Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Peter Handke as Comedian

In an interview in Zeit Peter Handke says he's not funny when he wants to be and is sometimes funny when he doesn't mean to be.


He says he wrote one joke that nobody but he finds funny and that even worse, he always laughs aloud at his own joke, which no comedian should ever do.


Here's the joke, which I find quietly funny:


Also, es gibt doch das Gemälde von Caspar David Friedrich, zwei Männer in Betrachtung des Mondes, oder? Ich habe das Bild für mich neu gemalt. Ich sehe da einen Betrunkenen: einen Mann in Betrachtung von zwei Monden.


So, there's that painting by Caspar David Friedrich, two men contemplating the moon, you know it? I painted a new version. I see a drunk there: one man contemplating two moons.

1 comment:

SUMMA POLITICO said...

As we discussed, Scott, this joke comprises a Li Po moment, the poet who drowned in a puddle which reflected the moon. Handke fortunately merely sees two moons and probably howls like two wolves to them, or tries to. I have the entire interview, one of two with Handke and Luc Bondy who are making publicity for Handke's newest play THE SNOWS OF Aranjuez OF YESTERYEAR ["Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez"] on line at the Handke-Trivia Site
http://handke-trivia.blogspot.com/2012/05/handke-interview-re-france-sarkozy.html
I think a site called "flowerville" that also cares for Handke actually translated the whole interview.

Today there is a follow up with just Luc Bondy himself
http://www.kleinezeitung.at/nachrichten/kultur/3013399/wien-gehe-ich-wehmut.story
where I like his comment that he has been friends with the author since 1967 "Mit dem Autor sei er zwar seit 1967 "mit allen Höhen und Tiefen" befreundet, " [with all its heights and depths."!!! I can just imagine what they might have been like those depths, since Handke especially in those early days was quite a piece of work.