The astronaut (Loriot)

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The astronaut is a sketch by the German humorist Loriot . In it, a television presenter wants tointerviewa supposed US astronaut . However, it quickly becomes clear that the man is just a German administrative inspector. The moderator nonetheless asks the questions he has prepared for the astronaut, which are completely unsuitable for an administrative officer.

The sketch was first shown in episode 18 of the television series Cartoon , which aired in January 1972. Loriot himself plays the television presenter, while Heinz Meier took over the role of conversation partner , for whom it was the first appearance in a Loriot program and thus the beginning of a decades-long collaboration. The sketch was also included in the show Loriot's 60th birthday and the 1997 re-cut version of the Loriot series . In addition, the text of the sketch appeared in 1981 in the anthology Loriot's dramatic works and is part of several other publications by Loriot.

plot

The Apollo Lunar Module Eagle

In a television studio, two men sit in front of a picture of a lunar module . The moderator Schmoller, who is sitting on the left, first gives a short introduction. The three astronauts Perdy, Elden and Brown, who are guests of the Federal President at the moment and then set off on a tour through Germany, were not available for an interview. Therefore, Major Gary Wickliff, who had been in orbit twice since 1964, was invited to the studio to talk to him primarily about the human side of space travel .

Schmoller now speaks to the guest in English, to which he responds in German with “Please?”. Schmoller is pleasantly surprised that his guest speaks German, as this makes everything much easier. Schmoller's questions quickly reveal that the guest is neither Wickliff nor an astronaut. Instead, the guest introduces himself as Wieland's administrative inspector. Despite this fact, Schmoller continues the interview with him - according to the maxim The show must go on , to which he apparently feels obliged to - and uses the statements and questions he has prepared for an astronaut.

He describes the job of administrative inspector as "exciting" and "adventurous" and claims that Wieland had to undergo severe physical tests in order to prevail against thousands of competitors. When Schmoller's question about the extreme acceleration he was exposed to, Wieland replied "to 100 in 18 seconds". Schmoller's subsequent question as to whether Wieland's circulation had not suffered as a result, he replies in the negative. Wieland also denies Schmoller's questions about an unreasonable burden on his wife from his work and a general marriage ban for administrative officials. When Schmoller asked him about the farthest distance from the surface of the earth where he had worked, he replied that he was now working on the third floor. Schmoller then asks whether he ever feared he would not return from up there, to which Wieland again responded with a "No". In the end, Schmoller asks Wieland with a stutter whether he can count on a permanent job in industry after he has finished working for the administration. Wieland reacts to this with a “What !?”, whereupon Schmoller thanks his guest for the interview and thus ends the interview.

Production and publication

Loriot in 1971 during an autograph session

The sketch was produced for the show Cartoon of the Süddeutscher Rundfunk , moderated by Loriot . For Heinz Meier, the performer of the supposed astronaut, it was the first collaboration with Loriot. According to his own statement, he was offered the role by the head of the casting office of the Süddeutscher Rundfunk when he was at the station in Stuttgart. During the recording, Loriot asked him to answer without surprise like a normal person and not to play. Meier appeared in two other cartoon skits . But he was best known for his participation in the show Loriot (1976-1978), where he played the lottery winner and in several skits of the sixth episode Mr. Hoppenstedt. He also played in Loriot's feature films Oedipussi and Pappa ante portas .

The astronaut was first shown in the 18th episode of Cartoon , which was broadcast on German television on January 2, 1972 . Also in 1972 Loriot produced a special edition of cartoon as a German contribution to the television festival Rose d'Or in Montreux . The show was a compilation of previously broadcast television parodies, including The Astronaut , and was broadcast on Südwest 3 on March 26th . In 1983 the sketch was part of Loriot's 60th birthday show . It was also included in the 1997 re-cut of the Loriot series . It is part of the eleventh episode entitled From Cars, Horses, Police and Fire Engines .

The text of the sketch appeared for the first time in 1981 in the anthology Loriot's dramatic works , which combines the texts of many animated and real film sketches from the series Cartoon and Loriot as well as some other television works by Loriot. It is assigned to the science, technology and transport chapter . The text was later published in other anthologies of Loriot.

