Two faces of German culture

I have to sit down. Take a deep breath.

Germany, one would think a cultured country, is hotly debating important topics such as a 100 question test [tagesspiegel.de] to be administered to foreigners daring to want to become German citizens. I haven't actually met a German who could answer all of the questions, but that is beside the point. This test is supposed to give you a good idea of what German culture is.

Then we have "Wo bist Du mein Sonnenlicht". Pomi posts links like this [spreeblick.com] to strange videos he finds on the net. He must spend all day surfing. Stuff like this does not swim on the top if the Internet. I hope. Anyway, Spreeblick was just commenting on a blog entry "The next big thing" [ntropie.de] which has a homemade music video by three young German-Turks. Their singing skills could be improved. The video could, with a lot of work, pass for Dogma. The choreography looks like it was designed by testersterone-choked teenagers (apparently, it was).

The video would be a great joke, if the German popular media industry had not descended like a plague of locusts. The boys suddenly are on TV. Bunte (a German bored-housewife rag) is writing about them. Record labels and handy ring tone companies are hunting them down. No self-respecting blog can do without a link to this (this blog included). This is popular culture in Germany today.

If they aren't already German citizens, I vote they be given honorary citizenship. Without having to take the test.