particular attention to AfD and why Germans are voting for them. Maybe they should also pay attention to FPÖ from their neighbors and why there’s a rise in other populist right wing movements across the continent. If it were anything like our programs, they’d be more apt to making fun of themselves, not people on the other side of the world.
So it’s like a German copy and paste version of the Colbert Show and also his late night show? I’ll give you this, some of what he said was true but watching that I’m sorry, the Germans ain’t doing much to fight off those “Germans aren’t funny” allegations Lol
Mocking American politics is quintessential Americana. So I think it would be hypocritical for any of us to take an issue with this.
I’m not sure you could say it’s accurate description of US politics since it’s covering Trump being indicted which is pretty far from a typical example of US politics.
But as to the content itself, it’s not inaccurate. That is what Trump said. Also his personal attacks against his critics, an insinuation of a corrupt justice system are rather typical of him.
It’s fine, but nothing really witty or out of the ordinary from our own satire. Other than making fun of Biden equally. Honestly the Der Spiegel articles were funnier.
It’s kind of surface-level humor. There’s plenty of room for really incisive satire in some of the things they bring up, but they never really get to WHY things are the way they are, which is where you get great satire.
The fact that these two very aged men are in contention for this unbelievably important role isn’t because they’re the best, it’s because the only people who have the money, connections, and political capital to get close to the presidency tend to be older, which works in the interests of a privileged few, but against the best interests of the country.
But they never bring that up here. All satire comes back to human vice and folly and they leave that mostly untouched (edit: though they do have a go at the folly, but again, only the surface foolishness).
oliver welke is like intellectual junk food, he just kind of goes for the low-hanging fruit that everybody already agrees with him on. As opposed to like Böhmermann, who does actual journalism.
Forgive me if this sounds dumb but why is another country talking about Trump? The man isn’t in office and is not even German? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to talk about their own politicians?
Stuff like this really feeds into the “America is the center of the universe” rhetoric.
The “rumble in the nursing home” line was kinda funny, but the whole thing was mid.
Seems pretty on point and not all thst much different than I’d expect to see in tv here.
On a side note: I always find it interesting how other places seem to pay so much attention to our politics while we pay so little attention to theirs.
The last election Jon Stewart covered on the daily show, the election segments were titled “clusterf*ck to the Whitehouse”. Insults of our politics aren’t going to offend most Americans. As others have pointed out, ignorance, especially condescending ignorance, will offend.
I watched a little of that clip, it seemed pretty tame honestly
I’d say it’s a fairly by-the-numbers satirization of Trump and Biden. Nothing I haven’t seen before but not bad either. I’d give it a 7/10.
What do you mean by appropriate? Mocking politicians is a comedic trope as old as time so nothing weird or inappropriate there.
I don’t understand why are you guys talking about our politics at all? We don’t talk about other countries politics at all.
I thought the video was kind of dumb. It’s an outsider looking in, so it’s all jokes about totally surface level impressions, little connection to reality.
Is it appropriate? It’s not offensive to me or anything and I don’t really care what you guys watch.
That is the kind of satire that you used to see about everybody 20-30-40 years ago, but now it seems like it’s only allowed here if it’s done to make fun of the people who don’t toe the line with the party in power. Example: People make ugly memes about Trump all the time, but only the guy who made memes about Hilary was arrested. If he was serious, it was offensive. If it’s his late-night comedy schtick and not meant to be serious, that’s a bit different.
German humor is no laughing matter.
I watch Heute Show fairly regularly and generally find it pretty funny, but I tend to roll my eyes a bit when it comes to some of the American politics sections. They’re pretty standard jokes about the stuff, but mainly I feel like I’ve just heard it all before. It just feels like the typical German “hot takes” on American politics that I’ve already heard a billion times and have already been done to death in American media.