It sounds like an oxymoron, but a German comedy show is being performed at the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hotel tonight and on Friday.
Certainly no one ever accused the European Union's largest member of being a country of comedians - carmakers, yes; joke tellers, no - but it seems that occasionally they can and do enjoy a laugh.
At the hotel tonight are lead comic Thomas Hermanns (pictured) and artistic director Renate Berger of Germany's top comedy show, Quatsch Comedy Club, which airs to more than 280 million viewers in Europe. They will be joined by three other jokesters, Hennes Bender, Rainald Grebe and Ole Lehmann, for the two evenings of das Lachen - laughs.
'Germans absolutely have a sense of humour,' Hermanns said. 'Maybe it has been too subtle for the world to notice or maybe the second world war and our football abilities have ruined our international reputation as the warm and fun-loving country that we really are. How can a country that gave you yodelling and an international top model named Heidi not be funny?'
He hinted that strange disco dance numbers would be among the sort of wackiness audiences could expect and predicted Teutonic humour would soon dominate the world stage, just like BMWs on Hong Kong roads.
'If Germans want to conquer any field in the world, they do it without looking back. The next John Woo movie will be called Attack of the German Clowns.'
