In German humour, Manta jokes () is a

joke cycle A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...

about the ''Mantafahrer'' ("Manta driver"), the male owner of an

Opel Manta The Opel Manta is a rear-wheel-drive sports coupé built by German manufacturer Opel in two generations from 1970 to 1988. The Manta was a mildly sporting coupé based on the Opel Ascona, Ascona family car, competing with cars such as the Ford C ...

. His name is usually Manni (short for Manfred), who is an aggressive driver, lower class (typically from the Ruhrpott), macho, of lower intelligence, and infatuated with both his car and his blonde hairdresser girlfriend. A ''Mantafahrer'' drives with his elbow sticking out of the window, therefore the drivers side door is always rusty from the underarm sweat. His car is always lowered, tuned and decorated with a foxtail on the aerial and a " Kenwood" sticker on the rear window. The Manta owners also have a rivalry with Volkswagen Golf GTi owners ("''Golfkrieg''", which in German also means "

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

"), often racing them. His education level is generally at most limited to

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

, where he may have had to repeat several classes, and he likes to use interjections "Ey" and "Boah". When speaking to women, he shows extremely direct flirting behaviour ("Ey, ficken?"). Jokes poke fun at a stereotype of the working class owner of a second-tier

muscle car A muscle car is an American-made two-door sports coupe with a powerful engine, marketed for its performance. In 1949, General Motors introduced its 88 with the company's OHV Rocket V8 engine, which was previously available only in its lux ...

, typified by the Manta.''Breakdown, Breakup, Breakthrough: Germany's Difficult Passage to Modernity'', 1999,
pp.172-173
/ref> Mantas were targeted at buyers who yearned for a

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

but could not afford a status car such as a

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

or Mercedes. Proud Manta owners often decorated them with chrome,

racing stripe Racing stripes, also called 24 Hours of Le Mans, Le Mans stripes or Rallying, rally stripes, were originally applied to racecars to help identify them in the field during races. The term "racing stripe" is also used to refer to diagonal lines pai ...

s, alloy wheels, racing tyres, or high beams to mimic the exclusiveness of

race car Race, RACE or The Race may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

s.''That was the Wild East: Film Culture, Unification, and the "new" Germany''
p. 167
/ref>''Metonymy in Language and Thought'', 1999,
p. 325
/ref> The popularity of such jokes spawned two successful comedy films in 1991 - ' and '' Manta, Manta'', the latter starring

Til Schweiger Tilman Valentin Schweiger (; born 19 December 1963) is a German actor and filmmaker. He became known in the 1990s for films such as '' Manta, Manta'', '' Der bewegte Mann'' and '' Knockin' on Heaven's Door''. He went on to star in international ...

as a ''Mantafahrer''. Also, in the 2 March 1991 episode of Wetten, dass..?, in a bet in the studio, ten Manta drivers showed up to the studio, all of them named Manni and had a partner who worked as a hairdresser. At the end of 1990s, oil company DEA had an advertising campaign where a stereotypical Manta driver named Ingo pulls up at a filling station, and is told "''Super, Ingo''" by everyone. He mistakes them for compliments, but realizes that it was actually meant as a warning not to fill up his car with diesel, but with ''Super'' petrol (in Germany, 91 octane petrol is named ''Normal'', 95 ''Super'' and 98 ''Super Plus''). Example jokes are: *''What was left after a fatal Manta accident? - A gold chain and a hairdresser in mourning. - And why was the funeral held on Monday? - Because that's the hairdresser's day off.'' *''What is the shortest Manta joke ever? - Ein Manta steht vor der Uni (A Manta parked in front of a university).'' *''What does a Manta driver say after crashing into a tree? – Komisch--hab doch gehupt! ("That's strange -- I honked!")''''Adorno-Ampel und Schwebebahnelefant: 222 kleine Verkehrsanekdoten zu allem, was uns bewegt'', 2010,
p. 7
/ref>

References

{{reflist German humour Joke cycles

See also

References