In the past month, millions of people have found themselves stumbling through the contorted and catchy syllables of a song about, of all things, a woman named Barbara and some rhubarb-loving barbarians who drink beer while getting their beards barbered. Or more rightly: Rhabarberbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbier. Their silly ditty has more than 47 million views on TikTok; for a brief moment on some online streaming charts, Barbara beat out Beyoncé. “There is a prejudice that, first, Germans don’t have any sense of humor, and second, they do not have fun, and third, their language sounds very aggressive,” said Bodo Wartke, the rap’s lyricist who, along with Marti Fischer, the composer, created the viral “Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar” tune. They spoke on a recent day in their Berlin studio as they giggled and tripped over their own stanzas — which exploit a feature of German grammar that crams nouns together into strings of syllables.

Source: Indian Express June 01, 2024 14:23 UTC