March 6, 2016

"... the prof asked the one German kid if they had a German dream. He responded, 'We did but no one liked it.'"

IMG_0054

I saved the screen at the top of Yik Yak here in Madison last night.

IN THE COMMENTS: HoodlumDoodlum said:
Reddit has a thread with that joke from April 2015... the thread appears to be jokes by teenagers. There are Google hits from May and June 2015, too. Step up ya joke takin' game, WI kids.
Thanks. I should have checked. Yik Yak around here is full of jokes. I guess I wanted to believe that scenario took place around here. By the way, I downloaded Yik Yak after I read that it was full of horrible racist and sexist things. I never see that here. I see, in addition to jokes, people who are trying to get up the nerve to talk to somebody they like, concern about doing well in school, and expressions of joy at having seen a dog.

46 comments:

Saint Croix said...

Out of the mouths of babes!

Michael K said...

If only Kaiser Frederick III had not died. He was the son of Wilhelm I and the father pf Wilhelm II. He had married Victoria's oldest daughter, also named Victoria, and was very pro-English and moderate. He developed cancer of the larynx and his wife insisted on English doctors. At that time, German medicine, especially surgery, was far superior but Victoria insisted and an incompetent English physician treated Frederick, initially telling him the lesion was not cancer.

Frederick was Kaiser only 98 days and his son was so unstable and jealous of his English cousins that his ministers did not tell him everything. He fired Bismarck and, in my opinion, is almost exclusively responsible for World Wr I.

rhhardin said...

There's a mouse in the backyard having a bad day, if the neighbor's cat is any indication.

One infers the mouse.

Sebastian said...

"the prof asked the one German kid if they had a German dream. He responded, 'We did but no one liked it.'"" Jeez, is everyone into strategic ambiguity now?

Ask the kid about their Sonderweg instead.

buwaya said...

The Kaiser Wilhelm theory is a good one.
See "Dreadnaught" Massie

CWJ said...

Now that's funny. Either the kid is a very quick wit, or it never happened. The fact that he's simply styled the one German kid, and not something like "[his first or last name] the German kid" argues somewhat for the latter.

Bob Ellison said...

VOIDH

Saint Croix said...

I want to read this book about the elections of 1932. There are two narratives, the rise of Hitler and the rise of FDR. How did it happen? Was it inevitable? And can we learn anything from it?

I heard the guy talk about it on talk radio. NPR, maybe? Anyway it sounded really interesting. I have not started it yet. Might be an interesting book to read in this election year, which strikes me as very, very different from the usual.

The weird thing to think about is that if Hitler was kept out of office in 1932, he would have gone back to obscurity and we would have no idea how important that election was. And ditto FDR, he would win that election, and another election and another election and another election, and radically change the nature of the federal government. So those were very important elections.

mccullough said...

At its height, only 10% of Germans were members of the Nazi party. There's a higher percentage of San Franciscans that are Republican.

A small group of evil demagogues played on people's fears and their nationalism and populism. In the US, fear and anger and frustration gave us FDR. Luckily Huey Long wasn't popular enough and was assassinated

Sal said...

In modern Germany, only Neo-Nazis question the wisdom of unlimited Muslim immigration.

Laslo Spatula said...

I went to the Mall but the Kiosk was all sold out of 'Godwin's Law' T-shirts.

Seems to be a big item these days.

I am Laslo.

chickelit said...

Saint Croix wrote: weird thing to think about is that if Hitler was kept out of office in 1932, he would have gone back to obscurity and we would have no idea how important that election was. And ditto FDR, he would win that election, and another election and another election and another election, and radically change the nature of the federal government. So those were very important elections.

I'll help you along a bit and save you some time: Don't forget the Father Coughlin/Rush Limbaugh analogy. Also, it helps to imagine every earnest reporter today in DC imagining him/herself to be William Shirer, especially when they go to Trump rallies:

'I was a little shocked at the faces,' Shirer wrote in his diary, 'when Hitler finally appeared on the balcony for a moment. They reminded me of the crazed expressions I once saw in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers...they looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman.'

How long before we hear something similar?

Michael K said...

"How long before we hear something similar?"

