Learn Hardcore German: Meine Freundin sagt, Humor sei wichtig, weil er unsere Gesellschaft offener macht und uns hilft, Freiheit zu genießen. - My friend says humor is important because it makes our society more open and helps us enjoy freedom.

Humor sei wichtig = “(she says) humor is important” in reported speech.
German often uses Konjunktiv I to show that this is someone else’s statement, not necessarily the speaker’s own opinion.

You could also say:

Meine Freundin sagt, dass Humor wichtig ist. (more common in everyday speech)

So:

sei = formal/neutral reported speech
ist = direct statement (or reported via dass without special marking)

What exactly is Konjunktiv I, and how is sei formed?

Konjunktiv I is the subjunctive for indirect (reported) speech in German.

For sein (to be), the relevant forms are:

ich sei
du seiest
er/sie/es sei
wir seien
ihr seiet
sie/Sie seien

So sei is the 3rd person singular Konjunktiv I of sein, matching Humor (he/it).

Why is Humor capitalized? Are all those capital letters just random?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, not just proper names.

In the sentence, these are nouns and therefore capitalized:

Freundin (friend / girlfriend)
Humor (humor)
Gesellschaft (society)
Freiheit (freedom)

This is a regular spelling rule, not emphasis.

Why is it weil er and not something like weil es after Humor?

The pronoun er refers back to Humor.

Humor is grammatically masculine in German: der Humor.
The masculine singular pronoun is er (“he/it”).

So weil er literally means “because he (humor) …”, but in English we naturally say “because it …”.

Why is it unsere Gesellschaft, not unserer Gesellschaft?

Gesellschaft here is a direct object of the verb macht (makes):

er macht unsere Gesellschaft offener
→ “it makes our society more open”

In German, the direct object is in the accusative case:

nominative: unsere Gesellschaft (subject)
accusative: unsere Gesellschaft (direct object)
dative: unserer Gesellschaft (to/for our society)

Since Gesellschaft is accusative here, we use unsere, not unserer.

What is going on with offener? Why not just offen?

Offener is the comparative form of offen (open):

offen = open
offener = more open

etwas offener machen means “to make something more open”, not just “to make it open”. The idea is that humor moves the society in the direction of greater openness, not from completely closed to open in one jump.

Why is the verb at the end after weil? The word order feels backwards.

Weil introduces a subordinate clause, and in German subordinate clauses the conjugated verb goes to the end:

Main clause: Humor ist wichtig.
Subordinate: weil Humor wichtig ist.

In your sentence, the entire part after weil is a subordinate clause:

weil er unsere Gesellschaft offener macht und uns hilft, Freiheit zu genießen.

Within that:

macht and hilft appear at the end of their respective parts of the clause because of weil.

Why is it uns hilft and not hilft uns?

In a subordinate clause with the verb at the end, the usual order is:

Conjunction (weil)
Subject / other elements
Objects (pronouns, nouns)
Conjugated verb at the end

So:

… weil er unsere Gesellschaft offener macht und uns hilft, Freiheit zu genießen.

The second part is logically:

(weil er) uns hilft, Freiheit zu genießen
(“because it helps us to enjoy freedom”)

In a main clause, you would usually say:

Er hilft uns, Freiheit zu genießen.

So the change mainly comes from it being part of a weil-clause.

Why is uns in the dative case here?

The verb helfen (to help) always takes the dative for the person being helped:

wem hilfst du? – “whom are you helping?” (dative)
Ich helfe dir. – “I help you.” (dative dir)

So:

er hilft uns
→ uns is the dative form of wir (“we”).

In the sentence:

… und uns hilft, Freiheit zu genießen.
→ “… and helps us to enjoy freedom.”

What is the structure Freiheit zu genießen? How does helfen work with zu + infinitive?

Freiheit zu genießen is a zu-infinitive phrase:

genießen = to enjoy
zu genießen = to enjoy (in infinitive construction)
Freiheit zu genießen = to enjoy freedom

The pattern here is:

jemandem helfen, etwas zu tun
→ to help someone to do something

So:

uns hilft, Freiheit zu genießen
= “helps us to enjoy freedom.”

The zu must go immediately before the infinitive (genießen).

Why is there no article before Humor and Freiheit?

German often omits the article with abstract or uncountable nouns when speaking in a general sense:

Humor ist wichtig. – “Humor is important.” (humor in general)
Freiheit ist wichtig. – “Freedom is important.” (freedom in general)

In your sentence:

Humor sei wichtig – humor in general
Freiheit zu genießen – to enjoy freedom in general

If you added an article (die Freiheit zu genießen), it would sound more like a specific freedom (e.g., a particular set of freedoms) rather than the concept of freedom.

What does Gesellschaft mean exactly? Could it also mean “company”?

Gesellschaft has two main meanings:

society (social structure, community)
- unsere Gesellschaft = our society
company / the presence of people
- Ich genieße deine Gesellschaft. = I enjoy your company.

In your sentence, unsere Gesellschaft clearly means our society, not “our company” in the business sense.

Does meine Freundin mean “my girlfriend” or just “my (female) friend”?

Freundin literally means female friend, but in everyday use:

meine Freundin usually means my girlfriend (romantic partner).
If someone wants to avoid that implication, they often say eine Freundin von mir (“a female friend of mine”).

So context decides, but without more information, many speakers will first think “girlfriend” when they see meine Freundin.