“Alman’s in the Air”
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Hello everyone,
door number 22 of our Advent Calendar, almost Christmas, and behind today’s door is some really nice and funny
German Humor
Error code: n.a.
So have a great day, let me know in the comments how you liked it and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Nah, I’m kidding.
I’m not the biggest fan of German comedy, especially the one that makes it to the mainstream and TV. It’s horrendous.
But today, I wanted to tell you about a YouTube channel that actually is kind of funny. I mean… maybe not lmao rofl burst out laughing funny, but at least it’s worth that approving little smile that says “Yes, this was humorous.”
So that’s what I wanted to do today, and I will, but before that, I actually wanted to quickly share something I discovered with you that most of you won’t care about but still.
Instagram German Influencers are FAKE
So over the last year or so, I have noticed that there are more and more “langfluencers” or particularly “Germfluencers” pooping up on i… sorry… I mean popping up on Instagram.
And many of them had actually over 100.000 followers. And by that I mean, JUST above 100.000. Even if they have a completely new Instagram with just like 60-100 posts, which is not very much in that world.
My Scorpio bs sensor was tingling and I got the suspicion they buy followers and engagement, and I also have the suspicion that at least some of them are managed behind the scenes by someone else.
And so this week I actually did some investigation on Instagram and Socialblade (like two or three hours) and checked how many of them there are, and more importantly how old their accounts are and how their subscriber count developed.
And now I am pretty much certain… they are ALL buying subs. They either start out with insane sub growth right away, or they creep along until some day, all of a sudden, thousands of follows happen for a few days and then it peters of again.
I’d even wager that the 100.000 are fake and only the small number above it is real.
There are plenty of sites where you can buy “organic” subscribers and engagement, and it’s really cheap because it’s usually people in developing countries that run these subscriber farms.
But yeah… many many of these German language influencers are buying subscribers and at least some of them are “operated” by an entity behind it.
I do know for a fact that there is at least one company that offers “Master Mind Retreats” for German language influencers and quite a few people I see on Insta have been there. They meet for a week in some resort, with a pool and brainstorm ideas of how to bring the business to the next level. Which is NOT about creating unique content or new ways of learning and teaching. It’s about how to best sell your stuff.
There’s also a language influencer who also owns a social media marketing company, so I think they’re basically building up a network of influencers, boost them up, and then have all of them collect people’s email addresses to then run sales. I don’t want to name any names, but if you see someone in Instagram or TikTok with like 100.260 followers… those are fake, I am 90% sure of it.
And I get it, we all have to make money. I’m doing what I do here also because it’s my job. But the thing that I find weird is that first of all, this behavior makes it virtually IMPOSSIBLE for an honest company like Seedlang that just launched French and Spanish and made fresh Instagram accounts for those and doesn’t want to buy subs to compete. They will not get anywhere without buying subs, I fear. There’s just too much competition that takes “performance enhancing drugs” so to speak.
And also, all these influencers are putting out (or shitting out) content on the daily just for it to be seen by thousands of fake accounts and maybe a few real ones that they’re trying to sell their course to.
It’s all so desperate and empty and the only one really benefiting is Instagram and TikTok (because I think it’ll be the same there) which has all these “solopreneurs” domesticated like little sheep. “Oh, You didn’t post tdoay? Okay, down your ranking goes.”
I like business, I like people doing their thing, but something about all this is just wrong.
Anyway… I’ll end my rant here. Let’s have some German humor.
Good German Comedy
The channel I mean is called Phil Laude. He was a part of one of the most famous German YouTube prank and skit channels back in the day and he is now doing his own thing.
And what he basically does is depicting the stereotypical German in various situations – uptight, correct, frugal and so on, and he absolutely NAILS IT!!!!
And often, he contrasts it with Germans that have immigrant roots. And the immigrant community actually coined a term for the “old school stereotpyical German” and the behavior: Alman. Absolutely amazing word to have, because it gives a name to that specific type of “german-ness”.
I definitely have some alman in me, and it’s always funny to me when I recognize that. It’s not that it’s a bad thing and everyone living here will become a little alman sooner or later. It’s just in the air :)
But anyway, check out the Phil Laude channel on YouTube, it’s really good and not too hard to understand. You can always put on subtitles. They work pretty well.
