You will laugh now

Herald Sun ^ | 24JUN05 | N/A

[QwertyKPH]

24jun05

GERMANY has opened its first laughter school in Berlin to teach serious Germans to lighten up.

Standing around in small groups, Germans are seen slapping themselves on the forehead with their mouths open and practising different laughter. Laughter teacher Susanne Maier said: "I am hoping to see laughter schools opening up everywhere.

"Germany will become a land of laughter -- and Berlin the laughter capital of Europe."

[Desert_Girl]

cool! Thanks. Is there a way to post a pic from my own comp without having to link online?

[freedumb2003]

No -- you need to send it to a hosting site.

Try www.photobucket.com

[XEHRpa]

> "You VILL laff NOW!"

Vee haf vays off making you laff.

[Desert_Girl]

No -- you need to send it to a hosting site. Try www.photobucket.com

That is where I go too, but at the bottom of the home page is a link to tinyurl.com which hosts single pics without having to join anything, and it is very fast and easy.

[NRA2BFree]

MY EYES! MY EYES! You've blinded me! Where was your warning? LOL!

[Oztrich Boy]

"Germany will become a land of laughter -- and Berlin the laughter capital of Europe."

Now. That's funny!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Zer vas two peanuts valking down ze street unt one vas assaulted....

Arrrrghh! Joe! I was gonna post that joke. It cracks me up. But my post was getting too long. I didn't think it appropriate to post the whole script.

[Allegra]

Her wings will be pretzels, instead of glitter she'll throw rock salt, and she'll order patrons, "Watch me flap my wings. Watch me! Macht schnell!"

LOL - what about a little dominatrix touch as well for the real German effect?

[Allegra]

Now, that's just downright scary.

[Xenalyte]

She has a wooden dachshund (about big enough to hold in two hands) that ties to her belt that's wearing a black leather codpiece with studs on it.

So the dog's a dom, we know that much.

[E Rocc]

Sheesh, you'd think that being next to France (and occasionally in charge of it) they'd have plenty to laugh at.

-Eric

[Charles Henrickson]

Ich bin ein Oneliner.

[martin_fierro]

[Allegra]

So the dog's a dom, we know that much.

Then you've got that aspect covered. ;-)

I'd love to see this.

[Larry Lucido]

Didn't Rainier Wolfcastle (on the Simpsons or The Critic) try stand up comedy once? Something like "I just flew in from Berlin and I'm tired. That's the punchline." Then machine gunned the audience or something.

[null and void]

I used to have a German roommate. Once upon a time she showed me pictures of a family Christmas party.

I wanted to know why no one looked happy? She insisted dat zey ver all happy!

No joke.

[Larry Lucido]

You'd think folks in a country with that much beer would be in good humor most of the time.

[null and void]

I think it's part of the Holocaust trauma. When the decent Germans realized what they wouldn't let themselves know was being done in their name had really happened, to real people. Many made the conscious or unconscious decision that looking happy would be, at best, unseemly.

[Smokin' Joe]

How can that be taught?

By repeating 'jokes' of a specific variety with a laugh track ("canned laughter") people can be conditioned to laugh at the jokes. People have a tendency to laugh when others do, even if they don't know what is so funny.

The laugh track provides the stimulus initially, eventually they become conditioned to laugh at the jokes.

Pretty Pavlovian, and one more reason to not watch sitcoms.

[Smokin' Joe]

A dyslexic walked into a bra....