The Commissioner Drops a Banger

Günther Oettinger served as the EU’s Digital Commissioner—a position that, given his track record, suggests the selection process had some gaps. He became briefly infamous outside Brussels in 2016 for two things: delivering a keynote speech in English so badly mangled that witnesses couldn’t agree on what language it actually was, and separately getting caught on video referring to Asian negotiators with a racial slur. The second thing got him the most coverage. The first one got him remixed.

The Bohemian Browser Ballett, a German YouTube satire group, took Oettinger’s garbled oratory and built a club track around it. His pronunciation was, as one writeup put it, so incorrect that in the end nobody understands what he’s actually saying. Which turns out to be an excellent foundation for a beat. Confusion as rhythm. Incompetence as texture. They called him Yung Oettinger, and the name fits.

There’s a specific pleasure in this kind of political comedy—not the kind that explains why someone is bad, but the kind that just holds a microphone up to the absurdity and lets it run. Oettinger didn’t need to be torn apart. He just needed a hi-hat.