Recommendations of the Editorial team
From the RS archives 2020.
The former King Of Late Night, Harald Schmidt, criticizes Jan Böhmermann. “I knew early on that Böhmermann would never make it as a presenter – but I also knew that he would go very far as a riot box,” said Schmidt in a video conversation with the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”.
Boom! What a statement. Böhmermann, who says he has been desperately trying to get on ZDF’s main program for years, is just a clown with nonsense in his head and internet jokes on his screen. But there is no presenter who can accompany the television viewers while they doze off in front of the television. A rascal with no artistic backbone.
Schmidt therefore also believes that ZDF is not really happy with the satirist: “I think they would like to get rid of him there,” he told the paper. “On ZDF you’ll vomit when you see the trouble it brings.”
Jan Böhmermann was supported by Harald Schmidt
In previous interviews, the “Dream Ship” actor, who has otherwise completely withdrawn from the TV business, was not very enthusiastic about Böhmermann’s attempts to draw attention to himself with anarchist, politically intended pranks. Most recently, the “Neo Magazin Royale” moderator indicated that he knew about the Ibiza video that cost the Austrian Vice Chancellor his office.
The two comedians have known each other for years. From 2009 to 2012, as a young punchline, Böhmermann found a forum for his razor-sharp everyday observations in Schmidt’s late-night show, first on ARD and later on Sat1. He has emphasized his admiration for Schmidt several times in the past, but now he is no longer comfortable with comparisons. Since 2015, Böhmermann has been causing a sensation with the “Neo Magazine Royale”, winning several important television awards and even almost causing a state affair between Germany and Turkey with his insulting poem about Erdogan.
What does Harald Schmidt aim at with his criticism?
So does the caustic criticism of Böhmermann’s comedy style reflect the foster father’s disappointment in the disrespectful son? Fans of the ZDFNeo presenter will dismiss the provocation with a smile. Ultimately, Schmidt repeatedly emphasizes that he has consciously turned away from television these days and is somehow disappointed with the development of the medium. Or to put it another way, according to Böhmermann’s interpretation: Schmidt simply no longer has any street credibility.
But the only late night talker in this country who was able to do something with the US-based format and shaped it on his own terms for years also points out something that is often neglected when it comes to Jan Böhmermann. With its actions, some of which are even privately organized (keyword: Reconquista Internet), it goes far beyond what satire should achieve. Ultimately, their framework ends exactly where reflection becomes a concrete call to action.
