What does “Handfeger” (hand broom) mean in German?

This guessing game turns on two everyday objects: a Haarbürste (hairbrush) and a Handfeger — a small hand broom used for sweeping crumbs or dust into a dustpan. The second word breaks into Hand (“hand”) plus Feger, from the verb fegen (“to sweep”), so a Handfeger is literally a “hand-sweeper” — small enough to hold, built to do exactly what its name says.

Fegen shows up elsewhere in everyday German: der Besen is the bigger, standing broom, while fegen itself is what you do with either — den Boden fegen, “to sweep the floor.” The comedy in this clip comes from a child insisting a Handfeger looks and sounds exactly like a hairbrush, which, brand name and bristle count aside, it really doesn’t.