Harald Leno O'Brian Schmidt
The natives love to put down everything American. It's not always ill-willed, but they just can't stop (it's yet another Volkssport). They also can¦t stop blindly copying everything American. This is strange. And stranger yet is that they are not even always aware of the fact that they are doing so.
Take Harald Schmidt, for instance. Harald Schmidt is a popular late-night comedian with a show and a style that so closely resembles the Jay Leno-Conan O'Brian-David Letterman program(s) it is uncanny. Everything is stolen, of course, and Harald Schmidt would be the first to admit this - in private. But his viewers don't know this. How could they?
They think he's hilarious and original. He is neither, of course. And his humour is a bit too biting and personal for my taste, too. He makes the American late-night hosts look like boy scouts. Unfortunately, the natives have a tendency to laugh at people, not laugh with them.
So what's the punch line? I recently talked to some natives who had spent some time in the . The conversation went along smoothly enough until they started complaining about how all of the American late-night shows shamelessly copy Harald Schmidt's style.
