Oomph!

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Hurz !!!
  DE 4th 02/10/1992 (15 weeks)

Oomph! is a TV prank by Hape Kerkeling and Achim Hagemann , which is one of Kerkeling's best-known works. He was featured in the final episode of the comedy series Total Normal , which aired on First in July 1991 .

Kerkeling and Hagemann mime two Polish musicians who, in Stuhr, present an alleged excerpt from an opera by a fictional contemporary classical composer to the ignorant audience . Although the text consists only of short nonsensical passages, which are interrupted several times by a loud exclamation “Hurz!”, The audience tries in the subsequent discussion to give a serious interpretation of the piece. After the success of the prank, the single Hurz !!! published, which in addition to Kerkeling's vocals also contains the auditor’s comments.

content

Kerkeling appears as tenor Mirosław Lem, Hagemann as pianist Piotr Stianek. Both wear tailcoats ; Kerkeling wears a glued-on frill on his face, and Hagemann also has a glued-on beard.

An excerpt from an alleged opera by the fictional Polish composer Sewald Brewske, who is said to be a representative of contemporary classical music, is presented. Hagemann plays music that sounds dissonant to atonal on the grand piano ; Kerkeling sings expressively and choppy. The piece begins with the following text:

“The wolf ... the lamb ... on the green meadow. The lamb ... screams ... Hurz! "

An amphibian and a hawk are later mentioned in the fragmentary text . Kerkeling encourages the audience to ask questions in German with an Eastern European accent. Six spectators have their say. Some criticize the piece. For example, a viewer explains the type of interpretation that it takes to get used to. To a viewer to whom the piece seems strange and who asks in disbelief whether it is really classical music, Kerkeling insinuates that she has no intellectual access to the piece, to which the viewer reacts piqued. Another viewer asks whether the entire opera was written in this narrative form and whether there were any other animals. Kerkeling explains that the entire opera can do without staging and that the viewer misunderstood the work a bit, since, like in a fable, it is less about the animals and more about the relationship to people. Hagemann repeatedly suggests repeating parts of the piece in English, after which the two perform something again.

One viewer explains that the wolf and lamb motif has a long history. But since it always contained the vision of a possible reconciliation, this might also be an intention of the composer. The same viewer says in English that they think the two artists want to test the audience. Hagemann then asks whether the whole of life is not a test of the public and the people. In the end, Kerkeling and Hagemann resolve the situation by performing the play The Whole Life Is a Quiz , which appeared in previous episodes of Total Normal . Some viewers respond with laughter, others remain serious.

Creation and publication

The prank was created for the program Total Normal produced by Radio Bremen , which Kerkeling hosted together with Hagemann. The prank was recorded in the council chamber of Stuhr, a municipality in Lower Saxony south of Bremen. Since no spectators were expected at an event by unknown Polish artists, Birgitt Reckmeyer, the editor responsible for Total Normal , had been looking for a concert in whose opening act one could appear. A classical concert with the motto "Europe" took place in Stuhr on the day of the recording. Since a contribution by Polish artists was a good fit, the municipal service manager for culture agreed with the performance.

The television team present explained to the organizers and the audience that they wanted to make a contribution to the (fictional) classical program Musica Sonata . For this, Jürgen Koch, moderator of the Bremen local magazine buten un binnen , had been brought along, who spoke a few introductory words. He had agreed with Reckmeyer that Hagemann always suggested in English, regardless of the audience reaction, to repeat parts of the play again. The exclamation “Hurz” was inspired by a man of the same name who lived above Hagemann's Düsseldorf studio.

The prank was shown in the seventh and final episode of Total Normal , which aired on July 4, 1991 on First. It was designed as a double broadcast with a length of two times 30 minutes. Oomph! was the last contribution of the show and is about six minutes long. In 1992 a 3:22 minute studio version of the song was released as a synth-pop song under the title Hurz !!! Released as a single by Ariola with some passages sung especially for it . The piece also contains parts of the audience's comments, which, however, were repeated.

analysis

Oomph! has been scientifically investigated. The musicologist Maria Goeth used the performance to present different options for assessing the interpretation of a work of art. She sees the concert audience as superior to the studio and television audience both in terms of their cognitive performance and the aesthetics of their interpretation. Above all, she emphasizes the interpretation of the viewer, who sees a reference to the opposing forces symbolized by the wolf and lamb.