Phil Laude – German Comedy – Youtube
And now, let’s just watch a couple :).
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Let me know in the comments if you like this and if you think he does the “Germanicity” justice :).
And also, let me know if you have a little Alman in you too.
Have a great day, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Ich habe diese geliebt und werde mehr finden!
I definitely have some Alman in me.
I’m sorry, but I was not amused by the videos. it just goes to show how different everyone’s idea of humour is. Thanks for trying to entertain me not your fault at all.
Oh, and I enjoy your rants about Instagram fakers etc., as well as when you geek out on German grammar and etymology. You show so much personality, humor and lively opinions on your blog, without ever being disrespectful or aggressive, and I value that so much! :)
Good to hear that it doesn’t come across as aggressive, because I’m actually quite “enraged” by these kinds of things :)
These videos are so funny! Thanks for sharing! Will definitely visit his Youtube page.
Why don’t you write these articles that are more general also in German if you have the time?
Because I don’t have time.
I’ve done a couple of mixes this year, but it takes twice as much time and I don’t enjoy it very much anyway.
The calendar is free for all, I actually lose money doing it, so I’ll absolutely only do for content, what I find interesting to prepare.
That’s understandable. I’d love an article in German every once in a while though
I’ll do a poll about it next time to see how many people would be okay with something all in German.
I guess today with all the browser plugin dictionaries, it’s still okay for beginners, but yeah… I’ll ask the community.
Thank you for considering it
It’s your creation, your work, your time. Do what YOU want. BTW- the reverse is true too. Just C&P and put it in deepl.com and get the German.
:DDD
Very funny videos! Though I did have to slow it down by 1/4 and put on the subtitles. But thanks for the recommendation. By the way, I actually have heard about German parents of children or teenagers not inviting their kid’s’ friend to join them at table, if they show up at dinnertime without an invitation. Vielleicht keine Witz, Coleussanctus!
Holy crap, that is embarrassing to hear!!!
When I saw “Alman” it made sense to me. German in French is allemand/allemande; German in Spanish alemán/alemana
Yup, originally it was the name of one of the Germanic tribes.
It’s not that Germans don’t have a sense of humor. They do. Maybe not the most refined one, but something is there. There are jokes, comedy, and laugher.
What they really, really don’t have is irony. Just plain not built into the language.
Ha… I really really hate irony! Like, I just don’t find it funny at all and my engagement in a conversation grinds to a halt if someone uses it. Maybe it’s partially due to the language.
Ein weiterer deutscher Humorkanal auf Youtube, der mir gefällt, ist Knallerfrauen mit Martina Hill
https://www.youtube.com/@KnallerfrauenDE
Alman is the Turkish word for German and Almanya is Germany
I found your post very interesting
Also the French and Spanish word. It’s based on the name of one of the Germanic tribes. But the term “alman”definitely comes from the Turkish community here.
Ghznka
What does that mean?
Ist das nur ein Witz, oder passiert sowas wirklich??
Kleine Alman-Geschichte: Als ich noch studiert habe, war meine Wohnung immer sauber. Sehr sauber, alles aufgeräumt, schon ziemich steril. Eine Freundin hatte einen Hund und einen kleinen Garten. Das hatten damals nicht viele in meinem Freundeskreis, also bin ich immer zu ihr gefahren, um zusammen zu lernen. Irgendwann kam sie dann zu mir nach Hause. Wir haben fleißig gelernt (dachte ich) und sie ist nach ein paar Stunden wieder gegangen. Danach hat sir mir gesagt, dass sie sich nicht wohl fühlte und nicht konzentrieren konnte, weil die Wohnung so übermäßig sauber war. Das war ein bisschen peinlich. Seitdem gehe ich lockerer mit dem Putzen um.
Passiert so was wirklich? Ich hoffe nicht :D!. Ich glaube auch nicht. Deutsche sind auch gastfreundlich, aber nicht so sehr wie Süd- oder Osteuropäer oder Menschen aus dem Arabischen Raum. Das ist mir als Alman teilweise “zu viel” dort :)
So, another commenter just said that she heard about it happening for real. I am ashamed!
