I am usually not on the same "frequency" as a lot of German entertainment (specifically television, movies, theater). It's interesting, but not exactly to my taste. There are a lot of reasons including the style of humor, depth/subtlety in plot lines and acting, and overall production feel. More detail in another post...
I was, however, introduced to a performer who is clever and gives a fun and touching show. His name is Bodo Wartke. He plays plays piano, makes jokes, etc. -- but it really came together when he wrote a 4-line love song and then sang it in different German dialects. Think of an audience laughing at a love song that cycles through a New York accent, Chicago accent, and then Southern drawl.
He then extended it to other languages... 88 of them! Even better, he created an online love song generator where you can drag and drop languages into the verses for a song and the web site assembles and performs the song for you (upts in the chorus automatically). Then, when you have a combo of languages you like, you can download an MP3 of the song or even send one to a significant other!
The "languages" currently available are:
- 14 German "dialects"
- 4 English accents (standard, Shakespearean, "Middle English", and Australian)
- Most major European languages (French, Italian, Spanish...)
- Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hindi
- Yiddish, Sanscrit, Esperanto
- and three sic-fi/fantasy languages: Klingon, Sindarin and Quenya
Yes, Klingon.
Even nicer, if you are dying to sing it yourself, you can download the piano part along and use it karaoke-style.
Here is the link to the Love Song Generator. Click on the British flag for English.
The karoke version is also at Bodo Wartke's website.
For a taste of his live performance, here is the YouTube video: