Wise Guys are a German A cappella group from Cologne, who were founded in 1990. Originally starting out as a student band, Wise Guys were formed by A-level graduates Daniel Dickopf, Edzard Hünecke, Marc Sahr, Christoph Tettinger and Clemens Tewinkel. While starting out with a Barbershop-esque style reminiscent of more traditionalist A cappella groups at the time, they soon came into their own with a more comedic style, featuring mostly self-written material in German performed in a pop-inspired way.
It was this focus on comedy that set Wise Guys apart from other A cappella groups at the time. Many of their songs are either parodies or at least comedic in nature. They were able to show however that they could write and perform some semi-serious material here and there and had some witty writing to back up their more comedic numbers.
Wise Guys split up in 2017, though most of the members went on to form a different group named Alte Bekannte ("Old Acquaintances" in German), while Eddi Hüneke went on as a solo artist.
Not to be confused with the film of the same name.
Discography:
- Dut-Dut-Duah! (1994)
- Haarige Zeiten (1996)
- Alles im grünen Bereich (1997)
- Skandal (1999)
- Ganz weit vorne (2001)
- Klartext (2003)
- Wo der Pfeffer wächst (2004)
- Radio (2006)
- Frei! (2008)
- Klassenfahrt (2010)
- Zwei Welten (2012) - Released both in A cappella and in a fully instrumentated version.
- Mein Herz macht bumm! (2013)
- Achterbahn (2014)
- Läuft bei euch (2015)
Members (founding members in bold):
- Daniel Dickopf - Baritone (1990-2017)
- Andrea Figallo - Bass (2012-2016)
- Edzard Hünecke - Baritone (1990-2017)
- Ferenc Husta - Bass (1995-2012)
- Nils Olfert - Tenor (2009-2017)
- Marc Sahr - Baritone (1990-2017)
- Björn Sterzenbach - Bass (2016-2017)
- Christoph Tettinger - Bass (1990-1995)
- Clemens Tewinkel - Tenor (1990-2008)
Wise Guys provide examples of:
- A cappella: One of the most notable examples in Germany, performing their songs entirely through singing and beatboxing (similar to US bands like Homefree).
- The Alcoholic: "Die Philosoffen" portrays many famous philosophers as this. By the end, the narrator himself is tempted to start drinking.
- Blatant Lies: In "Zur Lage der Nation", the narrator claims Mallorca used to be part of Germany, which is an obvious lie: Mallorca has been part of Spain for several decades, with the only "German" thing on the island being the notorious Ballerman-Festival. This is evidently part of the joke, since the narrator is trying to push a nationalist agenda.
- Break-Up Song:
- "Die Wahre Liebe" develops into this in its third verse, as the narrator and his lover become estranged from each other and are on the verge of divorce.
- "Nur für dich", where the protagonist lists all kinds of things he did for his girlfriend. In the end, he retaliates by insulting her and blowing a raspberry at her.
- Child Hater: The narrator from "Kinder". Subverted, since he admits he himself has children in the final chorus, making his criticisms of overly proud parents ring rather hypocritical.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Their live cover of "Baby (One More Time)" is translated into German. However, the translation is intentionally ''done wrong'' at a few points to make it sound like the narrator wants to get beat up by their lover.
- Cover Version:
- Haarige Zeiten features a Cover of "Goldfinger".
- "Radio" features a surprisingly straight-forward Cover of "Mad World"
- Double Entendre: The joke in "Ein Dickes Ding". A UFO (or something of that sort) lands in Cologne, where it is promptly tested by scientists and the like, who come to the conclusion that it isn't anything other than "a big thing".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As noted above, Dut-Dut-Duah! differs a lot from their later material in two ways: first, the album is comprised mainly of cover songs, with very few original numbers here and there. Second, the album's style is reminiscent of Barbershop quartets, in comparison to their later albums, which are more pop-adjacent. The pre-Dut-Dut-Duah! period of the band also counts, back when they were called Wise Guy Band! and their style was mostly Rock Music without A cappella.
- Ear Worm: "Ohrwurm" is sung out of the perspective of one."Hallo, Hallo / Ich bin dein Ohrwurm, dein Ohrwurm."
- Funny Animal: The titular character in "Buddy Biber", who tries to fight against a ranger over his dam.
- Gratuitous English: The titular line to "Deutsche Bahn", sung with a very thick German accent:"Thank you for travelling this Deutsche Bahn."
- Hidden Track: "Monica" on Wo der Pfeffer wächst, itself a cover of a song by fellow comedian Bodo Wartke.
- Mundane Made Awesome: "Chocolate Chip Cookies" is a smooth jazz song about, well, baking Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- Nostalgia Filter: Parodied in "Früher", which makes fun of the former Western Germaners affected by this trope.Es gab nur drei Programme im TV / Die war'n zwar ganz genau so schlecht wie heute / Doch es waren nicht so vielenote
- Propaganda Piece: The lyrics to "Zur Lage der Nation" read like this, parodying the paroles of German nationalists.
- Pun: The lyrics to "Das Sägewerk Bad Segeberg" are based entirely on one, being about a sawmill named after Bad Segeberg, a real-life town in Schleswig-Holstein.
- Retired Badass: Deconstructed in "Der letzte Martini", where James Bond, after his retirement, has effectively become a poor, washed-up has-been who has lost everything that made him Badass to begin with.
- Song Parody: "Schiller" is one of the Title Track to Thriller.
- Take That!:
- "Deutsche Bahn" is a satirical jab at the titular railway company, criticizing - among other things - their tendency for late arrival, their exaggerated prices and the amount of difficulties with train traffic they have.
- "Kaiser Franz" features a jab at the SPD, a left-wing social democratic party in Germany.
Es hat die Fee doch sehr gequält, / dass ihr der linke Flügel fehlt / Ich sprach: "Da geht's dir wie der SPD"note- "Zur Lage der Nation" is one toward German Hypernationalists, who want to close off German borders for whatever reason.
- Trrrilling Rrrs: In "Zur Lage der Nation", Daniel trills his r's while referring to Mallorca as a "Deutscher Ort" (German place), referencing the connotations xenophobic nationalism has in Germany.
- Wasteful Wishing: In "Kaiser Franz", the narrator helps a fairy by amputating her damaged wing, whereupon she asks him to make a wish. Said wish is turning into football player Franz Beckenbauer. She doesn't fulfill the wish.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "Hamlet" and "Romeo und Julia" are rapped summaries of the titular Shakespeare plays.