Angela de Jong suspects that Arjen Lubach used his ultra-long Christmas holiday – he left in mid-November and has only now returned – for a hair transplant. “In Turkey.”
It must feel almost surreal for Arjen Lubach: his salary at RTL is so high that the amount barely fits on his pay slip, but his viewing figures and his impact are lower than ever. It is almost inevitable that he will follow the Eva Jinek route: cash in really hard at RTL for a few years and then eagerly return to the public broadcaster.
Crest off
While it lasts, Arjen is enjoying it immensely, because he has just had another mega holiday – it was already Christmas for the satirist in mid-November and he only put the Christmas tree away again last weekend – and he can buy everything his heart desires. Including a trip to Turkey, Angela de Jong now suggests.
Arjen has returned to the screen with a very short haircut – his quiff is gone – and Angela finds that suspicious. “I think the most revolutionary thing is that his hair is gone. His quiff. He just forgot to change the logo, because he still has the quiff there, while I think it is very easy to adjust,” she says in the AD Media Podcast.
Cut off
Her colleague Marcus den Blanken also finds it suspicious. “It looks like it just got cut off.”
Manuel Venderbos, the host of the podcast, then mentions what his colleagues are alluding to: “Or has he been to Turkey?”
Angela: “Yes, I asked Mark that too. I literally asked: ‘Could he have been to Turkey?’”
Media journalist Dennis Jansen: “You mean for a hair transplant, right?”
Value judgment
Angela wouldn’t think it’s bad behavior on Arjen’s part. “Yes, it is not a value judgement, but I really wondered whether he might follow the example of his boss (Peter van der Vorst, ed.)…”
Manuel: “Yes, Istanbul.”
Manuel himself also had a hair transplant. “I still have the inlets. I did the top.”
Marcus: “It does mean something: what we remember most about Arjen Lubach is his hair.”
Not current
It is significant: Arjen is back and it is about his hair instead of the content. “The jokes were not completely topical,” says Manuel, normally a big fan of the TV satirist.
Marcus: “No, that’s right. If this had been the broadcast on Friday evening or Saturday morning, it would have been fine. It was not current.”
Angela: “Yes, or two or three weeks ago. Also about Trump. I thought: yes, then you have to make sure you are there if you want to make jokes about that. That you are not out for two months.”
‘Looked nice’
Manuel remains mild. “It looked nice, I say as chairman of the fan club.”
Marcus: “But that’s it. It’s well made and the jokes are still funny, but because he has so much talent, you expect more from him. That’s not there now.”
And Arjen’s trick of agitating against Dilan Yesilgöz’s billboards throughout the country? “I thought that was a bit too easy, like: let me just look for publicity, I’ll do it. I really think that’s a trick. That bothers me a bit.”
Manuel: “I think that comes from the promotion budget.”
Angela concludes: “I gave up at some point.”
