The land that gave us the concept of schadenfreude is seeing its stand-up comedy business slowly take wing -- with the help of some training.

For some reason, I can image Mike Myer's "Dieter" character from his SNL days barking: "Your one-liners have become tiresome!" :)

An excerpt from the BBC story:

A class full of students in Berlin bang their fists on the table - a sign of appreciation for a sketch that one of them has just performed.

But after the joke comes the analysis; an earnest discussion about whether the sketch was funny or not.

For the students here, comedy is a serious matter.