And Now for Something Completely Different: Monty Python in German
February 16, 1998 - 0:0
HAMBURG And now for something completely different: Monty Python's Flying Circus is being shown dubbed into German for the first time on television anywhere. The Pythons could not have put it better themselves, unless of course, they had said: und jetzt was voellig anderes the German translation of and now for something completely different. Python purists in Germany and the British cult comedy troupe do have a small but enthusiastic following here insist that Pithy Python puns and pratfalls simply cannot be translated into German. Bad enough, they moan, that German public television aired the original Python episodes with German subtitles.
Now commercial broadcaster SAT-1 has dubbed the sacred silliness into German. SAT-1 has invested about a million dollars in the effort to produce the first-ever German version of 45 classic episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus dating back to 1969. They will be aired in a midnight time slot following a popular late night talk show. Analysts say the commercial network is taking a big risk at making itself look, well, very silly indeed.
After all, Germans have no sense of humor, according to the conventional wisdom, and according to some of the Python sketches themselves. Perhaps surprisingly, then, John Cleese has emerged as a defender of German laughability. He appears regularly in commercials for a variety of products, speaking German with a ludicrous English accent which cannot help but make German viewers chuckle. My father always said the Germans have no sense of humor, says Cleese (in English). But the first time I came to German for a project back in the early 1970s I was forced to admit there is a marvelous German sense of humor, based very much like the British sense of humor on linguistic word plays and regional accents.
But how do you translate Monty Python with its now dated references to British politics of the 1960s and '70s into a kind of German that can retain the spirit of the original series while being funny to German TV audiences in 1998? You can't do a verbatim translation, admits Peter Braukmann, in charge of the project for SAT-1. We've updated it for the '90s.
Thus, when Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and the late Graham Chapman shout wow it comes out cool in 1990s German. The Ministry of Silly Walks becomes Das Ministerium fur Dumm Gelaufen, which sounds pretty silly already even if you do not understand German. Even regional accents are present, with Bernd Stephan (Cleese's German voice) speaking with a Black Forest accent.
Even the original show's canned laughter has been modified and toned down a bit for German viewers, for whom laugh tracks are still somewhat unfamiliar. Braukmann claims test audiences have given a positive response to the German version of the series. I've only heard of one Python fan threatening to commit suicide or murder so far, Braukmann quips. (DPA)
Now commercial broadcaster SAT-1 has dubbed the sacred silliness into German. SAT-1 has invested about a million dollars in the effort to produce the first-ever German version of 45 classic episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus dating back to 1969. They will be aired in a midnight time slot following a popular late night talk show. Analysts say the commercial network is taking a big risk at making itself look, well, very silly indeed.
After all, Germans have no sense of humor, according to the conventional wisdom, and according to some of the Python sketches themselves. Perhaps surprisingly, then, John Cleese has emerged as a defender of German laughability. He appears regularly in commercials for a variety of products, speaking German with a ludicrous English accent which cannot help but make German viewers chuckle. My father always said the Germans have no sense of humor, says Cleese (in English). But the first time I came to German for a project back in the early 1970s I was forced to admit there is a marvelous German sense of humor, based very much like the British sense of humor on linguistic word plays and regional accents.
But how do you translate Monty Python with its now dated references to British politics of the 1960s and '70s into a kind of German that can retain the spirit of the original series while being funny to German TV audiences in 1998? You can't do a verbatim translation, admits Peter Braukmann, in charge of the project for SAT-1. We've updated it for the '90s.
Thus, when Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and the late Graham Chapman shout wow it comes out cool in 1990s German. The Ministry of Silly Walks becomes Das Ministerium fur Dumm Gelaufen, which sounds pretty silly already even if you do not understand German. Even regional accents are present, with Bernd Stephan (Cleese's German voice) speaking with a Black Forest accent.
Even the original show's canned laughter has been modified and toned down a bit for German viewers, for whom laugh tracks are still somewhat unfamiliar. Braukmann claims test audiences have given a positive response to the German version of the series. I've only heard of one Python fan threatening to commit suicide or murder so far, Braukmann quips. (DPA)