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Brit’s ‘quiet pint’ ends 800km away in Paris

When Luke Harding from Manchester went for a quiet pint with his mate, he only intended to go for "one drink", but he somehow woke up 800 km away in a toilet in Paris, after an epic night out that has taken the web by storm.

Published: 20 November 2013 13:00 CET
Brit's 'quiet pint' ends 800km away in Paris
“The next thing I know I’m in a toilet in Paris...and I thought 'Jesus Christ, what have I done?'" Photo: @Oliver_Kerr / Twitter/ Screengrab

It starts, like many a good story, with a quiet pint.

But 19-year-old Luke Harding could never have predicted that his “one drink” with a friend after work in Manchester last Saturday, would end at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and bring him overnight internet stardom.

One or two quiet ones turned into a foray to Tokyo Project nightclub in Oldham for sheet-metal worker Harding and his pal.

After what he told Manchester's Key 103 radio was a “bog standard night out” there, however, the intrepid traveller found himself “a bit bored” and looking for some more adventure.

Apparently forced to accept his fate, Harding got in a taxi and headed home at around 2.30 am.

SEE ALSO: Drunk French friends take llama on a late-night tram ride

It could have all ended as another damp squib of a Saturday night, if Harding hadn’t had his mobile phone switched on.

While in the taxi, he got an alert from an app that advertised cheap flights to Paris. Inspired, he ordered the cab driver to bring him to Manchester airport, told him he was a junior doctor on his way to a conference, and used his debit card to book a flight.

Doing his finest impression of a sober medic, Harding checked in for his 6am flight, tweeted a photo of the plane to his friends, and promptly fell asleep as soon as he got on board.

“The next thing I know I’m in a toilet in Paris, waking up to the sound of a Frenchman taking a crap in the cubicle next to me,” he told Key 103.

"I thought, 'Jesus Christ, what have I done?'"

With news of his drunken odyssey fast spreading throughout Oldham and beyond, and with a day to kill before his return flight on Sunday evening, the no doubt badly hungover young Englishman decided to at least see what the City of Light had to offer.

And so it was that a “bog standard” Saturday evening in Lancashire, ended with Harding sharing selfies in front of the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower, to the eternal amusement of his friends back home.

The story went viral in the following days, but the fallout has been mixed at best for Harding.

While he can revel in the thousands of messages of awe from his legions of new Twitter followers, the sheet metal-worker claims to have been fired by his employer, allegedly for spending too much time on the phone, talking to journalists.

In response to one of the many tweets hailing him as "an absolute hero" and calling for him to be given a knighthood, Harding replied: "My mum disagrees. Thinks I'm a pillock."

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COMEDY

Remembering the celebrated satirist ‘who taught Germans how to laugh’

In a country that was voted in 2011 the least funny in the world, being crowned Germany’s King of Comedy isn’t quite so impressive. But since his death in the same year, no German comedian has come close to dethroning the hilarious satirist and national treasure Loriot.

Published: 22 August 2018 10:29 CEST
Remembering the celebrated satirist 'who taught Germans how to laugh'
Loriot found humour in the absurdity of everyday life. Photo: DPA

Loriot died seven years ago on Wednesday. The Local looks back at some of his most memorable skits to understand what made the comedian Germany’s greatest.

Distinguishing himself as an razor-sharp satirist, Loriot perfectly captured Germans’ idiosyncrasies and penchant for order and formality. His keen observations penetrate German language and behaviour, not only teaching Germans “how to laugh,” as one of his obituaries read, but also how to laugh at themselves.  

Born Victor Christoph-Carl von Bülow in 1923, Loriot had the name of a 19th Century German count and the gentlemanly exterior and linguistic dexterity to go with it.

He first published cartoons, but gained his nickname and national fanbase as a writer and lead actor on the television series “Loriot,” where reclining on a Biedermeier sofa he presented his sketches and characters.

This series led to his hit comedy films Ödipussi, a pun on the Oedipus complex, as well as Pappa ante portas.

Loriot’s comedy revolves around miscommunications or “crumbled communication,” as he put it. Something misfires or becomes awkward, and the characters resort to linguistic formality in their attempt to find order within the spiraling disorder.

The Noodle

One of his best-known and funniest skits is, of course, the one about the noodles. In a restaurant, a gentleman attempts to confess his love to his girlfriend, Hildegard, unaware that he has directed her attention elsewhere.  

The romantic nature of this marriage proposal is undercut by its unnecessary formality. The man professes his love while addressing Hildegard with the formal you 'Sie.' The overall effect is cringe-worthy and hilarious for Hildegard and the audience. The wide-eyed expression of the talented actress and Loriot’s life-long partner in crime – Evelyn Hamann – makes it even funnier.

Naked in the Bathtub

In another episode, the audience meets two stout, middle-aged, nude men sharing a bathtub in a hotel. It seems that Dr. Klöbner has mistakenly entered Mr Müller-Lüdenscheidt’s private bathroom but refuses to leave — despite Mr Müller-Lüdenscheidt’s polite requests — until they settle a debate about the precise definition of bathing.

Once again there is a hilarious mismatch of language and behaviour. The bureaucratic formality of their language sharply contrasts to their physical intimacy. They might be fully exposed to each other, but they continue to address each other by their surnames.   

By mocking the ridiculousness of German social conventions, Loriot shows that Germans’ desperate yearning for complete order inevitably leads them to naked chaos.  

A Hard Egg

One final example of Loriot’s comedic genius is the cartoon about the egg. This skit like the other two is based on a scenario from everyday life. Sitting at the breakfast table, a married couple vent their frustrations by arguing over a boiled egg.

Much of Loriot’s humor plays on the tension between the genders, and especially between husband and wife. Famously, he said, “divorce is the correction of a tragic error.”

In this sketch, the wife’s insistence on the softness of the boiled egg takes an unexpected and humorous turn when her husband questions her “gut feeling.” They might be arguing about a trivial matter, but the miscommunication uncovers a repressed resentment.

Loriot’s legacy continues to live on in the German comedy world and his skits and films still play an important role in the country’s cultural consciousness, having inspired a new generation of German comedians like Stefan Lukschy, Bastian Pastewka, and Ralf Hausmann, the creator of the German adaption of The Office, known as Stromberg.

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