Read on Twitter
Today across Europe people will settle down to watch a classic British short comedy film that hardly anyone in the UK actually knows about. It's called 'Dinner For One'.
It's a simple premise - butler has to act out the role of each of the four dead guests at an old lady's birthday party, and gets progressively drunker as the evening goes on - but it works. It's not *especially* funny but it is considered a classic.
It's known for butler James repeatedly asking elderly Miss Sophie "same procedure as last year?" to which she replies "same procedure as every year", which has become a well-known phrase often used to refer to New Year itself, as well as the showing of 'Dinner for One'.
Ironically for a short so very well known in Germany, Freddie Frinton hated Germany and the Germans, he even had the German admiral character he had to play do his toasts in Swedish instead to avoid speaking German. They don't care though, he's loved over there.
Freddie Frinton was also lifelong teetotal, which makes him being known for being extremely drunk in this sketch even funnier. And while his family have denied how the sketch ends...they are totally going to ride each other raw, c'mon.
Even the showing of 'Dinner For One' on New Year's Eve is wrong - it comes from a misunderstanding of the toast 'Happy New Year' which is being used for Sophie's birthday rather than implying the sketch happens on December 31st.
Generally, Germans (and Scandinavians, where this is also shown on national television every year) assume that 'Dinner for One' is a thing in (its native) UK too and are confused when their 'same procedure as every year' comments get blank looks from Brits.
How do you manage to create an international superhit everywhere but the intended audience it was originally written for???
