German Comedies
Talking of German blockbusters, there is no genre more successful than comedies. If you look at the rental figures some of them are even more successful than big Hollywood productions. But it is quite a complex genre, at least in Germany. For a start you shouldn't mix up comedy with tragicomedy. The standard German comedy plays with cliches; it has a simple structure. Most important is its location. Most of the time these movies look like travel advertisements - their protagonists laugh and cry in front of Germany‘s biggest tourist attractions. The sun is always shining and of course there is a happy ending.
Tragicomedies on the other hand are much more complex and feed on the social context in which they play. Their dialogues are full of humour, irony and biting sarcasm. Most of the protagonists are people to whom the audience can easily relate. The stories take place in offices and flats. They reflect everyday life. Happy endings are not a given.
You have to prepare yourself for the broad humour of the world of German comedy which can sometimes also be a bit kitsch or coarse. The phrase ‘toilet humour‘ is not a meaningless metaphor for many German comedy authors, so expect jokes about sex, farts and more...