On Sunday, another 70-year-old said goodbye to a program, one of whom we have yet to see if he keeps his word. The ‘I cut’ by Johan Derksen (73) lasted for two weeks, curious when Paul Witteman (75) will make his comeback on television. He only just kept it dry with the last episode of Podium Witteman that he presented. And honestly, that was pretty cool.
The eight-year-old Frisian boy Floris deftly played a very nice joke of jazz with one hand, Mike Boddé hummed the melody next to him playing the piano and when it was finished Floris made a confident bow that turned into a tumble. Then a piece of Brahms was fired at Witteman, and countertenor Maarten Engeltjes fell from the music heaven to break Witteman’s resistance. Wet eyes, proud that in eight seasons he managed to get the viewer to listen to music for longer than the average one minute.
Also read: Paul Witteman: ‘I am convinced that classical music is extremely hip’
From old(er) men, the things that pass, over to the young(er) men with an opinion about media. And there are quite a few, especially on Sundays. Gijs Groenteman and Marcel van Roosmalen with Media InsideArjen Lubach did Sunday without Lubach on weekdays, and now that those programs have stopped, Roel Maalderink is back with sticky shotand Niels van der Laan and Jeroen Woe with Until here† The setting differs: a news desk (2x), a long table (1x), the couch at home (1). But the idea is more or less the same: saying funny things about what other people ‘in the media’ are doing or saying.
Roel Maalderink is the brave loner who goes out to elicit something from people. Sometimes on the street, collecting ‘vox dolls’ with one simple question: ‘What do you think of all those opinions on television?’ Most often heard answer: righteous. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make a point.
You just have to dare. Disguised as himself, Maalderink simply stands on the red carpet at the Boekenbal, greets every famous Dutch person in front of his camera as ‘the star of the evening’ and then consistently mixes up their names. Siegmund Kaag. Martin van Nieuwkerk. Peter Omtzigt. Sigrid corrects him amusedly, Matthijs taps him on the fingers with a laugh, but still a little displeased, Pieter meekly lets Peter’s gushing over him.
Is that funny? Well, maybe not thigh-slapping funny, but so awkward it makes you laugh. Cynical, but oh so nice, is the standard song with prefab lyrics that he wrote for pop star Bono. To be filled in by Bono yourself: type of disaster, country, number of deaths, clichés of your choice.
Niels van der Laan and Jeroen Woe do the opposite, they make new lyrics to well-known songs. To the tune of Kalush Orchestra, winners of the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday, they rap in two voices about Rutte, armored howitzers and ‘thanks for all the points and for congratulating, but it’s pointless because they can’t even organize it’.
A regular fixture in their show is ‘a very simple song about quite complicated subjects’, this time about Johan Derksen and why he will not/will/maybe will return on television. Then a duet between ex-lovers Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, played by Herman Finkers and Brigitte Kaandorp. Is it funny? Well, not as in: shaking bellies. The thought ‘well found’ suppresses the laughter.
Social criticism processed in music, current affairs translated into sketch and satire and captured in cynicism and irony. The joke is in sticky shot and Until here packaged slightly differently, but the packaged opinion is the same (about Putin, Rutte, Derksen, asylum seekers). After Gijs, Marcel and Arjen, we now look at Niels, Jeroen and Roel. And they will all be back next season, guaranteed.