Tears of laughter trickled down my face and I clapped so hard my hands turned red. But I was surprised at my reaction, for I was being hilariously entertained by a German comedian at Quatsch Comedy Club in Berlin, in a situation that could be considered oxymoronic by many.
我笑得眼泪都流了下来，双手也用力拍得通红。不过我对自己的这种反应大为惊讶，因为我居然在柏林Quatsch喜剧俱乐部里被一个德国的喜剧演员逗得捧腹大笑，这在许多人看来应该是很矛盾的。
The Germans obviously appreciate a show of good humour, a fact made evident with the soaring popularity of these comedy venues in Berlin. In fact, comedy has deep roots in German culture, with a strong appreciation of political satire as well as physical slapstick. Yet the Germans were voted in a 2011 survey by Badoo. com to be the least funny nationality, reinforcing a well-known stereotype of Germans having no humour.
德国人显然很喜欢喜剧，从柏林的喜剧演出场馆飙升的人气中就可以明显看出这点。事实上，喜剧在德国文化中有着很深的渊源，其热衷于政治讽刺剧和肢体滑稽剧。然而在2011年 Badoo.com 网举办的活动中，德国人被票选为最没有幽默感的国家，由此德国人本就出了名的“没有幽默细胞”的固有形象更加深入人心。
“I’d never known about that stereotype. I only found out by speaking to English-speaking people,” Nicole Riplinger, an English and French teacher from Saarbrücken, told me. “I don’t think we consider ourselves to be humourless.”
“我从来没听说过人们对德国人有这种印象。我只有在和讲英语的人说话时才发现这点。”来自Saarbrücken的教授英语和法语的老师Nicole Riplinger这样告诉我，“我并不觉得我们缺少幽默感。”
“I definitely love humour,” she added, “especially involving irony and socio-critical issues.”
“我非常喜欢幽默，”她接着说道，“尤其是那些带讽刺和社会批判性的幽默。”
What she’s describing has a long tradition in Germany, where the use of political and social taboos as basis for comedy are typical of the satirical talk shows and kabarett TVprogrammes, which are similar to today’s variety shows but heavy with political satire.
她所提到的这种幽默在德国由来已久，德国的讽刺类脱口秀和kabarett电视节目的典型特征就是将政治和社会禁忌作为喜剧素材，这类似于现在的综艺节目，只不过更侧重于政治讽刺。
So, if the Germans have always had a funny bone in them, just how did this unfortunate stereotype come about?
那么问题就来了，既然德国人有着与生俱来的幽默感，那么他们给人的“没有幽默感”的固有印象又是从何而来的呢？
Nicola McLelland, German linguistics professor at the UK’s University of Nottingham, believes that the way different languages are constructed can affect the way various cultures deliver and perceive jokes.
英国诺丁汉大学德语教授Nicola McLelland认为，不同语言的组织方式会影响到不同文化对于幽默的接受和理解。
She explained that humour commonly uses ambiguity in word interpretation and sentence construction to create alternative meanings, which can add comical elements to a situation. For example, the phrase ‘we saw her duck’ has a dual meaning: either that we saw a duck that belonged to her, or we saw her in the act of ducking away from harm.
她解释到，幽默通常利用一语多义和句子结构来表达另一种意思，这样可以增强某种场景的幽默感。比如这句“we saw her duck”就有两种意思，一种是“我们看到了她养的一只鸭子”，还有一种意思是“我们看到她低下头躲避危险。”
However, German’s language construct can be very different. Nouns can have three different genders and four different cases. Verbs also have a lot of different forms. The exact meaning of a sentence relies on the correct use of gender and case pertained to the eventual meaning, affecting how humour can be delivered. Basically, it’s harder to pun in German when the grammar makes things so much less ambiguous.
不过，德语的结构有着很大不同。德语中的名词分三种词性和四种不同用法，动词也有很多种不同的形式。要正确理解德语句子的意思，有赖于能够表达最终意思的使用正确的词性和用法，这些都影响到幽默感的传达。总的来说，语法决定了德语没有那么多的歧义，因此要用德语表达一语双关的意思是比较困难的。
But what the German language does have, however, is the ability to create compounds.
不过德语倒是具有一种功能，那就是构成复合词。
German is one of the few languages where the use of compound words – words made up of multiple individual words, such as schadenfreude, which puts together schaden (harm) and freude (pleasure) – is common. Compound words often can’t be directly translated into other languages, so jokes made with compound words simply won’t be funny to non-German speakers.