Shirer was a confirmed lefty but a good writer. I have read all his books.

Oso Negro said...

The new German dream is to demonstrate their virtue by molesting tourists at the security checkpoints at the airport and letting the immigrants moles German girls at the train stations.

Sal said...

How long before we hear something similar?

I might vote for Trump, but I won't support an invasion of Canada no matter what.

William said...

I read Kissinger's book, Diplomacy. Kissinger's theory was that Bismarck problem was that he was too smart. He put a lot of balls in the air but only a master juggler such as himself could keep them in the air. The peace treaty he inflicted on France at the end of he Franco-Prussian War assured France's enduring hostility and eventual alliance with Russia........The Kaiser was effectively deposed towards the end of WWI by the Prussian General Staff. The Prussians were very good at managing a war but remarkably stupid about all other human endeavors. It was they who insisted on unrestricted submarine war which was certain to bring the USA into the war. They won the war in the east, but under the peace treaty they made with Russia, the Germans had to divert more troops to occupy the conquered territories than they had used on the eastern front........If you want a 20th century boogeyman, I would go with Hindenburg. He was a decision maker on the Prussian General Staff that subsidized Lenin and the Bolsheviks. He also could have ruled Hitler ineligible for the Chancellor's office since Hitler had previously been convicted of a felony. Hindenburg was thus directly responsible for the rise of two great tyrants and for Germany's defeat in WWI. As failures go, that's hard to top. He wasn't even a madman or fanatic.

mccullough said...

Rush would give his left nut for Fr. Coughlin's ratings. So would the head of MSNBC.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Reddit has a thread with that joke from April 2015...the thread appears to be jokes by teenagers.

There are Google hits from May and June 2015, too.

Step up ya joke takin' game, WI kids.

rhhardin said...

Well, look, my only serious relationship ended in a broken collarbone and a dead meerkat so I may not be the best person in the world to give advice but you have been trying to get through to Libby for five years now so maybe you should let her go.

Yeah, but what is her problem?

Dennis, you left her at the altar when she was pregnant.

But that was ages ago.

Well, women remember that stuff.

- Run Fatboy Run

Saint Croix said...

Don't forget the Father Coughlin/Rush Limbaugh analogy

That's not an analogy I would make.

Big Mike said...

I might vote for Trump, but I won't support an invasion of Canada no matter what.

@Sal, I'd been thinking I wouldn't vote for Trump, but if he promises to invade Canada, I might have to rethink my position.

Better yet, perhaps we can induce Canada to invade Vermont -- with luck we can force them to keep it!

mccullough said...

Maybe Trump can deport the illegals to Canada and get them to pay for two walls

Alex said...

In alternate universe Nazism never happened and modern Germany is a proud member of nations. But the stain of Nazism will stay with them for a 1000 years.

William said...

You can't accuse the Germans of being intrinsically Nazi without to some extent adopting Nazi ideology. What you're saying is that the Nazis were right. There are evil races, but they're not Jewish. They're German.

Leora said...

Your Yik Yak screen shot is restoring my faith in American youth

derek said...

If Hitler had limited himself to two terms he would be viewed as heroic, and it would have taken a Reagan 30 years later to nail the box shut. Stalin would have been dropped as the Savior, nothing he did worked, and universities today would be extolling national socialism and activists would be agitating for the exclusion of Jews from commerce.

Lewis Wetzel said...

If Hitler had limited himself to two terms he would be viewed as heroic, and it would have taken a Reagan 30 years later to nail the box shut.
You don't quit after two terms when the entire justification for your political party is the waging of an eternal race war.

Humperdink said...

I thought the German dream was to flood the US market with diesels that fooled the EPA. Another dream that turned into a nightmare for the Fatherland.

n.n said...

The mass abortion of civilians created a moral ambiguity. However, invading sovereign nations destroyed their dream.

cubanbob said...

