Comments on: Well you started it ...

Well you started it ...

DirtyCreature — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:01:35 -0800

Hors d'oeuvres vich must be obeyed at all times vithout qvestion!

By: DirtyCreature

DirtyCreature — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:03:14 -0800

(with apologies to our German friends)

By: Mijo Bijo

Mijo Bijo — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:09:11 -0800

I hate it when my "w" and "u" key stop working. It make me feel like such a vanker.

By: saraswati

saraswati — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:16:35 -0800

Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!

By: DirtyCreature

DirtyCreature — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:16:48 -0800

I hate it when my "w" and "u" key stop working. Oops forgot about those 20 somethings crowding this place out here. Let me educate you junior.

By: Mijo Bijo

Mijo Bijo — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:24:33 -0800

I feel so educated now. *yawn* I've just never heard a "v" sound in the word question from any Germans, maybe you have a link to educate me on that, old man?

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 01:40:19 -0800

I've just never heard a "v" sound in the word question from any Germans, maybe you have a link to educate me on that, old man? Here you go.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:20:33 -0800

don't worry lads , you won't be in the tournament for long.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:23:45 -0800

NOT OK [X] Don't mention the war Double negative. Therefore I will mention the war. I'm a grammar Nazi. I think all English people should be banned from football matches. Just to be sure.

By: NewBornHippy

NewBornHippy — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:20:16 -0800

VZF?!?

By: Acey

Acey — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:27:06 -0800

NBH wins. If winning means anything.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 04:22:54 -0800

DIS-MISSED!

By: magpie68

magpie68 — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 04:29:47 -0800

slimepuppy, don't expect correct grammar from the Sun. And I love this comment... I'm sure Hitler and his cronies are looking up from hell and smiling. . Yep, this row will surely take their minds off the ultimate agony of the flames of eternal damnation alright.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:27:36 -0800

Cops there say Nazi taunts are NOT funny and will NOT be tolerated. Fiction becomes reality. Nazi taunts? Fawlty Towers is all about the Brits taking the piss out of themselves - Basil Fawlty is an absolute idiot and a cringing embarassment to the Empire. When the German couple asks where to hire a car (in German), Basil looks at them with that perplexed look. When Polly explains they're Germans, Basil (blithering idiot that he is) looks at them and says "Oh German! I thought there was something wrong with you." That's the difference between Brits and Continentals. The British can laugh at themselves like no one else. The Germans, French, etc. take themselves so damned seriously. Lighten up guys. When a Brit does the funny walk during the World Cup, or orders a Prawl Goebbels, try laughing. Arresting them means you failed to get the joke.

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:36:17 -0800

The English obsession with Nazism is fun. Every football game, it looks like the Brownshirts have risen and are embarking for Britain. Then if you make clear they aren't welcome, it's just as bad. It's like a pet paranoia. Zees Basil you speek of, he is quite popular here as vell, BTV.

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:39:10 -0800

Shit, should be BZV.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:45:19 -0800

Yobs will be instantly banged up for TWO WEEKS if they hahahah. UK is like the ministry of funny talkin'.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:11:33 -0800

You'd think that any sentence that starts "Meanwhile, in the Netherlands..." can only herald something good, but:

Meanwhile in the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) are eager to stamp out a craze which could see thousands of Dutch fans turn up for the finals wearing orange Nazi helmets. Free Time Products have sold 15,000 of the plastic helmets, bearing slogans like "attack", "there he goes" and "go Holland go" with designer Weno Geerts saying: "We just want to support our team and tease the Germans. Nothing else."

What, have we forgotten about the good General's evergreen adage, now?

By: shoepal

shoepal — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:15:32 -0800

Nice one, NewBornHippy! VZF, indeed!

By: MrMustard

MrMustard — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:49:51 -0800

sgt.serenity - It's all about being there though, isn't it? Isn't it?

By: stenseng

stenseng — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:07:31 -0800

"Nazi taunts? Fawlty Towers is all about the Brits taking the piss out of themselves - Basil Fawlty is an absolute idiot and a cringing embarassment to the Empire. When the German couple asks where to hire a car (in German), Basil looks at them with that perplexed look. When Polly explains they're Germans, Basil (blithering idiot that he is) looks at them and says "Oh German! I thought there was something wrong with you." That's the difference between Brits and Continentals. The British can laugh at themselves like no one else. The Germans, French, etc. take themselves so damned seriously. Lighten up guys. When a Brit does the funny walk during the World Cup, or orders a Prawl Goebbels, try laughing. Arresting them means you failed to get the joke." Let's not forget that Basil has also taken a sizeable bump to the head earlier that episode... "We did not start it!" "Yes you did, you invaded Poland!"

By: beagle

beagle — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:43:42 -0800

Good thing Denmark isn't in this tournament, or they might provoke a soccer war.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:49:22 -0800

I hate to defend this kind of boorish, tedious and unfunny behaviour... but it seems that what we're talking about here is using laws that are designed to prevent glorification of Nazism to stop people making fun of Germany's past. That's just stupid. By all means, throw people out of the stadium, but three years in prison?

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:52:13 -0800

You can get locked up for saying "Don't mention the war"? So don't mention "Don't mention the war."

By: squirrel

squirrel — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:58:28 -0800

This used to be the city of the Nazi rallies but is now famous as the city of human rights. We do not live in the past. Human rights like, say... free speech? If anything, this sounds more like the beginning of historical revisionism. I mean, how can the Germans simultaneously say "never forget" and "never bring it up"?

By: TwelveTwo

TwelveTwo — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 09:40:29 -0800

What about referencing to Hogan's Heroes?

