There is increasing doubt about the behavior of Carlo Boszhard as a panelist in The Masked Singer. He acts so strangely hysterical with every revelation that it is almost inhuman. “It’s scripted.”
The RTL 4 show The Masked Singer has a funny surprise element: every episode the audience is surprised by celebrities who come out of a suit. And also the judges. It is logical that they respond enthusiastically and do not sit back in silence like a pair of salt bags. But you can also completely immerse yourself in the… overdrive to go…
Extremely surprised
Carlo Boszhard in particular always reacts very hysterically to such a celebrity revelation. He then sits in his chair as if he sees a Boeing landing in his backyard. Is this correct? Is this authentic? The presenter himself claims so, but at the same time he says he will pay attention to his reaction. There is quite a bit of criticism about it.
The increasingly influential media expert Victor Vlam suspects that something is not quite right here. “You really see panel members like Carlo Boszhard and Gerard Joling with their mouths wide open. The hands on the cheeks and those high raised eyebrows. They are extremely surprised every time. I was just wondering, do I believe this?”
Practiced in front of a mirror
Victor thinks it’s an act. “I have to be very honest, I think it’s a nice program, but I really don’t believe it at all. There’s nothing sincere about this. The reason why I don’t believe it is because the surprise really just seems very practiced, because emotions that are sincere are sometimes also a bit uncomfortable.”
Real emotions don’t always come out perfectly, says the screen Sherlock in his podcast The Communicados. “This emotion just seems to have been practiced in front of the mirror. It appears to have been created to be screenshotted and placed above articles about The Masked Singer.”
Format Bible
This extreme reaction is also reflected in foreign versions of The Masked Singer, according to Victor. “Then I think to myself: no guys, it’s probably just in the format bible. We cannot all agree with that. That’s a trade secret. But if that also happens abroad, you can almost be sure that it is part of the format.”
You see that on more TV shows, Victor explains. “On The Voice, for example. At one point – they didn’t do that in the first season, but they did later – the coaches started hovering their hands over the button before pressing it. Like: am I going to press or am I not going to press, you know. Yes, that makes it exciting.”
Unnatural
It’s just an instruction they receive, Victor says. Also on The Masked Singer. “Yes, they have to act hyper-surprised. (…) That emotion is heavily, heavily, heavily exaggerated. And I think indeed, I completely agree with that criticism: it could certainly be a little less. Guys, it could be a little more real.”
There should be more variation in the surprise, Victor advises. “If you are so terribly surprised every time, then yes, at a certain point it becomes a bit more of the same. That gets boring. (…) Sometimes you hold back. If you really have that surprise, people will feel it more.”