@ William, very astute observation regarding Hindenberg. @ Saint Croix, but for Hitler and the war in Europe there is no reason to have expected a third term for FDR. In the alternative universe scenario where Hindenburg wasn't too clever by half and first helped Lenin and thus the rise of the USSR and then ruled Hitler ineligible to serve as Chancellor due to his criminal conviction things may well have turned very different. Without Hitler as Chancellor Germany would most likely become a European Right Wing authoritarian state with a strong measure of anti-Semitism but not have engaged in war especially if the USSR had not come into being and without the war and Nazism the holocaust would not have happened. As for the US and FDR after two terms of no real resolution of the Great Depression and no real foreign war menace threatening the US why would the electorate have given FDR a third term?

Meade said...

I just saw a dog. Then I saw two more dogs. Finally, I saw a fourth dog. And that's not even counting the two dogs across the street who I see all the time.

They all made my day.

Anonymous said...

mccullough said...
Rush would give his left nut for Fr. Coughlin's ratings. So would the head of MSNBC.

*******

Got a real source for Coughlin's CLAIMS that he was reaching 30 million people a week? That would have been one in four Americans back then.

Subtracting the child population, those without radios, and the millions who disagreed with him, it's literally an unbelievable claim.

In any case, Rush's 2015 weekly ratings are here:

A cumulative 13.25+ million per week.

http://tinyurl.com/hf9nqwj

MSNBC's are here:

http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/2015-ratings-msnbc-has-double-digit-declines-in-demo/280752

MSNBC's ratings for 2015 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):

Primetime (Mon-Sun): 579,000 Total Viewers / 137,000 A25-54
Total Day (Mon-Sun): 352,000 Total Viewers / 89,000 A25-54

Bob Ellison said...

jelink, too long.

People don't want to hear how bad an investment advertising is. It is what it is.

Birches said...

@humperdink

Lol. I hope that joke wasn't recycled because it was sharp.

Sebastian said...

"I read that it was full of horrible racist and sexist things. I never see that here" Another SJW urban myth?

Big Mike said...

There's also this song.

Humperdink said...

Birches said: "@humperdink Lol. I hope that joke wasn't recycled because it was sharp."

I was reading about VW's travails yesterday. And you can be sure the current administration will attempt to wring every nickle it can out of them (see BP).

As an aside, I worked at the first foreign car assembly plant the US in 1979 - VW's rabbit plant in New Stanton, Pa.. My last position was diesel start-up coordinator for materials.

Humperdink said...

@Birches. In answer to your question, yeah that my own effort at wit.

Bob Ellison said...

That's great, but what about the stupid anti-German thing you helped spread?

A passing joke that's OK because we can always invoke Hitler.

Bob Ellison said...

BTW, "VOIDH" means "video, or it didn't happen".

Sal said...

By the way, I downloaded Yik Yak after I read that it was full of horrible racist and sexist things

IIRC, it's professors in the Angry Studies who make that claim. They're afraid of students having free & anonymous speech.

MadisonMan said...

I will often walk our dog down to campus, and students just flock to him. It's very sweet.

College students are starved for pets.

Saint Croix said...

Meade, did ya'll get a dog yet?

"Marco" is a good name for a golden retriever.

Marco! Polo. Marco! Polo.

And if you get a puppy, you can complain about how young he is and how he doesn't know anything.

Saint Croix said...

Remember the First 100 day rule for Marco.

You can't complain for the first 100 days.

After that, he should really know where to pee.

Peeing in the right place is important.

mikee said...

My father, a man wise in the ways of the world, followed a few simple rules in analyzing the modern world. Who benefits? What is really going on? When did this suddenly become true? Where is it written that you have to do that? Why should you?

And of course, the old favorite, "Consider the source."
I think that one applies particularly to social network postings.

Jose_K said...

Hindenburg? According to Haffner ( the German Revolution), Ludendorff was the one in charge, Hindenburg was a nullity like Wilhelm himself( My ancestors fought for Wilhelm I. My mother´s maiden name is Wilhelm). The Navy forced the total war and Ludendorff ,without any reason, go with them after his initial rejection of total war.
Wilson wanted the war, he wanted to force democracy on the Germans, Nation building by a progressive... There were arms in the Lusitania. No matter if the Germans and Irish in America were not ready to fight the cousins or the oppressor.
And it was his Hinderburg son not him who enabled Hitler( 30 days to power)