No wonder they lost the war.
Come to think of it. I've never heard of any famous comedians from Germany even today.
Attempt to a serious answer.
European countries tend to have comedic sensibilities that are dark as fuck. Europeans also read books. European comedians therefore tend to be very cerebral by comparisson. Which arguably doesn't add to the fun.
Compare the American and British series "The Office". The American one is bland oatmeal that won't offend anyone. The British one is a life lesson delivered with a baseball bat to your stomach. American humour will most likely never touch anyone in any profound way, while European humour might.
But there's cultural reasons, and huge variety across Europe. Germans don't seem to have heard of the concept of irony. I'm not even being ironical now. True story. "I dropped zee baby into the meat grinder... ha ha ha ha". Non-Germans are constantly guessing if Germans are being sarcastic. But they never are. That has an effect on receiving comedic timing. We often just get confused by German humour. At least I do. So few European comedians work outside their home country.
French humour is often just vile verbal attacks on people. Because French people don't take jokes so seriously it's not a problem inside France. But doesn't translate well outside France. An example is Charly Hebdo. Very typical French humour.
