Image credit: Frank Schwichtenberg
“Otto Gerhard Waalkes (born 22 July 1948), also known as simply Otto, is a German comedian, actor, musician, writer and comic book artist. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films.” (Quote Wikipedia)
My friends and I loved him in the 70s. As I moved to the UK in the 80s I didn’t see or hear much of him, but I’m still happy he’s around with his silly jokes.
Wikipedia has a lot of information about him, and the German Wikipedia page has even more.
I’d rather show you some of his videos from his YouTube channel Otto Waalkes
But a little warning! Your German needs to be pretty good to understand the jokes. He does a lot of word plays which don’t really translate into English. He also “teaches” English, but translates sentences with words that sound similar in German but aren’t the right translation. To find them funny, you’ll need to understand both languages. And he makes a lot of parody videos of fairy tales, adverts or songs.
But even if you don’t understand his jokes, enjoy his typical Otto moves (think of a German version of Mr Bean).
Otto as conductor (almost no German required)
Otto miming an old German song
Here is a parody of an ad from a glasses company, whose tagline is known by most Germans: Mit Brille wär das nicht passiert. – It wouldn’t have happened with glasses. Sadly, this one can only be watched on YouTube. Mit Brille wär das nicht passiert || Milch || Best of Otto
This one is an “English lesson” 😉(remember, he deliberately translates words wrongly)
This one is about Susi, who finds out her hairdryer can talk and tells her that with a kiss she can transform him back into a prince. Except, the hairdryer lied 😉
An ode to his mobile phone
Or his version of an Elvis song
If you like his elephants, sorry, I mean his Ottifanten, he has a shop: Ottifant.de
You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter)
For his 70th birthday, he invited 2000 fans to celebrate with him and to enjoy fireworks, free beer and sausages.
Herzlichen Gückwunch zum Geburtstag, Otto, happy birthday!
