Comedian, actor and satirist Oliver Kalkofe welcomes a growing sensitivity in German humor. “When you look at the jokes that used to be aimed at gay people, at women, at minorities, you can see that there’s now a much different sensibility,” the 59-year-old told Stern magazine.
People who claim that nothing more can be said, the native of Lower Saxony replied in the interview: “That’s of course nonsense. In the past it was actually much more restrictive, because church and politics exerted far more pressure on the media, officially.”
“Calling someone the N-word today and then saying they’re a ‘freedom fighter and revolutionary against woke culture’ is total nonsense,” Kalkofe says. You’re allowed to say it, but “one thing should be clear: if you publicly talk shit or post it, you may also get a response from others. Your choice.”
Most of his work has aged well, Kalkofe says. But there is “a big chunk where I’d say, okay, it was a different time.” The comedian cites the “anarcho-brachial humor” in his radio show “Frühstyxradio” from the early 1990s as an example. In his TV program “Kalkofes Mattscheibe” he was also unconstrained in his mockery of everything. Yet the state of the world has changed. “We’re now living in a time when it’s more about fostering more respect for one another.”
Kalkofe will turn 60 this Friday, September 12. For his birthday he hopes that people will become a bit calmer and more thoughtful before they just start shouting. Because: “Thinking doesn’t hurt at all,” says the comedian.
