If you’re a semi-famous Hollywood TV actor and you want to raise your profile in Germany, you could ask your agent to book you on one of the country’s most popular talk shows. Even better: You can complain about that experience when you’re back in the United States. Last week, Will Arnett, who is only marginally known in Germany, was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” when the conversation turned to Arnett’s recent appearance on “Wetten Dass..?” The show, whose title translates more or less to “Wanna Bet,” is a uniquely German two-and-a-half-hour-long combination of talk show, variety show, and game show, broadcast live about six times a year.

Arnett told Kimmel that “Wetten Dass..?” was “the craziest TV show” he had ever seen. “They brought out 50 dogs,” he explained, “and I would motion to one of the dogs, they would throw a Frisbee, and the dog would catch it and bite it, and the people would have to guess which dog it was.” When Kimmel asked him what the show’s name meant, Arnett said “I think it means: What the fuck is happening?”

Arnett hit a nerve back in Germany, where the mediocrity of its TV—and “Wetten Dass..?” in particular—is currently a particular source of national insecurity. Whereas other European countries, like Denmark and France, have impressed international audiences with high-quality shows like “Borgen” and “The Returned,” TV in Germany remains dominated by talk shows, schlocky crime procedurals, mediocre miniseries, and, well, “Wetten Dass..?”—or as a New York Times headline from last year described it, “Stupid German Tricks.”

The day after the Kimmel appearance, most major German outlets had some coverage of Arnett’s remarks. “Will Arnett about Wetten Dass: ‘What the Fuck is Happening?,” announced Der Spiegel’s website. While some Germans took offense, many others shared his irritation. Some tweeted that Arnett’s comments “would be funny if they weren’t true,” or that it was time to rename the show “#whatthefuckishappening.” One Hamburg newspaper wondered whether it was time to create a support group for Hollywood stars who had been traumatized by the show.

There are plenty of scarred survivors to choose from. In 2012, Tom Hanks complained about having to wear cat ears on “Wetten Dass..?” while Markus Lanz, the host, jumped around in a potato sack. “In the United States if you are on a TV show that goes for four hours, everybody responsible for that show is fired the next day,” he said. Halle Berry supposedly once almost walked off the show after Lanz tried to get her to kiss a male guest (she later described the experience as feeling “lost in translation”). And YouTube boasts endless clips of Hollywood celebrities—from Paris Hilton to Kevin James—looking around the show’s set with a combination of boredom, confusion, and horror.