Oh, don’t feel bad Emanuel! It was explained to me that the motivation for this behavior was not wanting to offend the visiting kid’s parents— by giving him food that they might not want their child to eat, or the kid would then not be hungry to eat their own dinner when they got home. They could even be afraid they might insult the other family by implying that they were “too poor” to feed their own child properly! So, it’s a cultural difference and an emotional minefield, and not just a case of being stingy or inhospitable.
Holy cow, this sounds so unbelievably alien to me. Like… I get the reasoning, it all makes sense intellectually, but I would not want to live in a world where this is the dominating mindset.
Yeah, it’s pretty rigid, and completely alien to me too. Maybe it’s a northern thing? The friend who told me about it is from Hamburg, plus I think it might happen in Scandinavia, too (says my half-Swedish son-in-law.) Not to be “region-ist” though . . . .
Happy holidays, and three cheers for hospitality and generosity!!!
Yep, have heard about this in Sweden too, at least in the seventies or so. It’s really rigid and frigid :). Hopefully not too common anymore.
One of the weaknesses of Swedish society at least previously is this obsession of not “in Schuld stehen”. How can you be generous towards others if you can’t accept a gift. Then you also don’t give gifts. Obviously there is always the positive side of the coin too!
Oh, I can relate to that.
I am getting absolutely weirded out by the hospitality of Southern Europe. Like… it makes me want to back away.
Yeah… I don’t think so, bro!!
I feel like the hospitality comes with all kinds of strings and expectations attached and I have a really hard time accepting it.
Even if the expectation is just that you REALLY like the food… I had that experience in Italy several time, that you can NOT say ANY criticism about the food. They will take it very badly.
Like… I was at dinner with the sister of a good friend and her husband once (they cooked) and I said something like “I think I’d like it even better with more sauce.”… big mistake.
7 years later, the husband STILL brought that up (after not having seen him for 7 years) when I was going there for dinner again. Like… “Here’s something with a lot of sauce because you love sauce so much.”… and it was with an ever so slight attitude.
I really really really hate that!
Criticism doesn’t mean that I don’t like it. It just means that it’s not 100% perfect… FOR ME! And nothing can be perfect for everyone.
Ugh… rant end!
I REALLY need to step up my listening skills. I didn’t understand much of what he said. 3 yrs of lackadaisical study with Duolingo, here and Easy German is just not enough.
You could try with Subtitles and maybe slow it down to .75 speed.
It’s definitely going to be work, but maybe managable :)
good idea. thanks
I use an app called Language Reactor. It means you can see English and German subtitles together. You can press the space bar to pause if you need more reading time!
thanks. I will check that out.
Das war so lustig! Und ich erkenne mich ein Bisschen! Ich kaufe die kekse mit dem langen Datum, und dann ich esse sie der selbe Abend.
“am selben Abend” :)
Danke :-)
Hallo!
Really funny… There’s a LOT of Alman is me :)
Where does the word come from? Is “man” as in “one” or something completely different? And if so, what does the “al” part mean?
Bis morgen!
The Spanish word for “German” is “Alemán.”
It’s originally the name of one of the west Germanic tribes. The French and Spanish then used it to refer to the Germans later on and the Turks adopted that name as well.
I watched quiet a few Slavik Jung / Ostboys videos a while back when I wanted to learn some slang – sometimes purile but definitely learnt some good phrases there… dick machen springs to mind… theres a few of their videos i enjoy revisiting from time to time…
My understanding of the Word “Alman” was it comes from people with a Turkish background to describe stereotypical german behaviour (?) It’s curious to see the word has spread widely…
In terms of German comedy in general i haven’t watched a lot… I’ve been watching Jan Böhmermann videos and these I like a lot .. i like the mixture of politics and sarcasm and they feel informative too..
I do like Jan Böhmermann, but only since he started copying the format of This Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Before that, it was a bore-fest for me.
But he is really the only talented person on TV that I know. And much of the main stream stuff is so unbelievably cringe, it makes me twitch even thinking about it.
I was going to mention Böhmermann… I actually like his short videos on YouTube, like Being Böhmi, better than the show. They seem a little less planned. (I’m an instant Phil Laude fan, now, too.)