An event five years in the making...

Way back when I was in junior high, (don't worry, this will lead up to Hell Froze Over's new episodes eventually) I had to choose which language I wanted to study. And being a concerned, somewhat-more-aware-of-the-world-than-most-of-my-peers citizen of Southern California, the language I decided to pursue study of was:

German.

I know, right?! There are SO many Germans cruising around Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County, I just HAD to study it so I could talk with my neighbors and my new friends on the street.

Okay, so I probably should have studied Spanish. I actually know a little Spanish now (being a citizen of Southern California, I pretty much HAVE to). But I loved German. I loved everything about the German language, its Romantic roots, its Grimm fairy tales, the country, the food, the people... and I ended up studying the German language for five years, from seventh grade through my junior year of high school. I've even been to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and that little country of awesomeness, Liechtenstein. (::fist bumps Liechtenstein::)

As I studied hard for my German finals and debated whether or not to take the German AP test, my mind would occasionally wander to the usefulness of the language in Southern California. Where I would speak it? And with whom? I didn't even know if there was a Little Germany in Los Angeles. (There isn't -- but there is one in New York!)

Then I studied Latin for two years, graduated from high school and college, picked up a little bit of French, Spanish, and sign language here and there (I am also fluent in Random), and stopped wondering so much if I'd ever find a place in the world where I could truly get back into learning and speaking German.

Until.

As it turns out, Hell Froze Over? Yeah. We're big in Germany. And yes, so is Alf and Jerry Lewis, but you do NOT get to mock. Because Germany rocks. Ask any backpacker who has traveled across Europe -- ask him or her where he or she found the friendliest people. Nine out of ten people will say Germany, and the tenth person might say Ireland. Fine. Let Ireland take the tenth person. I don't even care. Because nine other people will have found that Germans are the nicest, friendliest, and most helpful of all the countries in the EU. So there.

So people in Germany are really liking us on the YouTube, and we've even got a lovely comment on our "Lesbian" episode, half in German, half in English. And guess who was able to translate? Yep. That's right. Go check it out.

Frau Strauss, my German teacher, would have been so proud. And then she would have yelled at me for being late again. And eating my pop tart during class.

Also, premiering today, is Hell Froze Over's sixth webisode, "Mystery Man." Again, this was one of the episodes we shot in New York, on a gorgeously grey rainy day, with another fantastically talented actor who plays the mysteriously normal Tony Tambler. Why did Jody reject him? Why wasn't it true love? Will she find it this time around? And how useful IS that new thing to do while you're sitting in traffic?

You'll have to watch the episode to find out -- but it's one of my favorites because the humor is subtle and low-key, the way I like my jokes. Oh, sure, out-there jokes are great and random, and Jody is the kind of girl to get locked into the trunk of a car or go on a date with her stalker, but sometimes we find ourselves in those quietly hilarious, all-too-real situations that I think are what makes comedy so genius.

Enjoy the episode and let me know what you think. And please, feel free to tell your German cousins how awesome we are. And how obsessed Jody is with hot dogs, which really is just a slightly smaller bratwurst.

Incidentally, "slightly smaller bratwurst" - that was totally my nickname in the German Club in high school. Weird.