Stefan over at germanimpressions.com has a list of ways to tease Germans. It reminded me of a story I like to tell to annoy Germans when I am confronted with the alledged lack of culture in the country of my birth.

I tell them about my senior year in high school when I spent a lot of time hanging out with foreign exchange students. They used to wax indignant about how little culture America has, the implication being that culture is a measure of how many dead novelists and composers a country has. Well, I was all very impressed with the depth and sincerity of European and Latin American culture. Then I came to Germany in 1988. What were the big songs on the radio? What were all these cultured Germans listening to? Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy (very German) and Klingeling, hier kommt der Eiermann (Very deep).

Certainly the taste of the masses should not be the final measure of "real" culture. That cuts both ways, of course.