Zwei Kamele sitzen im Keller und hacken Petroleum. Sagt das eine zum anderen: “Du, morgen ist Weihnachen!”. Sagt das andere: “Ich weiß, ich bin eh mit dem Fahrrad da.”
Sitzen zwei Kamele im Keller und stricken Benzin. Kommt ein Schraubenzieher, läuft ein mal den Türrahmen hoch und wieder herunter und verschwindet wieder. Fragt das eine Kamel: “Du, hast du dat geseh’n?” Sagt das andere Kamel: “Jau, der is öfter hier.”
There is a trope of nonsensically combining statements, e.g. “at night it’s colder than outside” (it’s called Alogismus - is alogism a proper english word?). It’s children humor, most of them find it funny somewhere between 6 and 14 yo.
This sentence is an example of that:
camels don’t sit in basements
you can’t chop kerosene
Christmas has nothing to do with the fact that the camel traveled via bicycle
Diese Art von Witzen die mit skurrilen Szenarien und Dialogen gearbeitet haben waren im Deutschsprachigen Raum in den 70ern angesagt - Ein bisschen vor meiner Zeit, aber man hat ja Eltern und Verwandte, und der hat sich in meiner Kindheit in mein Hirn gebrannt.
It’s somewhat of an antijoke. Translation would be:
Two camels are sitting in a cellar chopping petroleum. One of them says: “Tomorrow is Christmas, you know?”. The other one replies: “Yeah, I came here by bike anyways”
The whole joke is based on subverting expectations. You don’t expect camels sitting in a cellar, a liquid can’t be chopped, camels can’t speak (and wouldn’t care about christmas either), camels don’t ride bikes, and noone chooses a bike as a mode of travel especially in expectation of Christmas.
I personally never found it that funny, but my mother was laughing as if it were the funniest thing ever said.
Two camels are sitting in the basement and are splitting [like e.g. with an axe] petroleum. One says to the other “Hey, it’s Christmas tomorrow!”. The other one answers" I know, I came here on my bike."
I did my best with that translation, but there are subtle hints that these things relate to each other, that would take way more words in English.
E.g. the “eh” widens the meaning to something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter because I already made the decision to come on my bike anyway”.
So I guess the joke is a bit that it’s the framework of a cohesive conversation, but it goes by so fast (3 quick sentences) that you kinda only realize that it was nonsense when it’s already over. It has dad joke vibes, too, only German jokes are more about unexpected content than puns.
Compare also (again doing my best on translation)
A ball rolls around the corner and tips over
Or the “poem” (cause it rhymes in german):
It was dark, the moon shone bright,
When a car drove lightning fast
Slooowly around the corner.
Inside people sat while standing,
Silently engrossed in conversation.
While a rabbit who was shot dead
Was ice skating on the sandbank.
Zwei Kamele sitzen im Keller und hacken Petroleum. Sagt das eine zum anderen: “Du, morgen ist Weihnachen!”. Sagt das andere: “Ich weiß, ich bin eh mit dem Fahrrad da.”
Sitzen zwei Kamele im Keller und stricken Benzin. Kommt ein Schraubenzieher, läuft ein mal den Türrahmen hoch und wieder herunter und verschwindet wieder. Fragt das eine Kamel: “Du, hast du dat geseh’n?” Sagt das andere Kamel: “Jau, der is öfter hier.”
Ich lerne noch Deutsch und kann den Witz zwar übersetzen aber ich verstehe er trotzdem nicht.
Edit: Grammar
There is a trope of nonsensically combining statements, e.g. “at night it’s colder than outside” (it’s called Alogismus - is alogism a proper english word?). It’s children humor, most of them find it funny somewhere between 6 and 14 yo.
This sentence is an example of that:
Ach so! ich verstehe jetzt. Yeah the cultural immersion is still a bit far in my German learning journey. Aber danke dir :)
Gerne! :-)
Hä?
Rollt ein Keks um die Ecke und fällt um. Was fehlt?
Tap for spoiler
Der Witz
Diese Art von Witzen die mit skurrilen Szenarien und Dialogen gearbeitet haben waren im Deutschsprachigen Raum in den 70ern angesagt - Ein bisschen vor meiner Zeit, aber man hat ja Eltern und Verwandte, und der hat sich in meiner Kindheit in mein Hirn gebrannt.
Yeah but what does it mean!? 😂
It’s somewhat of an antijoke. Translation would be:
Two camels are sitting in a cellar chopping petroleum. One of them says: “Tomorrow is Christmas, you know?”. The other one replies: “Yeah, I came here by bike anyways”
The whole joke is based on subverting expectations. You don’t expect camels sitting in a cellar, a liquid can’t be chopped, camels can’t speak (and wouldn’t care about christmas either), camels don’t ride bikes, and noone chooses a bike as a mode of travel especially in expectation of Christmas.
I personally never found it that funny, but my mother was laughing as if it were the funniest thing ever said.
I did my best with that translation, but there are subtle hints that these things relate to each other, that would take way more words in English.
E.g. the “eh” widens the meaning to something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter because I already made the decision to come on my bike anyway”.
So I guess the joke is a bit that it’s the framework of a cohesive conversation, but it goes by so fast (3 quick sentences) that you kinda only realize that it was nonsense when it’s already over. It has dad joke vibes, too, only German jokes are more about unexpected content than puns.
Compare also (again doing my best on translation)
Or the “poem” (cause it rhymes in german):
It wouldn’t make any sense when you translate it to English, I’m sorry.
Not that it makes sense in German XD
Of course.