I have always suspected this of being a sweeping generalization and, like most sweeping generalizations, probably untrue. My very limited experience with the German race had not led me towards the belief that they were overwhelmingly humorous but then, as I have generally been discussing the wisdom teeth of chimpanzees or ingrowing toe-nails in elephants with a German zoo director, it is easy to see why humour has not crept into the conversation. But nevertheless, I felt that somewhere there must lurk a German with a sense of humour, in the same way that one always feels that somewhere there must lurk an English hotel that can produce good food. I felt that the fact that they were classed as humourless must have percolated through to them and added to their many complexes, but also that the younger German, horrified by this slander, might, by now, with his amazing technical skills, have manufactured a sense of humour. So I was quite prepared, should our paths cross, to deal with him (or, preferably, her) with the utmost tenderness and to assure him (or her) that I did not believe this foul calumny.
