The popular presenter says goodbye to the RTL annual review and forces a Nobel laureate in chemistry and himself to top athletic performances. The guest list with Bushido, Boris Becker and an egg topper is anything but mandatory.
From Simone Deckner
A review of the year in which the certain topic of the year hardly occurs – that has probably never happened in the 25 years in which “people, images, emotions” has been shown on RTL. Perhaps the editorial team wanted to give Günther Jauch and the viewers a break from Corona? Humanly understandable, but somehow weird.
So Jauch does not receive any virologists on his last review show, he does not speak to nurses or to people who have lost relatives in the pandemic. He can do it all, proven over many years. For more than two hours, however, the evil C-word is not spoken at all. After all, it is Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) who says something about the virus and how we deal with it: “Look, it’s really easy to vaccinate,” said Schäuble in his typically soft Schäuble singsang, “I am in favor of general compulsory vaccination . “
Schäuble stated several times that he wanted to “hold back on unsolicited advice”, but then handed it out against another guest who was previously with Günther Jauch: rapper Bushido. He’s currently on a big “I regret everything” tour and stopped in his new role as penitent in the studio: he is now a loving family man instead of gangster rappers spitting out misogynistic and homophobic texts. Bushido proudly explains that he always pays his taxes well. “Thunderstorm!” Jokes Jauch. “I hope that is also true,” remarked Schäuble, the man was a tax officer in his previous life.
Guest selection seems arbitrary
Unfortunately, much in this review of the year seemed just as arbitrary as Bushido’s invitation: Lukas Podolski snows in briefly for a chat. A man who, at the age of 12, had presented a bizarre egg-topping machine as a “Jugend forscht” participant, may say that he now works as a department head of a software company in the fashion industry and is not asked so often about his appearance at the time. Jauch ends the conversation with the words: “Better egg head than egg head!”
Boris Becker comes as a “living legend” (Jauch) and talks in detail about his heyday and about the fact that he considers Alexander Zverev to be his worthy successor. The 24-year-old tennis professional himself tells of his successful year, in which he won Olympic gold for Germany, despite “many Protestants in front of the stadium in Tokyo” and the fact that he “has spots on his body like an 80-year-old man”. To the delight of the Gossip group, Zverev also comments on his new girlfriend Sophia Thomalla. She “only wants to be with winners.” Jauch returns quick-witted: “It only works at the beginning, experience has shown that it wears out.”
Helpfulness unbroken
What has not worn out in 2021, thank God, is the willingness of the people to help. Jürgen Hoppe and his family barely escaped death in the flood of the century in the Ahr valley. His ten-year-old son said to him: “Dad, we’re going to die now!” He says. Thanks to the help of a neighbor, the rescue came at the last second. Others came spontaneously to help – and are still there to this day, like Anabel Seemann, who sells “Flutwein” so that the winemakers can get back on their feet.
Filmmaker Theresa Breuer chartered a plane on her own to save people from Afghanistan from the Taliban. To date, 1,000 people have been brought to safety through voluntary work. As impressive as the story of the lawyer Silla Akbari, who fled the Taliban with her two daughters. “The Taliban are lying, everything has gotten worse. It is enough just to have worked as a woman,” is how she describes the devastating situation in Afghanistan. Jauch: “Keep fighting!”
In between, a cell phone is always annoying. At the other end: Günther Jauch’s companions such as Barbara Schöneberger, Thomas Müller, Gregor Gysi (“Don’t film from below!”) And Thomas Gottschalk. “I used to be there as a person, now as an emotion,” says Thommy, who wears unusually short hair and walks into the studio with the phone in hand: “I’m available as a substitute, because I’m not sure whether you’re in this age can still withstand a three-and-a-half hour broadcast, “he whips out a swipe at Jauch.
He “never cared about the airtime,” explains Gottschalk to the 13-year-old ZDF school reporter Alexander. He became known in 2021 through his interview with AfD politician Tino Chrupalla. What was his favorite German poem? Alexander asked the man who had previously spoken out in favor of learning more German poems in class. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a single one … Also funny: Jauch promises himself at his introduction and describes Chrupalla as an “ARD politician”.
Head stand with the Nobel Laureate
The German Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Benjamin List, is extremely relaxed. “I thought I would get the award, if at all, as a grandpa,” he says. The director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr then shows in a spontaneous action that he is still far from old age. Jauch persuaded the yoga fan to do a headstand. List: But only if you take part! ”No sooner said than done.
It doesn’t get any better. Eko Fresh raps a little bit of goodbye, and Oliver Pocher equips the entire audience with Günther Jauch masks before the farewell approaches. “People, images, emotions” has always been the show “before which I was most excited”, admits Jauch – until the end, but: “I’m not out of the world, we’ll see you again!”
This review of the year, in large parts, was more of a thank you and a reminder of a quarter of a century of retrospectives with Günther Jauch as moderator. From this point of view, not using Corona still makes sense.