The breakfast egg

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The breakfast egg , sometimes also called the egg , is a sketch by the German satirist and comedian Loriot . The animated short film (duration: approx. 2 min. 15 sec.) Takes up the problem of “talking past each other” between men and women, and thus the mutual relationship between male and female language, using a banal and everyday incident between married couples Grain. The sketch was first broadcast on May 16, 1977 as part of the LORIOT III program on Radio Bremen .

action

The protagonists , the married couple Hermann (name not mentioned in this sketch) and Berta, who also appear in other Loriot sketches, sit together at the breakfast table. The man complains twice with the tone of the accusation about an over-boiled breakfast egg with the words "The egg is hard!", To which his wife responded in a sullen tone with the sentence "I heard it". When asked how long the egg has cooked, a dialogue develops that reveals the inability of both men and women to find a common horizon for discussion. While the man remains attached to analytical thinking, the woman acts with the feeling of not being understood primarily on the emotional level, without explicitly formulating her feelings. The end of the conversation makes the understanding gap that has existed from the beginning appear unbridgeable. Berta's last sentence is the categorical statement “God, what are primitive men!”, While Hermann murmurs gloomily: “I'll kill you ... tomorrow I'll kill you!”.

The table talk is accompanied by the musical accompaniment of the first waltz theme of the Stories from the Vienna Woods by Johann Strauss .

reception

The sketch gained general popularity and is still present in various areas: It is used in schools and during studies as example and exercise material for dialogue and communication analysis. The Leipzig linguist Ulla Fix has dedicated a text and style analysis to him under the aspect of communicative ethics and Grice's communication maxims. In 1999, the Hamburg linguist Rainer von Kügelgen presented an analysis and interpretation with a focus on the rhetorical tactics and strategies that are used in the scene.

Sayings from the sketch like at the beginning of the play “Berta! […] The egg is hard! ”Or Berta's final sentence are widely known and are now used like winged words .

At the beginning of 2011, Deutsche Post issued a postage stamp (welfare stamp 145 + 55 cents) with a scene from the cartoon. It is part of a series of further motifs from Loriot sketches.

Text output (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The text was first published in Loriot's dramatic works under the title The Egg . He also appeared under this title in People, Animals, Disasters . In the announcement of the sketch in Loriot III , however, Loriot names The Breakfast Egg as the title. This is also used, for example, in the books Das Frühstücksei and Gesammelte Prosa as well as Loriot's DVD complete edition. The official Loriot website also mentions this title.
  2. ↑ After loriot.de , accessed on 18 September, 2010.
  3. ↑ See. For example, the presentation slides on slideshare.net or excerpt from a research paper on hausarbeiten.de (called both links on September 16, 2011)
  4. ↑ Ulla Fix: Text and style analysis under the aspect of communicative ethics. Dealing with Grice's conversational maxims in the dialogue 'The Egg' by Loriot. In: Ulla Fix: Texts and text types - linguistic and cultural phenomena . Frank & Timme, Berlin 2008, pp. 473-486 (first 1996)
  5. ^ Rainer von Kügelgen: Loriot's »Egg« - Eristik in felt slippers . In: Kristin Bühring, Yaron Matras (ed.): Language theory and linguistic action. Festschrift for Jochen Rehbein on his 60th birthday . Stauffenburg, Tübingen 1999, p. 171–185 ( achtungvorderschrift.de [PDF; 1,2 MB ]).