Also, one of the German boys stole a load of candy floss from a little kid by ripping it out of the boy's hand and shoving it in his mouth, which was as shocking as it was funny. Ever since that day, I've harboured a certain respect for the German sense of humour.
Apropos nothing, here are ten German print ads for the Atari 2600, which display that unique humour in all its glory.
On New Year's Eve, Bavarians believe, every child is visited in their sleep by Die Nacht Känguru - who slips a "luck mollusc" into their mouths; the child's fortunes over the coming year will depend entirely on whether the kangaroo has deployed a good luck mollusc, or a bad luck mollusc.
In this picture we see the father is birthing a younger version of himself, which represents an externalisation of his Freudian id - his pleasure centres are literally leaving his body. His son (left) has dressed for battle, taking on the mantle of the family protector in the wake of his father's fear-induced paralysis. This personifies his imminent ascension to manhood.
The mother (right) has her hands bound, which is a metaphorical depiction of how she too is imprisoned by her own primal fears.
It might seem strange to us, but most Germans would find this tableaux howlingly funny.
The roles of the two workmen are played respectively by German quiz show host Rollo Benny, and the Hollywood actor John Travolta - a man to whom Germans display an almost pious worship. Indeed, you can see this here in the form of the two angelic women fawning over him, making crude and - as we now know - futile sexual overtures.
In a desperate bid for their attention, Rollo Benny is performing his trademark squawk - a noise he has deployed throughout his career in lieu of anything resembling recognisable comedic material. Most Germans are prepared to forgive this, because it really is a very funny noise.
The irony of this is that the more he fears his exclusion from the group, the more he over-compensates with whimsy and clownish behaviour, rendering him ever more unlikeable. That may seem a rather tragic set of circumstances to us, but Germans find it hysterical.
During a 2011 poll, Germans were asked what their favourite joke was, and they voted overwhelmingly for "That one where the boy fears his exclusion from the screaming group, but the more he over compensates with whimsy and clownish behaviour, the more unlikeable he becomes".
Second in the poll was a joke about a chicken not understanding the principles of inertia.
This has long been a traditional German comedic set-up, pre-dating even the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon is said to have once laughed so hard at the thought of the scenario that he fell off his stool!
This undercutting of the more traditional scenario is a precursor to the rise of German alternative comedy in the late-1980s, most of which involved pensioner women being unlucky in love, and freaks.
The elements of this scenario are sufficient to cause such amusement in a German as to make them literally vomit up their sternums with mirth.
Here we see him (right) at the 1980s peak of his German popularity - around the time he was given the keys to the city of Berlin, when the country's then-chancellor, Helmut Kohl, declared Richie's birthday a national holiday.
Richie would not need to do anything to make a German laugh - he'd just need to turn up (as seen in this photograph). Sadly for his career, this rarely worked in his native Britain, where most people merely tolerate him.