You have to know that the song is quite self-mocking. So it's pretty nonsensical to take it seriously ;) But I guess a lot of the humour gets lost in translation; the puns of course, but also the lyrics in general. For example, this one

      Nach Flut kommt die Ebbe, nach Ebbe die Flut
      Die Deiche, sie halten mal schlecht und mal gut

is hilariously playful and colloquial in German, while

      After flood comes the ebb, after ebb comes the flood,
      The dikes, they hold; sometimes bad, sometimes good.

sounds rather poetic and serious. Or take the image of "wandering dunes" wandering from Greenland to Belgium, over the Atlantic Ocean! And how this statement is slightly weakened by a laconic "Well, nearly" ^^ A joke doesn't really work when you explain it, but when you hear it and instantly know how it is meant, it is quite funny. And by the way, don't underestimate its regional popularity just because the rest of Germany may not be familiar with it. This song is nothing less than the inoffical anthem of North Germany ;)