I did not see a thread about this one while all my Swiss friends discuss it for days by now...

The ZDF, second largest German TV channel, has a satirical show in a similar format than their news channel. German politicians are of course aware of it and more than warned. But obviously this was not too well known in Switzerland as they managed to play some pranks to the president of the SVP youth wing, Erich Hess.

The German humour seems a bit tougher than Swiss TV standards. For me is this a good thing, but many Swiss seem offended. I cannot help to think that they would be less offended if it was an English tv channel, but that is another story...

That was amusing.

I`m not surprised. The Germans have "something" against the Swiss, huh?

Talking about Switzerland, to some German friends in SA, they said "Oh Switzerland is a LOVELY country, just a pity about the Swiss people".........

Another German, describing Switzerland .... (was actually hilarious to me )....... said "Switzerland is full of thieves. They stole our cattle and hid them in the mountains. That is why the Swiss are good bankers - they know how to steal!"

(I`m just saying what someone else said)

Well same goes for the Swiss... I had a Swiss boyfriend. I asked him once why the Swiss seem to hate the Germans and his relpy was "the Germans, the French, the Austrians, the Italians, even America... we are neutral. We hate everyone equally" ... sad

Erich Hess is not necessarily to beloved among Swiss. Have you seen this music video from two years ago when Hess came up with the proposal to close the Reitschule in Bern?

http://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/schwei...hippe-11036000

Personally, I think it's great.

Not really. Switzerland and the Swiss get less jokes than most others... and the only negative stereotypes are based on tax and money laundering.

Simply put would the same TV show make easily as much jokes about Austrians or any other European country. Mr. Hess was just too helpfull I guess...

The guy was/is naive & did not do his due diligence beforehand. No sympathy....

Nein, he is a perfect future politician ...... he takes his cues about what to say, when to say it A perfect little "puppet", neh?

I almost spit out my coffee the video is so utterly hilarious, serves the little tool right. next time maybe Sasha Baron Cohen will do an "interview" with him?

Oh dear, at first I thought "My school debating club had better performers", then I thought "Wait a bit, he is a future SVP leader" and then after analysing his speech I thought "This is worrying, here is a young man, applauded by some here, just spouting party policy, just woodenly following the party line" Quite worrying actually!

Well done ZDF, show us the SVP, as the fools they are!

I'd love to have been able to understand that spoof interview, I have a hard time understanding Standard German let alone CHeutsch.

So I take it that this is the German equivalent of the Jon Stewart or the Stephen Colbert show?

Unfortunately, I don't know enough German to understand the video, but according to Google translate, the person who posted the video is a German conservative sympathetic to the SVP and is sorry that his fees (I assume the German equivalent of BBC licensing fees) helped produced the show that made a fool out of Erich Hess. Another YouTube commenter wished Germany had a party like the SVP. I am resisting making a response that according to Godwin's Law, will end the debate right away.

[QUOTE=Treverus;1674551]I did not see a thread about this one while all my Swiss friends discuss it for days by now...

The ZDF, second largest German TV channel, has a satirical show in a similar format than their news channel. German politicians are of course aware of it and more than warned. But obviously this was not too well known in Switzerland as they managed to play some pranks to the president of the SVP youth wing, Erich Hess.

The German humour seems a bit tougher than Swiss TV standards. For me is this a good thing, but many Swiss seem offended. I cannot help to think that they would be less offended if it was an English tv channel, but that is another story...


Sorry, WHO exactly feels offended ? Have not heard about the matter up to now. Tougher than what exactly ? Rubbish, rather less tough and less acid ! In fact, the presenter in this piece has just managed to attract another viewer to his show

"Nachwuchs-Führer" Hess always talks like that !

They only made the fool out of what Erich Hess in fact IS That YouTube moderator is a "TubeL" as he/she ought to realize that the CDU/CSU on the regional level has many parties like the SVP. The Bavarian CSU for example is exactly the same. To work on YouTube is no excuse to show to be a TUBE-L

Agreed. They have their national specific flavors but basically appeal to the same sort of nationalist sentiment: our culture is threatened by foreigners, we must protect our language/dialect, vociferously anti muslim, this sorta thing.

Good job Ali G wasn't involved, eh?

Isn't that precisely what all these "young parties" are about? They identify zombyesque young people to tow the party line and make it seem as if the party is more "in touch" with today's youth than they really are. This is definitely not limited to the SVP.

That may well be but the personalities of the Y-party-leaders differ. The former president of the Young-SP, Cédric Wermut
http://www.cedricwermuth.ch/informat...cedric-wermuth
is a person to be kept in mind when people talk about the SP leadership. He may a bit too much on the left, but when he talks, he talks sense, and does not need a rubbish-basket in front of his mouth

In case of the SVP I have the impression that the top brass WANTS relatively weak but fairly well-looking persons in the official top-jobs, who leave the actual lead-functions to those of the "Polit-Bureau"

Maybe that's the impression they want to create. But the JUSO has always been far further left than the rest of the SP, so either they drift towards the centre as they age or they are quietly side-tracked at some point and forgotten about. Most SP people I know don't even like the JUSO. They are more embarrassed about them than proud of them.

The JUSO thing is done just to keep the youngsters in their "Sturm+Drang-Periode" out of the main-party. Most of them "mellow" when aging and adapt to realities. I have given the example of Mr Wermut. He has indeed drifted towards the centre quite heavily since his JUSO-days.

The SVP has created sections for both the very young and the very old to cater for those age-groups on purpose. Nobody from the main-parties is proud about their youngsters-parties