By: kika

kika — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 09:55:41 -0800

Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

By: wendell

wendell — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 13:24:01 -0800

What about referencing to Hogan's Heroes? I know nothing!!!

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:13:13 -0800

I mean, how can the Germans simultaneously say "never forget" and "never bring it up"? They don't. What they say is "don't make light of it".

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:14:16 -0800

"Nazism isn't funny." Except when it is. Humor is funny like that. You can't legislate it. In fact, legislating against things can make doing them even funnier (I think it's called irony). It would be highly amusing to see someone dressed up as a German polizei officer goose-shtepping around und handink out zhe fake citations to passers-by for alledged Nazism. NAZISM IST VERBOTEN, ENGLISH SVEINHUND! MACH SCHNELL MIT DU PAPIEREN! You know what, Germany? You fucked up. Denying it won't make it go away. Just admit it, laugh, and move on. In fact, laughter is the most effective way to take the piss out of someone who wears Nazi regalia unironically. Imagine if Hitler had been laughed off the stage/podium at earlier rallies. "Look at hiss silly musstasch! I can mimic zhat with eine plashtic comb! Vitness!" [Full disclosure, I'm 1/4 German! OH NOS LINE UP AGAINST ZE WALL ALL OFF YOU! ANYVON WHO DOES NOT LAFF IS A CRIME ANIMAL.]

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:17:16 -0800

Ach, du scheisse. "with" = "mit". Ich bin ein dumkopf (und Ich verstehe kein Deutsche). My grandmother taught me the German gut before she vent kaput!

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:54:00 -0800

I'd quite like it if the england fans all sang "springtime for hitler" at the games .....i would actually be quite supportive of the english team , were it not for that awful fanny john motson , if you got rid of motson things would be different.

By: Football Bat

Football Bat — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:30:02 -0800

VE HAVE MEAT IN - ZE - BUILDING! Oddly enough, I remember Eric Idle once mentioning that he and Cleese visited Germany and found that Germans, in general, have absolutely no sense of humor.

By: milquetoast

milquetoast — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:36:52 -0800

The English obsession with Nazism is fun. I agree. See also Heil Honey I'm Home!

By: mmkhd

mmkhd — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:01:41 -0800

Ah, zhat old sillyness again ... 1. We all love Basil over here and the "German" episode is one of the best. Hogan's Heroes has been dubbed and some Germans even liked it ('though it can get old fast.) Indeed Nazi jokes can be very funny. I dearly love the "Juergen" skits from my harry Enfield CDs (Zhe Busses were never late under zhe Nazis!) 2. Nobody but maybe our own equivalent of the SUN reacted badly when Prince Harry went to a costume party as a Nazi. The Brits themselves were embarassed. 3. Everybody here hates O'Reilly, but is instantly happy to jump onto the SUN's bandwagon ??!? 4. Yes Nazi regalia are verboten indeed. But not if it is educational, satire, art, reporting, free speech, etc. etc. I think it is not unreasonable to think that some elements of the English soccer fanbase might get a little overenthusiastic with the "jokes". (German fans can be bad, too.) And saying it's just a joke, even though you really are looking for a fight is quite lame. (I know it's obscure, but somehow the old, old 80's movie Soulman comes to my mind which features such behaviour). 5. In this respect Germans cannot behave right, anyway. If we ourselves mention the war too much, we're called uptight. If we don't mention it, it's forgetting it. If Neonazis march the streets of Germany, the SUN sees the next invasion coming, holocaust and all. If Brits do the same, it's all in good faith. That's double standards for you. 6. I predict that not a single soccer fan will be locked up for two weeks for doing the Hitlergruss. So don't worry. A large number of fans with plastic helmets, coordinated marching, shouting Nazi things, that might be considered a public disturbance, indeed. There is a German equivalent to "COPS" on TV right now. I like it, but you probably would be bored to death, because of how calm, nice, polite, deescalating and plain friendly German police can be. (Don't worry there are dickheads around, too). 7. Good German, Eideteker :-) Yuk! This post has become way too long, supporting all prejudices about thin skinned, unfunny, belly gazing Germans, AGAIN! Aaaaaaarrrghh I zimply cannot escape mein heritage! And now everypody back in line! Nichts to see hier. Gute Nacht. I vill now go and perfekt my Dr. Frankenstein impersonation. Ja, ja.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:24:49 -0800

I vill now go and perfekt my Dr. Frankenstein impersonation That's Fronk-en-steen, right? BLUCHER!

By: mmkhd

mmkhd — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:36:02 -0800

stein is more like sh-tine the i as in "mine"

By: zaelic

zaelic — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:16:28 -0800

Fer jeebus' sake, this is the british tabloids... look at the ads in the side bar: "Danni, aged 19, from Coventry See loads more girls on our super cyber site" Cheeky! Jeebus. Seriously. How many of you have been to Germany or met Germans born after 1950? Fess up. Not all that many of you. Now, guess what? They are not all Nazis. In fact, amongst Europeans, Germany stands out as those most vocally disgusted by Nazism. The crimes of the Nazi era were taught in their school curiculum that for fifty years. I'm a Jew and I work as an artist all over Europe, and it is time to cut the krauts a break - they are the people most definitively aware of their role in the holocaust and WWII of any people in Europe. You want to hold the kids responsible for their grandparents at this stage? Have you looked at other European nations' histories? And most Europeans - disregarding Brit football hooligans - recognize this. Should we be all steamed up that a bunch of football hooligans are not encouraghed to act offensively because - as we all - know John Cleese if funny, or should Germans have the right to finally tell the rude, drunk brit yobs that there is a thing called rule of law in their country?

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:30:20 -0800

mmkhd : Danke, mein Freund. I think perhaps you have missed Young Frankenstein, though (see memorable quotes).