Thomas Gottschalk was accused of a few things after – and on social networks like “X” during – what was probably the very last “Wetten, dass ..?” broadcast (Saturday, November 25, 2023): He treated Shirin David condescendingly and made bad jokes or reacted too coldly to the Rolling Stones’ greeting. In any case, Jan Josef Liefers’ mediocre “I Got You Babe” performance could not be attributed to him.
The fact that slips of the tongue occur during live broadcasts is nothing new. The fact that Thommy announced his guest Matthias Schweighöfer incorrectly seemed to bother many viewers. There was a lot of malice online when the 71-year-old presenter described the upcoming Milli Vanilli biopic and the actor with the words “Matthias Schweinsteiger (actually it sounded more like: Schweigsteiger, but the network quickly agreed) as Frank Farian.” announced.
Gottschalk certainly already had his next guest in mind: 2014 soccer world champion Bastian Schweinsteiger, who brought his wife Ana Ivanovic with him. Hence the new name Schweigsteiger or Matthias Schweinsteiger – for the show titan, Bastian and Matthias may be difficult to tell apart. The name Bastian Schweighöfer is now also trending on “X”.
In any case, the soccer star found the faux pas quite funny. On “X” he has developed into a real gag machine and has not been able to get himself together since Saturday evening.
He captioned a post “The Schweinsteigers,” with his wife and actor friend next to him.
Ana Ivanovic also joins in on the joke and welcomes Schweighöfer into the family, as she posted on “X”.
And on Sunday the ex-footballer was still rolling with laughter. “This Matthias Schweinsteiger is supposed to be pretty good,” Basti quotes a ProSieben post that advertises a Schweighöfer program.
Judging by Thomas Gottschalk’s disillusioned final speech and the reasons for his withdrawal – no desire for woke culture and cancel culture and shitstorms – the Schweinsteiger gags almost express gentle teasing about an older gentleman who must feel like a dinosaur.