British Humor

Flying with British Airways is likely to make you spend time at the London Heathrow Airport. And this also exposes you to British people. Today I had a revelation as to why many people, especially Brits, think the Germans have no humor:

• At 10 a.m. (already 7 hours on my feet) I was entering a foodplace and asked whether at this time of the day the lunch menu would be already available. Of course; but prices are tripled. Oo?! WTF?! That was a joke. Oooh, hahaha [nervous laugther]. - I think we Germans just grew up without any of such dry humor (I blame my parents for that!), so we are just not prepared to even consider that a complete stranger could pull off something like that. Thus, have to keep practizing. However, as we say in German (freely translated): What Johnny didn't learn, John will never learn. Schade.

Plus, the Brits use so awkward expressions, two examples:

• When I boarded the BA plane in Zurich, everyone had to show their boarding pass to the stewardess in the front of the cabin. The overly English stewardess in her mid-fifties commented on mine with the words Oh, lovely, dear. Again, WTF?


• When I asked the airport assistant whether it would be worthwhile to already go to Terminal 5 six hours before take-off of my connecting flight, he encouraged me with There will be plenty of opportunities for your personal entertainment, Sir.

Well, the opportunities for entertainment are somewhat limited if one doesn't care that much for luxury shopping. Greetings from Terminal 5.