Just ask the mouse
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Just ask the mouse |
| Country of production | Germany |
| Year (s) | since 2006 |
| Production company |
WDR , Ansager & Schnipselmann GmbH & Co KG |
| length | approx. 135 minutes |
| Broadcasting cycle |
Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. |
| genre | Quiz show |
| Moderation |
Former moderation:
|
| First broadcast | April 8, 2006 on Das Erste |
Ask the mouse is a television quiz show for children and adults that has been running since 2006 in the first program of the ARD .
The show appeared as part of an action of the same name, in which children were asked to send in questions. Some of them were answered in the broadcast. In each issue, additional questions asked by children are answered. The experts present are the moderators of the show with the mouse , Armin Maiwald , Christoph Biemann and Ralph Caspers ( Siham El-Maimouni has been supporting the team since 2018 ). Tom Bartels has been the commentator for various games since 2015 . The program runs several Saturdays a year at 8:15 p.m. From 2006 to the end of 2009 it was moderated by Jörg Pilawa and Eckart von Hirschhausen has been leading the show since 2010 .
concept
In the program there were initially three teams, each assigned to the characters from the program with the mouse: Team Orange (mouse), Team Blue (elephant) and Team Yellow (duck). Each team consisted of two celebrity guests who had to answer questions and a block of spectators. Before the question was asked, the team had to roll the number of points that it received for correctly answering the question, there were three possible answers per question. For this number of points, the team then moved on on the (computer graphics) playing field; the team that moved first to field 20 won. In the final round, short questions with three possible answers were asked. Each team (the block and the celebrities) then had five seconds to choose an answer. The team in which a higher percentage of people had guessed the correct answer was allowed to roll the dice. In 2011, the dice were not rolled, so that the team that had given the correct answer simply moved one space further. Since June 30, 2012, only one orange and one blue team, each with three celebrities, have been competing against each other. Questions with three possible answers or estimated questions are asked. The team with the correct answer or the best guess receives ten points.
Furthermore, an “outside experiment” is carried out and a question about a musical interlude is asked. In addition, "factual stories" from the program with the mouse are used without sound; the candidates have to guess the product made in the film. In addition, three “advanced children” are introduced who can do extraordinary things. The skills are mentioned and the candidates must assign them to the children. There are also clips in which Käpt'n Blaubär tells a story, after which the respective block has to use voting devices to decide whether this story is true or a lie. In addition, the celebrities have to play action games: The team that wins these special categories receives 30 points. In the final, “blue bear questions” will be asked again. The celebrities have to decide on an answer within ten seconds. If it is correct, the team receives one point. The winner is determined by multiplying the points earned so far with those earned in the final. The winning team with the most points wins 25,000 euros and donates this money to a good cause. Every now and then, at the end of the program, viewers are asked to prepare something for the next program, for example to make a musical instrument from recyclable material or to grow the largest possible sunflower.
Emergence
On May 15, 2005, Die Sendung mit der Maus started the “Just ask…” campaign, in which a total of over 75,000 questions were collected and the most frequently asked ones were recorded (see below). As part of this campaign, the show of the same name was broadcast on Erste for the first time .
WDR media research commissioned Lothar Mikos from the "Konrad Wolf" University of Film and Television in Potsdam to carry out an accompanying study in which typical areas of interest were to be identified through interviews. It found that children are basically interested in everything and that there are no typical children's questions.
This was also reflected in the spectrum of questions raised by the “Just ask…” campaign: The most frequently asked question was asked 781 times, so it only received around one percent of the votes.
The top 10 most frequently asked children's questions
- Why is the sky blue?
- Everything about mouse and elephant
- How is a rainbow created ?
- How does a television work ?
- How do planes fly ?
- Why does sea water appear blue ?
- What is power ?
- How does the music get on the CD ?
- How does a computer work ?
- Why is the banana crooked?
expenditure
Special occurrences
- On Wednesday, July 6th, 2011, it was announced that the planned broadcast of the program on Saturday, July 9th, 2011, will be postponed to Thursday, July 14th, 2011. The reason for this was the quarter-finals of the 2011 Women's World Cup , which otherwise would have run in parallel.
- On Sunday, July 17th, 2011, the broadcast from July 14th at 3:35 pm was repeated in KiKA . So far, the show has always been repeated on the Monday after the live broadcast on the first .
Web links
- Ask nevertheless times the mouse in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official WDR website of the show