Cult show
«TV total» is back – and worse
Entertainer Sebastian Pufpaff is sitting in the studio after recording the first broadcast of the resumed ProSieben comedy show “TV total”. Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Like the Raab of the first years: the revival of the cult show “TV total” takes a model from the early phase of the original. Visually, fans hardly have to get used to it. But the humor is rough.
The ProSieben cult show “TV total” is back on the air – and Stefan Raab has found a very snappy successor in the comedian Sebastian Pufpaff.
With great nonchalance, Pufpaff moderated the first “TV total” edition on Wednesday evening since Raab said goodbye, after a break of around six years.
“” TV total “is finally back from the longest summer break you can imagine,” said the 45-year-old. “We haven’t been there since 2015 and everything went wild. Social media, television internet, fake news, alternative news. Now is the time. It is enough. We have to come back. And now we’re going to judge and punish for all the junk that’s out there. “
Comeback of the “nipple board”
In terms of presentation, production design and dramaturgy, the new “TV total” is a fairly exact copy of the TV classic that Stefan Raab invented in 1999. Music, trailer, show band, rolling desk and the so-called «nipple board», with a jingle always hiding behind the press studs: fans will find all of this 1: 1 in the new edition. It is more based on the early “TV total” years without a studio guest. Fans could hear many classic quotes from the Raab era.
In the future, the program will also focus critically on influencers, podcasts and other new media. At the start, however, Pufpaff focused on the second major revival of this month: Several times he drew “Wetten, dass ..?” through the cocoa and with a squeak from Michele Hunziker over a suggestive joke from Thomas Gottschalk laid the foundation for new joke tones at the push of a button. Stefan Raab works as a producer behind the scenes.
The humor seems to have become more aggressive
It is also noticeable that the humor seems to be more aggressive compared to the late original show. Pufpaff commented on Gottschalk’s hesitation in front of a map of Europe with the words: “When he was young, Germany had completely different borders.” The soundtrack from Florian Silbereisen’s appearance on the ARD program “Schlagerbooom” was packed by the “TV total” makers into excerpts from other films – including the black and white film of a speech by Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels.
ProSieben only officially announced the comeback last Monday. The new host Sebastian Pufpaff (“Pufpaff’s Happy Hour”) received the Grimme Prize for entertainment this year.