The Germans cannot see the funny side of French humour. And the French are appalled at German jokes. So how does Arte, the television station created to forge Franco-German cultural bonds, programme comedy?

Enter John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson and Joanna Lumley. According to Arte’s executives, only British humour bridges the Franco-German border and attracts viewers in both countries.

Series such as Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, BlackAdder and Ab Fab, have got the Germans and the French laughing together, according to the station’s managers. They are now planning a series of British comedy films, with The Full Monty heading the list.

Gallic comics such as Jamel Debbouze and Michaël Youn go down like a lead balloon in Germany, while their Teutonic counterparts such as Loriot or Anke Engelke fare no better in France. “On humour we’ve always had the problem of the cultural barrier,” said Jérôme Clément, president of Arte. “The Germans stay stony-faced when the French laugh. And when the Germans find something funny, the French think it’s a catastrophe. Only a certain form of English humour is approximately shared on both sides of the Rhine,” he said.

Created in 1986 by François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, Arte was intended to unite both countries around the same programmes. The highbrow station only attracted tiny audiences for two decades. However, with viewing figures rising in the past year, Arte claims to have found a niche through documentaries, historical programmes and avant-garde films. “Fiction and drama cross national boundaries and so do current affairs,” said Emmanuel Suard, deputy director of programmes. “But it’s true that comedy is more difficult because we don’t laugh for the same reasons. ”

He said that British comics were easier to screen because they often relied on visual humour. “Take the Ministry of Silly Walks. That’s very visual.”

Andreas Schreitmüller, head of cinema and drama at Arte, added: “English humour is . . . a kind of universal humour. French humour is more tied to the national culture and history. French comics are always making references to French TV shows or actors whom Germans have never heard of. And German humour tends to be regional. Bavarian humour is different to Rhineland humour. And if they don’t get the joke in the Rhineland, they’re certainly not going to get it in France.”

Not funny enough...

Si quelq'un te dit que l'argent n'est pas tout c'est probablement ton chef
If someone tells you that money is not everything, they’re probably your boss

Es heißt ja, dass es Pflanzen gut tut, wenn man ab und zu nett mit ihnen redet - also gehe ich in den Garten und beleidige das Unkraut
Plants grow very well if you speak kindly to them every now and again. Which is why I sometimes go into the garden and insult the weeds

Attention: Si tu places à côté une statue de Jeanne d'Arc, tu risques la prison pour possession d'héroïne
Warning: anyone with a statue of Joan of Arc risks prison for heroine possession

Source: Agencies

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