The Same Procedure As Every Year, James

There is a very funny thing about this.
And most people from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finnland and Southafrica know already EXACTLY what this is about
(But please don't google it, I will provide all the informations, links and more. Just read and amuse yourself :3)

Do you know those weird rituals where nobody knows, where it comes from, but everybody is still doing it?
Well, the germans (and other countries, that copied them) have a ritual, a tradition, that is so absurd and amazing, that it even came in the GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS.

Some facts:
Most british people will probably recognize the name Freddie Frinton, since he was a popular comedian around 1950, but germans don't know that name by heart.
Most germans will surely recognize the title "Dinner for One", but british people have maybe never heard of it.

"Dinner for One" is a short sketch, made by Freddie Frinton.
It was quite popular in Britain between 1953 and 1969 and a lot of british people loved the sketch. The rest of the world didn't know about it at that time.
The first time it appeared on german TV was in 1961, where it was a mediocre hit, due to the english language that most people didn't understand. In march 1963, the german director Dunkhase found the sketch again and asked Freddie Frinton and his female partner May Warden to make the sketch for the german channel NDR. Frinton didn't want to, since he disliked the germans for the second world war, which is supposedly the reason, why the sketch got the "Must I?"-question when arriving at Baron von Schneiders place (you will understand later, I give the link ^_^).
The sketch was AGAIN a mediocre hit and was only shown a few times.
UNTIL Henri Regnier, the manager of the entertainment section of NDR found the tape in the archive and put it in on for the evening before New Year as a filler. This happened nine years after that sketch had been taped.
For reasons beyond anyones knowledge, a great amount of people watched and liked the sketch, which resulted in it becoming a regular show for New Year. Other channels soon noticed, that the sketch was liked and also got a copy of the sketch. Even austria and switzerland got their own copies and started sending them.
The show was even digitally colored, but when this version was shown in the year 1999 and 2000, most watchers showed their displeasement with this by switching it off, resulting in the fact, that you still mainly see the old black and white version.

But where is the world record, you may ask?
Well, I already hinted it, but I make it clear now:
Every year, on New Year, 8 to 10 channels show this show, all at a different time (in theory, it is possible to just watch the sketch over and over again without any big break from 1pm of the 31th december till 1am of the 1st january).
Germany has a population of around 82,036 million people. AROUND half of these people watch the sketch at least once on New Year and this is going on for 40 years already (the sketch usually gets 43% of all viewers).
And - since many countries followed this weird tradtion (being Switzerland, Austria, Finnland, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Southafrica, Greenland, Estland, Australia, Denmark and Luxemburg), it became the most repeated show of all times.
In Germany alone, it had been send around 231 times, the record year had been 2003 where the sketch had been on air for 19 times in a row.

Ironically, in Britain, this tradition isn't excisting.
The journalists of the british newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" suggested sending it in Britain, too, since it is classic british humor, but the channels haven't reacted (yet), despite the fact that a lot of british people already watch it on Youtube and enjoy it greatly.

Some random facts:
Well, why did I put America there?
To be honest, I was thinking about France and America as candidates for Miss Sophie. France, since he could actually look like a woman. And America, because the main topic of the sketch is about getting drunk, which fits perfectly with the scene from Hetalia, where England got wasted in front of America.
BUT, to my big surprise, I didn't have to decide. I found out by surprise, that the role of Miss Sophie, May Warden, is 100% american. She came to Britain and became Frintons partner for his sketches, but she is originally american.
So America got the honor to wear the dress and amuse himself another time about a dead drunk England.
And he fits perfect with the role, because I could swear that Miss Sophie is laughing her ass off on the inside about her servants behaviour. And - for those shippers of UsUk - at the end is even a hint for sex (at least as far as I see it xD), so there is even a VERY abstract source of fangirl material here.

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And now, the one and only Dinner for One!
(It is the original version from 1963 and has a german introduction, where a announcer explains the rough dialogs for the non-english speaking viewers. To avoid this, just jump to 2:25 )