“Radically funny – the power of satire” – a documentary on Hessian television is devoted to this complex topic. First things first: satire is male-dominated.
Frankfurt – First of all on our own behalf. The fact that I, of all people, am writing a critique of a TV format that is intended to enlighten viewers about satire can sometimes seem a bit presumptuous. With a below-average successful book, a few unanswered letters to satirical magazines and a political career in a Titanic gag with an ethanol background that appears as a party, I have tried with less success to abseil into the scene of those whom I am now judging for you may. It is therefore easy to attribute envy, resentment or revenge to me as the motive for the following lines. I wish you a lot of joy.
The short series “Radically Funny – The Power of Satire”, which is now to be evaluated, runs in three episodes of around half an hour each on Thursdays on hr television. This arouses both curiosity and suspicion. Because the radio division hr1 of the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation names no one less (that would also be an achievement) than the Markus Lanz double Florian Schroeder, who at best lands a chance hit, as the in-house “chief satirist”.
To person
Dominic Harapat from Wetzlar is an author, production worker, local politician and Hessian state chairman of the party Die PARTEI. Due to his sleazy rhetoric and juvenile honesty, he is considered the perfect embodiment of the political grandchild trick, especially among older fellow citizens. Just a real professional.
This gives a bad idea, as “Schroeder’s Tuesday” has often pushed me over the threshold of fatigue in the past few years during my industrial contract work with its scraps of program, which make working with heavy equipment a life-threatening matter.
“Radically funny – the power of satire” (hr): Florian Schroeder ennobled as “chief satirist”.
Luckily, the opening word fell to the “humor Hulk Hogan” Martin Sonneborn, who with the sentence “Satire is self-defense” actually anticipated everything that was to be experienced in the following 29 minutes. Contrary to my fears and despite the participation of Florian Schroeder, the various verbal contributions are pleasingly well and competently presented, albeit often interrupted for the entertainment factor by longer sketches by the ÖRR’s own browser ballet or sometimes too long intermediate sequences.
The factual classifications by Martin Sonntag, the managing director of the Caricatura Gallery in Kassel, give a good impression of what satire is and the limits within which it moves. He is only surpassed by the all-encompassing former Titanic editor-in-chief Oliver Maria Schmitt, who, with his usual enormous eloquence, transports factual content with latent comedy that it is a real pleasure to listen to him.
“Radically Funny – The Power of Satire” (hr): Interplay of satire and despots
In the first episode, the show works on three main topics. Hardly surprisingly, the consideration of the relationship between religion and satire as a perennial issue of outrage plays a central role, even if Oliver Maria Schmitt, who has already been praised, knows how to report: “The church has become meaningless in public life, except for single men who are pedophiles want to operate.”
Another focus is the interplay of satire and despots. The spiral of escalation surrounding Turkish President Erdoğan, from the imprisonment of Deniz Yücel and a few rather mild gags to Jan Böhmermann’s diatribe and its consequences, is viewed as a case that is still unfinished.
And finally, the limits of satire are explored. One aspect here is the role of the much-criticized Austrian cabaret artist Lisa Eckhart in the satire, who apparently uses the sword of Damocles of anti-Semitism as an elementary part of the stage design. Although the expert council, which has its say, draws the conclusion that Eckhart is probably not an anti-Semite, it is again Oliver Maria Schmitt who states that she is “more excited about her than she is tend to give up one-dimensional programmes”.
Serdar Somuncu – Wearing a bulletproof vest to work
With Serdar Somuncu, another character who has been the subject of much public debate is part of the episode, but unlike Lisa Eckhart, not as a personality, but as a member of the ensemble interviewed. His short clips consistently seem like an explanation of what he actually does when he’s on stage and almost leave the impression of wanting to defend himself against the accusations leveled at him.
At the center of his argument is the audience’s necessary ability to abstract in order not to be intentionally misunderstood in the context of a role. In my opinion, Somuncu is often rightly criticized and it’s certainly debatable whether he has to say everything just because he’s legally allowed to say it. For this freedom, however, he has already gone to work in a bulletproof vest in the past, which few of us can certainly say.
“Radically funny – the power of satire” (hr): satire dominated by men – also in the documentation
Appropriately, the first of three parts also ends with excerpts from the music video “That’s all covered by art freedom” by Antilopen Gang member Danger Dan, who thus marks a worthy conclusion.
All in all, the first episode can be consumed very smoothly, which is certainly also due to the manageable duration of about a men’s cover. Speaking of men’s tableware: satire has always been male-dominated. Accordingly, one can certainly criticize that female voices such as Sarah Bosetti, Christina Schlag or Titanic columnist Ella Carina Werner are not placed a little more at the center of the documentary. In doing so, they give a good impression of the eternal questions “what is satire?” and “what is satire allowed to do?”, of course without providing a clear answer. Except perhaps in Bosetti’s words: “Satire is a contribution to the formation of public opinion. And that’s nice.” (Dominik Harapat)
