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Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

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Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#61

Post by Simran-B »

erk__ wrote: post #14
dusted wrote: post #4

Here in Denmark, it's new years tradition to watch this on NYE, it's about as important as the Queens new years address. Also, it _NEVER_ stops being fun* [*] Legally required to hold this opinion.

Some yeas back a DR2 made a satirical parody of it called the 80 years birthday (in Danish it is called "the 90 years birthday") where all the characters was played by a series of Danish comedians https://youtu.be/H07O6j6-6vQ

Thanks for sharing! I didn't know Dinner for One is a thing elsewhere in Europe, and even had parodies.

There are also some German adaptations, like the one with Anette Frier and Ralf Schmitz (two well-known comedians). It's in _kölsch_, the dialect spoken in the Cologne area - which is quite fun to listen to, at least for Germans:

https://youtu.be/yGUo9VfbxnE

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#62

Post by 411111111111111 »

Semaphor wrote: post #32
cookiengineer wrote: post #28

Can confirm, it's a huge tradition to watch it on NYE in Germany. It's almost as popular as watching Tatort on public viewing events in bars on Sundays. I'm also legally obligated to like it, it comes with the citizenship :D

> It's almost as popular as watching Tatort on public viewing events in bars on Sundays. I have never even heard of anyone doing that, I’d say dinner for one is vastly more popular.

Isn't more of a boomer tradition? Few people really go to bars nowadays, do they?

It's maybe clubs for tweens and even that's declining to my knowledge

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#63

Post by brazzy »

Simran-B wrote: post #61
erk__ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some yeas back a DR2 made a satirical parody of it called the 80 years birthday (in Danish it is called "the 90 years birthday") where all the characters was played by a series of Danish comedians https://youtu.be/H07O6j6-6vQ

Thanks for sharing! I didn't know Dinner for One is a thing elsewhere in Europe, and even had parodies. There are also some German adaptations, like the one with Anette Frier and Ralf Schmitz (two well-known comedians). It's in _kölsch_, the dialect spoken in the Cologne area - which is quite fun to listen to, at least for Germans: https://youtu.be/yGUo9VfbxnE

I prefer the "Dinner für Brot" adaption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smgbPO0KaZw

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#64

Post by PurpleRamen »

sveme wrote: post #6

It‘s British actors, but was filmed in Hamburg by the public broadcaster NDR. It is a tradition which is not that funny unless you are already shitfaced. Loriot, on the other hand…

The recording shown on TV is a German Production, but the sketch itself originates from British theater and later TV. The origin story is even somewhat interesting. Seems there is not one, but two people who are involved and mainly known for this little sketch. The original author, and the comedian who made it famous around Europe and is the actor from the recording. And in some way it also kinda sad, as it seems to be the only work for which they are now remembered.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#65

Post by brazzy »

subpixel wrote: post #15

I’m reminded of the possibly apocryphal story about 30 Rock being the worst-received comedy in German tv history.

Not apocryphal, here's a source for you: https://www.serienjunkies.de/news/rock-amerika-23820.html

However, it suffered from extremely unfavorable conditions: it ran on a newly introduced digital channel that people would have to fiddle with their TV's settings to receive at all, and competed with some extremely popular series running at the same time.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#66

Post by hnarn »

dusted wrote: post #4

Here in Denmark, it's new years tradition to watch this on NYE, it's about as important as the Queens new years address. Also, it _NEVER_ stops being fun* [*] Legally required to hold this opinion.

Don’t forget that while this is broadcast on NYE in Denmark and Sweden, in Norway it’s broadcast on Christmas which is something you should definitely bring up on a mixed Scandinavian family dinner.

It’s also quite fun since there’s a joke relationship between Swedes and Norwegians calling each other stupid, so it’s quite fun to insinuate that Norwegians simply do not understand that the movie is set on NYE.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#68

Post by heywhatupboys »

interfixus wrote: post #27
dusted wrote: post #4

Here in Denmark, it's new years tradition to watch this on NYE, it's about as important as the Queens new years address. Also, it _NEVER_ stops being fun* [*] Legally required to hold this opinion.

And lest we forget: The hackneyed Disney Christmas Show at 1600 hours sharp on the 24th of December. In this household, Christmas officially starts when the mouse from Cinderilla squints and runs the thread through the giant needle's eye. These are generally the only two times of the year I have anything to do with live TV. Godt nytår!

And Christmas 2021 Disney mistakenly put on the wrong voices and we almost killed the guy from DR planning it

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#69

Post by Semaphor »

411111111111111 wrote: post #62
Semaphor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's almost as popular as watching Tatort on public viewing events in bars on Sundays. I have never even heard of anyone doing that, I’d say dinner for one is vastly more popular.

Isn't more of a boomer tradition? Few people really go to bars nowadays, do they? It's maybe clubs for tweens and even that's declining to my knowledge

> It's maybe clubs for tweens

I’m guessing I’m not the only one who thought that "tweens" meant people in their 20s. As a tip: Don’t say you are into tweens.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tween#Etymology_2

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#70

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #43

As a Brit deeply into comedy I can confirm my total ignorance of "Dinner For One". How very strange what travels. Visiting the US I was surprised how many Americans knew obscure and not terribly funny Monty Python sketches word for word, and meeting a Chinese CTO once whose first words were "Ah Mr. Bean".

British here as well and I only heard about this a couple of years ago whilst looking for xmas films. It's generally unknown in the UK.
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