In the DVD collection The Complete Television Edition by Loriot, the sketch is included in the cartoon version as well as a reading by Loriot and Evelyn Hamann . This took place in 1987 in the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin . Loriot again took on the role of the moderator Schmoller, Hamann read the role of the guest, who in this version is a woman.

classification

From 1967 onwards, Loriot moderated the series Cartoon , which was initially conceived as a documentary program in which humorous drawings and draftsmen from Germany and abroad were to be presented. Loriot contributed his own animation work from the beginning, but his share in the show was initially small, but increased from one episode to the next. After the British Timothy Moores had taken over the direction of the 14th episode from December 1970 , Loriot also appeared in real film skits. They mostly parodied television, in the beginning mainly real programs like What am I? or file number XY… unsolved . Also , the astronaut was in the cartoon episode in a parody of the television program Report from Bonn involved. Television remained Loriot's main theme even after the cartoon ended in 1972. A talk show formed the framework for the single program Loriots Telecabinet from 1974. The first episode of the Loriot series was also mainly devoted to television with skits such as Studio Interview and The Lottery Winner . Only then did other issues such as the relationship between man and woman, the conversation between salesperson and customer and the family come to the fore.

The production and first broadcast of Der Astronaut coincided with a time when there was hysteria about space travel in Germany. US astronauts landed on the moon for the first time in July 1969 as part of the Apollo 11 mission . Three more landings followed before the sketch was broadcast. The astronaut wasn't Loriot's only reaction to the media hype surrounding these events. The cartoon moonstones was already featured in a cartoon in October 1969 . In it, a scientist is interviewed by a reporter and announces that he has discovered microscopic lunar inhabitants on a piece of lunar rock . In March 1971, Loriot parodied the televised broadcasts of the moon landings. In a TV report accompanied by a pathetic commentary, his own boobs land on the moon as German astronauts Meyer and Pöhlmann.

role models

Schmoller's behavior can also be observed in real television interviews. Media scientist Thomas Koebner describes several types of interviewers in an essay from 1979, including "De [n] Pedantische [n]". He prepares questions on his piece of paper and continues undeterred with his program even if there are surprising deviations. This sometimes gives the impression that he is not listening to his interviewee at all. In his dissertation on communication disorders in Loriot's work, Uwe Ehlert points out that communication also occurs in everyday life in which people convulsively hold on to their chosen form of conversation and are therefore unable to have a conversation with others.

The astronaut resembles a sketch by British comedian John Cleese from 1965 and was probably inspired by this. In it, Cleese, as the BBC presenter, interviews a supposed deep-sea diver who is actually just an insurance agent . As in the Loriot sketch, the moderator nevertheless asks his prepared questions, which are similar to Schmoller's questions. For example, he asks what the greatest depth was that his guest worked, to which the guest replies: “In the basement”. There are similarities to British sketches in Loriot's later work. The sketch The White Mouse , broadcast in 1976 , in which Heinz Meier, as an animal dealer, sells a dead mouse as a pet to a naive customer, is reminiscent of the Monty Python sketch The Parrot is Dead from 1969.

Audio-visual media

  • Loriot - his large sketch archive. Warner Home Video, Hamburg 2001, DVD No. 3 (as part of Loriot 11 ).
  • Loriot - The complete television edition . Warner Home Video, Hamburg 2007, DVD No. 2 ( cartoon version).
  • Loriot - The complete television edition . Warner Home Video, Hamburg 2007, DVD No. 5 (reading by Loriot and Evelyn Hamann).

Text publications (selection)

literature

  • Uwe Ehlert: "That is probably more of a communication disorder". The representation of misunderstandings in Loriot's work . ALDA! Der Verlag, Nottuln 2004, ISBN 3-937979-00-X , p. 287–296 (also dissertation at the University of Münster 2003).
  • Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the comedy. Life, work and work of Vicco von Bülow . Scientific publishing house Trier, Trier 2011, ISBN 978-3-86821-298-3 .
  • Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. Loriot's television sketches (=  Oliver Jahraus , Stefan Neuhaus [Hrsg.]: FILM - MEDIUM - DISCOURSE . Volume 70 ). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8260-5898-1 (also dissertation at the University of Trier 2015).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Meier: Please be a little more focused! In: Peter Paul Kubitz, Gerlinde Waz (Ed.): Loriot. What! Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2367-1 , p. 86-87 .
  2. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 239.
  3. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 243, 405.
  4. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 410.
  5. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 417.
  6. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 214.
  7. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 235-238.
  8. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 239.
  9. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 255-260.
  10. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 264-265, 269, 289, 298.
  11. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 229-230.
  12. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 235-236.
  13. ↑ Thomas Koebner: “Interrogation” and “Confession” - and other varieties of television interviews . In: Helmut Kreuzer , Karl Prümm (Hrsg.): TV programs and their forms. Typology, history and criticism of the program in the Federal Republic of Germany . Reclam, Stuttgart 1979, p. 427–437 , here: 434 . Quoted in: Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 241.
  14. ↑ Uwe Ehlert: "That is probably more of a communication disorder". 2004, p. 296.
  15. ↑ Henner Löffler: Loriot sketch had a role model. The astronaut learned from deep-sea diver. In: FAZ.de. January 6, 2015, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 264. Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, p. 44.