“7 Zwerge” is Otto Waalkes’ cheeky love letter to the fairy-tale dwarfs and to silliness itself. Right from the opening “Schach!” (Check!), the German comedian sets up a playful game of contradictions: yes, dwarfs are small, yet in spirit they are huge. Waalkes fires off teasing clichés—“Zwerge sind so dumm wie Stroh” (dwarfs are as dumb as straw)—only to flip them with the proud refrain “Ein Zwerg ist größer als man glaubt” (a dwarf is bigger than you think). By borrowing Snow White, beards and all, he turns the storybook heroes into symbols of underestimated strength and irresistible charm.
The verses race through a tongue-twisting carousel of everyday objects and their obvious purposes—“Wasser ist zum Waschen da, Pudding ist zum Naschen da”—until the pattern itself becomes a joke. These rapid-fire lines mirror the way stereotypes get repeated without much thought, while the chorus reminds us that real worth lies beneath surface labels. In the end, the song celebrates community (“Ein Zwerg fühlt sich erst wohl zu siebt”) and pokes fun at prejudice with a grin, proving that humor can be both mischievous and surprisingly wise.