Me pegó el alemán

[Glen]

What a strange expression, but Mexican friends tell me it's a way of saying I forgot (something). Has anyone else heard it?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

They mean Alzheimer's disease.

It's nothing to laugh about if you think it seriously, but it's a way of trivializing the main trait of the illness, that is losing short-term memory.

[Glen]

Oh, so you've heard it too then? Thanks for the reference, and now I'll know to be careful about who I say it around!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Mexicans are believed to make jokes out of almost everything (death, catastrophes, illnesses...), and this "alemán" thing is a very common joke. So, although I guess many people who know or have at home patients with Alzheimer's disease wouldn't be amused, there will be many others who will just laugh about it.


Edit: People who joke about this are obviously not attacked (yet) by the disease... they just laugh about forgetting things.

[poli]

Sometimes victims and their family develop what English speakers call gallows humor. Although it may seem impious, they shouldn't be denied using it. It took me awhile to figure out why el alemán refers to Alzheimer's. Dr. Alzheimer is the German I assume.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I doubt most people know that the name of the disease is that of the man who studied it... if Dr. Alzheimer would have been Austrian or Swiss, they would still say "alemán", because that's how it sounds.

[poli]

No solamente en México, ocurren esas generalidades. En el Peru el apodo de Fujimori es el chino.. En EEUU los Pennsylvania Dutch son de origen
alemán.