Aside from the power of hard truth, the German TV show "Motzki' descended on a people with little tradition of laughing at themselves. What little political humour does exist in Germany tends to be trite, slapstick and benign - far removed from the hard, biting Anglo-Saxon variety of satire served up by Friedhelm Motzki, a crusty, intolerant, foul-mouthed, retired driving instructor, who is a western German who hates ossies which is slang for those who lived in the former Communist east.
And he isn’t afraid to say it - at 140 decibels. He dispenses his derision - usually brief, withering verbal attacks - on his long-suffering ossie cousin, Edith, whom he employs after his wife’s death to clean his shabby western Berlin apartment.
From episode 12. When ossie cousin asked why he hung up a picture of the
Brandenburg Gate when it was still behind the Berlin Gate, Motzki replies,
"As a reminder of the wonderful time with you people behind it."
Many lines in the series are lifted from everyday German conversation. It would be hard to find an easterner who has not used the phrase Edith uses to defend her eastern heritage: "You know, some things we had were good." Motzki's retort is the typical Wessie's: "Yes, like Adolf Hitler built the autobahns."
I've been hooked on Germany's Alf Garnett since I saw him in Episode 1 with his pants dropped to his ankles and a roll of toilet paper in his hand. And there are thirteen episodes in total. Watch them all here.
