i like historical irony.
there's a bunch of new VW commercials and the key element is the spokesman. which isn't a man at all, it's a 68 VW bug with a man's voice. i know you've seen the ads and i know you thought they were cute. who hasn't. but, that voice.... close your eyes when you hear it and what do you see? (assuming we're still in time here and you haven't permanently linked that black VW with it.) really? you do? you see a typical german? someone who could pass for colonel klink with those sharp, precise T and K consonant sounds that he had? the clockworks cadence? hmmm. or do you see someone else in that accent with heavy, nasal Gs and a particular sing-songyness that leaves you waiting for an "oy vey"...
yeah, i didn't think so. it's not a "german" german accent. i don't mean to seem discriminatory, but to me, it sounds like a jewish person. at least, the last few times i've heard this accent-as-stereotype, it was used to depict jewish immigrants in the US. someone who had to escape germany around the middle of the last century. one who yes, did live in germany and was a german, and who spoke german perhaps as an outward extension of an more private language. one who extended the extension and learned english as a necessity when he left germany... to get away from misery, persecution, and death in prison camps. camps that were invented and run by adolf hitler as technological advances to benefit the german people. people who would also benefit from another of his inventions ("his" invention by association only, probably--but still). that invention being, of course, the people's wagon, the volks wagen. the VW bug.
(my apologies if i unwittingly insult anyone here. my intent is to ponder if these commercials can be seen as insulting to jews or history.)
