There's at least a couple of hundred references on the web, mainly modern
take-offs, and, as I said, I know it goes back at least to the 60s, and you
recall the 50s. There's even a "Das PalmPilot is nicht fuer gefingerpoken..."
I think it was a combination of recognition of German mechanical ability
coupled with the post-WWII mocking of the German culture - belittling and
depersonalizing the enemy makes it less troublesome (morally) to kill them
- and there was lots of mocking at least well into the late 60s, and this
sprung out of that era somewhere.
So, I'm sure it's a spoof, and I sincerely doubt it's in the Mini Cooper
service manual.
At 09:09 AM 6/11/02 -0400, ATWEDITOR@aol.com wrote:
>I, too, remember this from a long time ago. It reminds me that growing up in
>the 1950s, it wasn't unusual to see "humor" pieces based on fractured
>semi-German like this in national magazines, such as Colliers, Saturday
>Evening Post or Look. As a kid still struggling with English, I found these
>things to be largely incomprehensible. I wonder if there was a surge of
>this stuff after WWII, a mocking of the loser's culture, or was it with us
>from our immigrant heritage, only recently falling out of style?
>Gee, this isn't LBC at all, is it?
>
>Jay Donoghue
>72B-GT
>66 Mustang
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