TV review
Show with Sebastian Pufpaff
“The only show you have to watch” – “TV Total” is back
Comedian Sebastian Pufpaff sits in the backdrop of the comedy show “TV total”
© Willi Weber / ProSieben / DPA
First a rumor, then a rumor, in the end a fact – six years after saying goodbye, the former ProSieben cult format “TV Total” is back. The ace up your sleeve: Raab’s successor Sebastian Pufpaff. And a well-oiled nipple board.
From Ingo Scheel
But that is…? This corridor. This posture. The mischievous eyes. And above all: this charm. Unmistakable. Hello Again! Isn’t that Howard Carpendale ?! No, not the new presenter of “TV Total”, Alice’s ex-neighbor is now making motivational promos for vaccinations. Covid, Covid, what the fuck is Covid? In the middle of the fourth wave, you can now deploy the heaviest guns. Anyone who does not get vaccinated now has to watch all “match point” episodes as a punishment.
When the cuddly mumbler from Durban suddenly appears in the commercials, you’ve already had a good twenty minutes of “TV Total” revival – and the fact that you don’t zap at this point has less to do with “Ti Amo” than with Sebastian Pufpaff and his editorial team to do. “TV Total” ran for the last time in December 2015, and a good six years later everything seems as it always has.
“TV total” with Sebastian Pufpaff: Everything stays the same – almost
A good one and a half hours before the start of the program, when Homer Simpson is waving the hand saw, the program logo can already be seen in the top left corner of the screen, along with the clock with the countdown. Man, but it’s also exciting. 90 minutes later, the intro as a time loop: The Heavytones are playing, the audience is racing, a guy with huge cardboard signs prompts a viewer from the front row who looks a bit like the Wendler friend in front of the Insta-Morphing and who cheers her introduction, as if they had been boosted with laughing gas. Enter Sebastian Pufpaff, even more applause, the fire brigade pole is polished, Pufpaff rushes down, takes the stand-up position. And the good Raab is almost forgotten, not even the third punch line has ignited.
ProSieben does it differently than the others and that quickly turns out to be a profit. The thing with the original line-up isn’t that easy either. The fact that ABBA is now actually only called BB diminishes the pleasure a little. The calls for another “Wetten, dass ..?” Revival, at least with the original line-up (Sorry, Frank Elsner), have already fallen silent again. The truth about “TV Total” lies in between. Somehow everything stays the same. But the guy up there is a new guy. And he pushes the Chose into the next generation with so much verve that you can hardly remember your predecessor.
Aunt Gottschalk and Silbereisen as Goebbels
The ingredients are the same as ever. Studio tape, a few well-placed gags while standing, a few clips, take a seat. Curtain up for the nipple board. To sigh again: nipple board. What always sounds a little like Jonathan Meese invented a sextoy for Oliver Polak is well documented and documented. Laschet’s “Isso” under one button, these things under another, well, she, say it quickly, well, she wonders how long she’s going to have her job and a pop singer growls from laughing. All around there is a little Gottschalk from the rest ramp, Julie Zeh speaks of dystopias (vulgo: “Will shit”), Söder tiktokt himself – and Pufpaff – his hair on end, Flori Silbereisen goebbles the hit boom to ecstasy, Lanz and Precht deliver Synchronization battle that it just crashes.
And so it goes on: With Julian Reichelt, the old fumble uncle. With Paul Ronzheimer, the fat Harry Potter. Gottschalk again, this time disguised as Ruth Westheimer, the old sextant. Or was it the other way around? And how Pufpaff – okay, you still have to get used to the name – at the end of the show, first as a fake ZDF man, then as carelessly costumed Helene Fischer, tries to close the “Wetten, dass …?” Production sabotage, that has rough charm. As if you had crossed Hapes Queen Beatrix with the helium voices from the Haribo Colorado advertisement, or in other words: Really funny.
“TV Total” is back. Without Stefan Raab in front of the camera, but with the smart buffoon. And it brings the renaissance of the “only program that you have to watch” to its destination with confidence. He’s not allowed to pull on like Aunt Gottschalk, but otherwise pretty much everything fits. Almost a showpiece of how nostalgia and the present go hand in hand here. “TV Total”, I Still Have Faith In You.