Ich ben ein Office

This article in Slate discusses the proliferation of Office-style comedies, not just in the U.S., but also in France and Germany.

The article brings up interesting things about the national character--stereotypes, if you will--of Germans, French, Americans, etc. He also relates a World War II anecdote about Danish border guards identifying imposters by requiring them to pronounce a particularly difficult Danish phrase.

That reminds me of a story in one of Stephen Ambrose's World War II books. German spies speaking fluent English dressed up as American soldiers, but were caught because the German forgers noticed that American ID cards said "Indentification" in bold letters at the top and they corrected the error...