Karambolage is a

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

broadcast Sunday evenings at 6:55 p.m. in Germany and at 8:35 p.m. in France on the Franco-German television channel

arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

. Each episode is roughly 12 minutes long, and is usually broken up into three or four segments. The title is the German version of the French loan word carambolage, which means "carom" or "collision". As such, Karambolage aims to explore the differences, similarities, and overlaps of French and German culture through anecdotes, household objects that are common in one country, yet virtually unknown in the other, as well as brief, tongue-in-cheek lectures by etymologists,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

s, and the like. The anecdotal segments are often accompanied by simple, stylized animation. In recent years, the makers of the series have also included segments dedicated to the experiences of members of the larger immigrant populations of both countries; i.e. the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

in Germany and the West- and

North Africans North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

in France. At the end of each episode, viewers can participate in a sort of guessing game, in which a thirty second long video recording of a public place is shown. Participants are then asked to determine whether the shot was recorded in Germany or France based on the presence of a key detail, such as road signs or businesses unique to that country. Anyone who can determine the country and name the key detail can then mail the solution to arte by postcard or submit it on the station's website. From the correct solutions, ten winners are randomly pulled and receive a small prize.

External links

Karambolage
on the site of

2000s French television series 2010s French television series 2004 German television series debuts French-language television shows German-language television shows {{germany-tv-prog-stub

Further reading

External links