Regarding the correspondence between the audience's reception and the author's intention, neither of the two interpretations is preferable to the other. At first glance, only the studio and television audiences seem to understand the intention of Kerkeling and Hagemann correctly, as they recognize the humorous character of the contribution in contrast to the concert audience. However, since the two comedians had designed the contribution with the aim of misleading the concert audience and thus leading them to a serious interpretation of the piece, the audience on site also understood the work in accordance with the author's intention. In terms of conformity with the consensus of the masses alone, the interpretation of the studio and television audience is superior to that of the concert audience.

The literary and media scholar Henning Siekmann dealt in his dissertation with the metaphor wolf and lamb and its use in a political context. The first chapter of the book he placed the audience quote “Wolf and lamb, it has a long history”. In a brief analysis of the piece, he emphasizes that the prank could only work because the text not only consisted of a string of nonsensical words, but also contained a certain amount of meaning that the audience could make their own associations. He also points out that the hawk, which at first glance seems out of place, already appeared in the didactic poem Works and Days of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod , there together with the nightingale .

Success and aftermath

The prank is one of Kerkeling's best-known television programs and is considered a "piece of German television history". The single Hurz !!! reached number 4 in the German single charts and was awarded the RSH Gold Radio Prize in 1993 in the Comedy category.

In 2017 , the Hurz Comedy Prize was launched in Recklinghausen , the birthplace of Kerkeling and Hagemann, and has been awarded annually in four categories since then.

DVD

  • Hape Kerkeling. The big TV edition . Studio Hamburg, Hamburg 2011, DVD No. 3.

literature

  • Maria Goeth: The audience is always right! Reflections on musical reception and on the utopia of ›correct‹ understanding in art . In: Iris Cseke, Sebastian Jung, Lars Krautschick, Georg Schneider, Johanna Zorn (eds.): Production - AFFEKTION - reception. Proceedings for the interdisciplinary symposium for young scientists as part of the ProArt doctoral program at LMU Munich . epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8700-4 , pp. 155–174 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Maria Goeth: Music and Humor. Strategies - Universals - Limits . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2016, ISBN 978-3-487-15426-8 , pp. 89–90 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Alexandra Reinwarth: Hape. On the trail of the funniest German . Riva, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86883-139-9 , pp. 39-42 .
  • Henning Siekmann: Wolf and Lamb. On the career of a political metaphor in the context of the European fable (= Andrea Bartl, Hans-Peter Ecker, Jörn Glasenapp , Iris Hermann, Christoph Houswitschka , Friedhelm Marx [eds.]: Bamberg Studies on Literature, Culture and Media . Volume 21 ). University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-86309-525-3 ( uni-bamberg.de [PDF; 6.2 MB ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hape Kerkeling: Hurz !!! In: Official German Charts. Retrieved March 18, 2020 .
  2. ↑ The names are mentioned at the beginning of the film by a voice from the off. In contrast, Gaby Wolf and Henning Siekmann swap the two names. The spelling of the first names follows the usual Polish spelling. Wolf and Siekmann write “Miroslaw” and “Pjotr” instead, Goeth writes “Miroslav”. Wolf and Siekmann write “Lemm” as the last name of Kerkeling's figure.
  3. ↑ The name of the composer is mentioned by Kerkeling in the discussion. The spelling can be found in Henning Siekmann: Wolf und Lamm. 2017, p. 53.
  4. ↑ Gaby Wolf: Where Hape Kerkeling's Hurz-Sketch originated. In: Weser courier . June 22, 2011, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Martin Kalitschke: Hurz! Achim Hagemann sat at the piano with Hape Kerkeling's legendary vocal performance. In: Westfälische Nachrichten . March 30, 2012, accessed March 14, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Hape Kerkeling - Hurz !!! , hitparade.ch
  7. ↑ Hurz !!! on YouTube
  8. ↑ Maria Goeth: The audience is always right! 2014.
  9. ^ Henning Siekmann Wolf and Lamm. 2017, pp. 52–56.
  10. ^ Henning Siekmann Wolf and Lamm. 2017, pp. 85–86.
  11. ↑ Hape, Hannilein, Horst - Hurz! In: Spiegel online . December 7, 2018, accessed March 18, 2020 .
  12. ↑ RSH Gold Award 1993. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016 ; accessed on March 14, 2020 .
  13. ↑ The Recklinghauser Hurz. The weird comedy price. In: derhurz.de. Retrieved March 14, 2020 .