Why is “überleben” (to survive) the trick in this German riddle?

A plane crashes exactly on the Germany–Austria border, and the riddle asks: where are the Überlebenden (survivors) buried? The punchline is built into the word itself — überleben means “to survive,” literally “to live over/beyond” something, so Überlebende are, by definition, still alive. You can’t bury people who lived through the crash; only wer nicht überlebt hat (whoever didn’t survive) needs burying.

The prefix über- (“over, beyond”) turns leben (to live) into überleben (to survive, outlive), the same way it turns setzen (to set) into übersetzen (to translate/ferry across) or nehmen (to take) into übernehmen (to take over). Once you catch that überleben literally means “living past” something, the riddle answers itself — which is exactly the joke this clip plays on its confused listener.