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Germany Hates Tina Fey
Apparently Tina Fey’s jokes fall flat in Germany. Her Emmy-winning show 30 Rock premiered to a disastrous 0.0 rating in the country Sunday night. Fewer than 5,000 viewers were interested in watching her hapless alter-ego Liz Lemon verbally spar with Alec Baldwin’s network exec, Jack Donaghy. And the unexpected bomb wasn’t for lack of promotion, either. ZDFNeo, the channel that aired the comedy, positioned the show as the “flagship in its new relaunch,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. 30 Rock is, of course, faring better stateside, though ratings have fallen in the show’s fourth season: The show’s premiere last month was down 27 percent in the adult demographic from the previous year, reported the trade.
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NewyorkerR
well she is a jerk. i will have to agree with the Germans on this one
Plantagenet
Tina Fey is a comedic genius. Her portrayal of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" was hilarious, and probably helped influence the election.
If "30 rock" ever goes off the air, Tina could be a hit with a comedy show where she just did Sarah Palin impersonations for the whole 30 minutes.
slmpirate
I dont know what is going on today plant..But this is the third post in which I have agreed with you.....
nb-moe
And it's my second! LoL. WTF!
Butterpantz
I'd be ecstatic to know Germans didn't find me funny. It proves that I, in fact would be hilarious anywhere else in the world.
Granite
I used to live in Germany and they do have a sense of humor. But 30 Rock is so subtly sarcastic that it would be really difficult to get it unless English was your mother tongue. I doubt it translates well.
Tschau!
Honchos
Granite's right. The more complex the humor, the worse it translates. Hence Jim Carey and Mr. Bean are huge worldwide but something like 30 Rock requires a lot of knowledge of American pop culture. Heck, we have a lot of similarities with the UK but the nuances of British humo(u)r would be lost on a lot of Americans.
Besides, 30 Rock has been on, what, three years and the internet exists. I bet every German who wants to see 30 Rock, already has, and is watching the new episodes a day or so after us.
seemoreglass
I never saw her SNL material, but I have recently seen a few of the 30Rock episodes... and they were funny. I will watch it again.
Calling Tina Fay a "jerk" does not make sense... she can write, perform and market her material...and that is indicative of a smart individual.
The source article says the Germans did not watch 30Rock, or any of the other shows on the new channel ZDFNeo. Perhaps they were just not interested in watching foreign TV programing that dose not have Hasselhoff in the cast.
timmyboy
just another actress.... only claim to fame is parroting Palin, who actually does have talent.....other than that, just another ordinary TV personality..
kscr14
Can someone translate 30 Rock better for the Germans. Tina is the best comedian since Lucy and Gilda.We owe it to our German friends to help them appreciate this woman.
sophia5
That's hard to believe.
Cold, Uptight, Stoic, Germans don't find Tina funny ?
prufrock
Germans love David Hasslehoff. Enough said.
TrafficCone
I don't think 5,000 on ZDFNeo says anything about the shows popularity. We are talking about a recently revamped very small channel that airs mainly reruns and that most Germans don't even know exists! The fact that the majority of jokes probably didn't survive the dubbing process won't help much either.
WestVillager
Please let this fact make its way into the show. Maybe Lemon's book will get published in German, then Jack can send her to promote it -- along with microwaves or wigs.
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