Weekly Recommendation: Gute Nacht Österreich
Hey there!
Here’s your weekly German media recommendation from Monoglot Anxiety. This time, it's the (cancelled, but still good) late-night series Gute Nacht Österreich.
But first, a quick note from me:
Just a reminder — January is Austria month! So don't worry if you don't understand everything in these recommendations. Austrian German can be really different from the "Hochdeutsch" foreigners typically learn.
If you want to complain about (or perhaps, compliment) my recommendations, you can get in touch on Twitter @monoglotanxiety or by shooting an email to hello@monoglotanxiety.com. You can also get in touch, support the blog, or send a one-time donation from the Buy Me A Coffee page.
With that all out of the way, on to the recommendation...
Gute Nacht Österreich
Gute Nacht Österreich is as close as you'll get to an Austrian equivalent of Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show. I personally find Germany's ZDF Magazin Royale more entertaining than Gute Nacht Österreich (and actually prefer it over the US late night shows as well), but Gute Nacht Österreich taught me a lot and I'm thankful to have had a more lighthearted introduction to things like Austria's political systems and scandals, its domestic issues, and country-wide inside jokes. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled a little under a year ago — the last episode ran on January 29, 2021. It's slated to return soon, however! The first episode of the new Gute Nacht Österreich is slated to run on January 14th.
You can watch many episodes of Gute Nacht Österreich on YouTube.
What is Austria even doing over there, anyways?
Be honest: how much do you know about Austria? There's a lot more to the country than schnitzel, ski resorts, and classical music. Of course you won't become an Austria expert by watching a satire show — but it's a great way to turn some of the unknown unknowns into known unknowns. Watching Gute Nacht Österreich introduced me to Austria's political parties, a few of its most famous political and cultural figures, some of its inside jokes, its regions, and many other aspects of the country's society, culture, politics, and history that I wouldn't have even known I didn't know about before watching the show.
That's it for this week.
Elise from Monoglot Anxiety