Stereotypes in Anglo-German Relations: John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers
Stereotypes in Anglo-German relations as portrayed in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers
1. Introduction
1.1 Fawlty Towers
“Listen, don’t mention the war! I already mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right!” (Fawlty Towers: The Germans). Fawlty Towers is a British situation comedy from the 1970’s, written by ex-Python John Cleese, which has become a cult series and is considered to be a legendary comedy milestone (Berman 14). The first series launched in September of 1975, introducing the disorganized and moody hotel manager Basil Fawlty, who is apparently unable to cope with his unsatisfied guests (Berman 14). Furthermore, it includes the memorable episode called “The Germans” (Berman 14), which is remembered for its quotation mentioned above. The show hardly deals with any German references, but this episode in particular provides many approaches to Anglo-German stereotypes, which will be discussed later.
1.2. Postwar Britain In order to understand all the allusions occurring in “The Germans”, one has to consider the political and social situation in Britain during the 1970’s. In 1973, only 28 years after their victory in the Second World War, Britain became a member of the EC, even though the “process of adjustment […] proved to be a long, complicated, and troublesome one” (Gowland, Turner, Wright 77). The fact of being an isolated nation led to prevailing hostility and skepticism towards Europe, since the British were lacking a real understanding “of its culture or history” (Gowland, Turner, Wright 7).
2. Anglo – German stereotypes
2.1 What is a stereotype?
In her essay about stereotypes in international relations, Katy Greenland defines stereotypes “as the probabilistic, generalized representations of any social group”(Emig: Greenland 15). In other words, “stereotypes are mostly regarded as a primitive and limited form of understanding” (Emig 2) that an individual person of a certain group membership may have of another social
1. Introduction
1.1 Fawlty Towers
“Listen, don’t mention the war! I already mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right!” (Fawlty Towers: The Germans). Fawlty Towers is a British situation comedy from the 1970’s, written by ex-Python John Cleese, which has become a cult series and is considered to be a legendary comedy milestone (Berman 14). The first series launched in September of 1975, introducing the disorganized and moody hotel manager Basil Fawlty, who is apparently unable to cope with his unsatisfied guests (Berman 14). Furthermore, it includes the memorable episode called “The Germans” (Berman 14), which is remembered for its quotation mentioned above. The show hardly deals with any German references, but this episode in particular provides many approaches to Anglo-German stereotypes, which will be discussed later.
1.2. Postwar Britain In order to understand all the allusions occurring in “The Germans”, one has to consider the political and social situation in Britain during the 1970’s. In 1973, only 28 years after their victory in the Second World War, Britain became a member of the EC, even though the “process of adjustment […] proved to be a long, complicated, and troublesome one” (Gowland, Turner, Wright 77). The fact of being an isolated nation led to prevailing hostility and skepticism towards Europe, since the British were lacking a real understanding “of its culture or history” (Gowland, Turner, Wright 7).
2. Anglo – German stereotypes
2.1 What is a stereotype?
In her essay about stereotypes in international relations, Katy Greenland defines stereotypes “as the probabilistic, generalized representations of any social group”(Emig: Greenland 15). In other words, “stereotypes are mostly regarded as a primitive and limited form of understanding” (Emig 2) that an individual person of a certain group membership may have of another social