德语是为数不多的含有不少复合词的语言之一。之所谓“复合词”，是指由数个单一单词组成的词语，例如“schadenfreude”就是将“schaden”和“freude”连在一起。通常很难将复合词直译成其他语言，所以通常情况下，对于不讲德语的人来说，含有复合词的笑话并没那么好笑。
Professor McLelland explained this to me with an example:
McLelland博士举了一个例子解释道：
“Why can’t you pick up your watch if you’ve dropped it? Because noUrheberrecht.”
“为什么手表掉了以后不能捡起来?因为你没有Urheberrecht。”
She explained that Urheberrecht means ‘copyright’, but is also a compound word with a literal meaning of ‘watch-pickup-right’.
她解释说Urheberrecht的意思是“版权”，但是这个复合词还有一个字面意思：捡手表的权利。
See how this joke just doesn’t work in English? In fact, this ability of the German language to be extremely concise perhaps explains why even a good German speaker of English might sound a bit overly precise in English – which can add to the impression that Germans are more earnest than funny.
现在明白为什么这个笑话在英语的世界里一点都不好笑了吗？事实上，德语太过简练的这个特点大概就能解释为什么一个英语讲得不错的法国人在说英语时也许会用词过于精确，而这又加深了德国人给人们的印象是太实诚，而非有趣。
Christian Baumann, a lawyer from Nuremberg whose travels have exposed him to different cultures around the world, agrees that language differences play a huge part in Germany’s unfunny stereotype.
来自Nuremberg的律师、基督徒Baumann的旅游经历让他接触到了世界上的不同文化。他认为语言的差异性是德国人给人们留下这种固有印象的主要原因。
On one of his first foreign trips to the United States, he constantly had to translate his thoughts from German into English, even when telling a joke. The result was that people just didn’t get him. Some went as far as accusing his directness of speech to be rude.
在他首次前往美国的出国游中，他一直重复在做的一件事就是将想说的话从德语直接翻译成英语，即便在讲笑话的时候也是如此。结果人们都听不懂他在说什么，有些人甚至谴责他说话太直太粗鲁。
“I think when you try to speak with a literal translation from German to English, you lose a lot of meaning that makes a joke funny. And when you have to explain a joke, it just isn’t funny anymore,” Baumann said. “So naturally, they didn’t think I was funny.”
“我认为当你说话时，如果将法语直译成英语，就会丧失法语原有的幽默感。如果你不得不把这个笑话解释一通，那么也就没那么好笑了。”Baumann说道，“所以理所当然的，他们一点都不认为我很风趣。”
But he also thinks that cultural variances play a big part, too.
他同时也表示文化的差异性也是一个重要的原因。
“In English, you are always very polite, even if you are criticising something. But German is different. We will say what we have in mind, so, naturally I think, the English speakers have the impression that Germans are only logical, rude (but very good engineers) and can’t have fun,” Baumann said.
“说英语的时候人们都非常有礼貌，即便是在批评某个东西的时候。但是德语不一样。我们想到什么就说什么，所以我觉得说英语的人理所当然会认为德国人只是有逻辑并且粗鲁（不过是非常好的工程师），但一点也不风趣。”Baumann这样讲道。
This is a sentiment German comedian Christian Schulte-Loh shares. Fully aware of the stereotype the Germans are labelled with, he writes in his new book, Zum Lachen auf die Insel (To England with Laughs), that Germans are too honest to be polite and the English are too polite to be honest.
这是德国喜剧演员、基督徒 Schulte-Loh分享的一个观点。鉴于对德国人被贴上“无幽默感”标签的认识，他在新书Zum Lachen auf die Insel（《笑着去英国》）中写到：德国人太诚实所以显得没那么礼貌，而英国人则太礼貌，从而显得不那么真诚。
But Schulte-Loh, who regularly performs at Quatsch Comedy Club in Berlin and tours internationally, says this particular stereotype actually serves him well during his routines. For example, when headlining a show at Top Secret Comedy Club in London in front of a sold-out crowd, he opened with a stab at his nationality.
不过，经常在柏林Quatsch喜剧俱乐部表演也经常出国旅游的Schulte-Loh还表示，事实上德国人给人的这种独特的固有印象对自己的游历也有所帮助。例如，曾经在一场座无虚席的位于伦敦“顶级秘密喜剧俱乐部”的演出中，担任主角的他就尝试过在表演一开始就告诉大家自己的国籍。
“Hello, I am Christian and I am a German comedian!” He paused as the crowd jeered. “Oh I see the expectation is already dropping. That’s ok, I can only try my best!”
“大家好，我是一个基督徒，同时我也是一名德国喜剧演员！”观众们发出嘘声，他停了停，接着说道“看来大家对我的期待值有所降低啊。不过没关系，我会尽力的！”
*原文来自BBC Travel频道。仅做翻译练习之用。*
