By fat-shaming Sarah Janneh, Gordon provides the opening news of RTL Boulevard, the most watched show section in our country. “He completely crossed the line.”
The celebrity show Ranking the Stars has been dealing in bad jokes since 2006, but almost twenty years after the start, many of the jokes from back then are no longer valid. And Gordon has now found that out too. He fat-shamed fellow candidate Sarah Janneh and that is now causing quite a controversy. Many people think it goes too far.
Over the line
According to Gordon, a plane cannot take off at all with Sarah in it, because according to him she is much too fat. “According to many viewers, he completely crosses the line when he fatshams fellow candidate Sarah Janneh,” says Eddy Zoëy last night in the opening of RTL Boulevard.
Rob Goossens, who was also in the relevant episode of Ranking the Stars, can comment on the joke at the desk. He says: “It was an answer to a question that we were really asked at the very last time, so just before you walk in. Then he made it so halfway that I thought: you’re not really going to do it, are you?
Let’s taste it
Luuk Ikink therefore concludes that Gordon made the joke with premeditation. “He had a taste of how it would fall?”
Rob: “Yes, he didn’t dare to make it at first, but he crossed out Lilian and made it anyway. Welcome to Ranking the Stars, I would almost say, and welcome to Gordon. His trademark is making jokes like this.”
Be funny
Eddy thinks there was also a lot of pressure on Gordon’s shoulders. “He also made four or five jokes that made me laugh. I made a season myself and I have the feeling that everyone feels pressure: I have to be funny at least once or twice, with the result that you sometimes cross that line.”
Rob: “Yes, actually I would say so. Gordon is just so strong and sharp in such a program, so he couldn’t have prepared that comment about Patty and that scheduled flight, because he didn’t know she was going to say this.”
Prepared
That does not apply to the joke about Sarah, according to Luuk. “He had apparently prepared this one and it doesn’t fall, because I think you also notice in the audience that everyone thinks: pff, I don’t think that’s a funny joke at all.”
Rob: “The audience doesn’t find it funny, we were all like: yes, Gordon, seriously, are you going to make this joke? The viewer at home doesn’t find it funny.”
Cut out
Eddy thinks it’s strange that RTL didn’t cut this out – after all, that’s how they always do it at Boulevard. “They could have cut it out, RTL, because it is not live, but they decide to do it anyway, like: who knows, maybe it will cause a riot?”
Rob: “Yes, it was so clear that there was disapproval from us, among others, that I understand: we are not going to cut straight away. They did ask Sarah how she was feeling. She didn’t think it was a very funny joke, but she said: ‘It’s okay if it stays in’, partly because the audience’s disapproval was so clear.”