Isn't English the amalgamation of like 5 different languages and if everything were broken down like this, English would sound just as ridiculous?

I would argue that the correct translation of Zeug is more like "thing". Wagen would be "car" in the context of the cartoon. But then it wouldn't sound absurd and their lowball attempt at humor wouldn't work.

Me laughing at Germans for calling hospitals "sick houses".

Me realizing hospitals are called "hurty places" in my native language.

Because it took me way too long: Beender=Terminator

I'mma be honest, English has no business making fun of any other language. English is not a language, it's three languages standing on eachother's shoulders in a trenchcoat.

One Word you mentioned showed nicely what you missed here: Plain

Originally it was called an aeroplane. This could be translated with "flat thing in the air". Which is exactly as ridiculous as your other examples in German. The difference is that Germans don't mind complicated long words where English does so they just drop the part they don't like.

the thing about compound words is that they become a new word and people usually don't think about them by breaking them up so they don't sound ridiculous. if another language has a dedicated word for it, comparing them with the direct translation of the broken up compound word makes a funny comparison.

if you'd like to break up some English compound words to see how they might sound weird or basic in other languages here are some examples:

• arm chair
• arm pit
• blue print
• cup cake
• dead line
• eye lash
• fire fighter
• fire man
• fire works
• home sick
• horse shoe
• lip stick
• make up
• news paper
• pass word
• pine apple
• pot hole
• work place

Needs more hand shoes.

German is weird in more ways, namely word ordering

Sie dürfen nicht ein Feuerzeug mit ins Flugzeug nehmen

You're not allowed to a fire stuff with you in flight stuff bring

But all languages are weird. Here's some french for you

qu'est-ce que c'est?

I don't have the knowledge needed to translate this properly but it's something like "wh'is-at what that is" (its the way they say "what is that")

And Swedish, my native language

I eftermiddags åt jag jordgubbar. Nu ska jag äta middag.

This after middle day ate i soil old men. Now I'm going to eat middle day. (This afternoon I ate strawberrys. Now I'm going to eat dinner)

Given that Swedish is my native language I'd also like to inform you that the English word "smorgasbord" is completely ridiculous. It's literally just the Swedish word "smörgåsdsbord" but without å and ö, so it's pronounced completely wrong. The word smörgås is however also a bit weird, it literally means "butter goose". So your English word smorgasbord means "butter goose table". Also window means wind eye, it's the old Swedish word "vindöga"

Toy = Spielzeug = Play Stuff

English has “plaything”, which is kinda similar.

I've learned that

Hospital = Krankenhaus = Sick House

Ambulance = Krankenwagen = Sick Wagon

It actually makes sense.

English has “plaything”, which is kinda similar.

I like the art style!

I find medical terms are fun like that in their own right. A lot of them follow a similar structure with Greek/Latin pieces. Then others have fun origins depending on how we thought the body worked way back when

Witzig, sehr witzig

Theres one big difference between German and English. German allows you to just take multiple words and pack them into one word. This is a bug feature English does not have(or at least not to this extend). That's also the reason why its sometimes very hard to translate some gean words because you have to split them up and then translate them individually.

Childless but many of my friends have kids and seeing that top panel... Just... lol.

"this is a tool, not a toy"

How many times have I heard that said, or even said it myself, to children.

German... the Language of Love