Zondag Met Lubach (Sunday with Lubach) is a Dutch satirical late-night show hosted by Arjen Lubach, which as the title suggests, airs on Sunday evenings. It tackles news topics from the previous week originating in the Netherlands, although foreign events come up as well.
In a style reminiscent of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Lubach will show his research on the subject, make funny remarks, and give his (usually progressive) thoughts. First airing in november 2014, the show has been gaining popularity, breaking the one million viewer landmark for the first time in Season 6 episode 2. The catalyst was the previous episode which contained a segment which introduced the Netherlands to the then recently inaugurated Donald Trump, this segment went viral after it was uploaded to YouTube.
An infamous moment in the series was when Arjen Lubach asked his viewers to support his "burgerinitiatief"(citizen initiative). Here he petitioned the government to appoint him the title of Pharaoh of the Netherlands. The very next episode reported that over 82,000 people signed the initiative, well over the required 40,000, necessitating a response from the Tweede Kamernote . Obviously, it didn't land him the title, since the position doesn't even exist.
The show was Retooled in 2021 as The Evening Show With Arjen Lubach, which retains the same satirical format but airs four days a week.
Examples:
- Abilene Paradox: Lubach describes strategic voting this way when it comes to Dutch politics. With a pluralistic parliamentary systemnote , Dutch voters tend to "vote their conscience" and swing wildly between parties, but in 2012 most voters consolidated behind the right-wing Liberal Party (VVD) and the left-wing Labour Party (PvdA) for fear that the other party would win. The result: both parties gained so many seats that they formed an alliance after the election and shut out all the smaller parties. Lubach compares this to choosing what's for dinner between item 1 and 2 by going along with everyone else and going for item 1 because you really don't want item 2, when in fact you would have preferred item 3.
- Author Tract: The show has frequently been plagued with accusations of bias because the main producer is married to a prominent D66 politician. When said politican became the target of satire, Lubach said that he wouldn't go easy on her, but generally, he does use his platform to promote Liberal Democrat policies.
- Bait-and-Switch: In one episode, Lubach says he has a solution to the divide between Flanders and Wallonia by adding a part of Belgium to The Netherlands. Then he reveals that he is not talking about Flanders, but about Wallonia.
- Balkanize Me: Lubach jokingly suggested partitioning Belgium and annexing Wallonia (the southern, French-speaking part) to the Netherlands. He even had a new flag and anthem prepared.
- Big "NO!": When mentioning the "Zwarte Piet"-discussion note , he exclaimed how he just wants it to be over, something he'd gladly skip. This is immediately followed by a clip mentioning a new discussion about why Sinterklaas can't be a woman. Lubach freaks out, and invokes this trope while running around the studio in despair.
- Black Comedy: Occasionally Lubach makes a joke referring to someone's ethnicity, a controversial event or something that has death involved. It might also be at the expense of disabled people, politicians or the monarchy.
- Captain Obvious:
- The Earth makes a full turn around its axis. This prompts the following comment:Lubach: "Such a turn takes 24 hours, and we're in luck with that, because that is exactly one day."
- A narrator from an informative video shown on the broadcast:"The word nuclear power plant is made out of two parts: nuclear and power plant."
- The Earth makes a full turn around its axis. This prompts the following comment:
- Clone Degeneration: The trailer for one of the seasons was a weird-ass sketch showing a bunch of defective Arjen Lubach clones being tested in a laboratory before Arjen concludes you simply can't beat the real deal.
- Dark Horse Victory: In a segment lampooning how first-time buyers are being driven out of the real estate market by large investors, both foreign and domestic, there's a sketch showing an open house sale with many prospective buyers showing up. Then it turns out the house was already bought up by Pino.
- Failed a Spot Check: Brought up in a story where a couple of Russian spies made the crucial mistake of forgetting to delete their internet browser history. Lubach points out that this is very sloppy for people that are supposed to be spies.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: One episode was discussing how it is possible to get stuff so cheap from Chinese webshops. And so, they replaced the correspondent Tex de Wit with a cheap Chinese substitute note who appeared to only know Chinese.Replacement-Tex: 我饿了， 你有面条吗？note
- Gratuitous Italian: After the Italians spread fake news about a Dutch politician criticizing their state budget, he gives them the following message:Lubach (in Italian): "Fix your budget. Stop the fake news. Your mother can't cook."
- Gratuitous Spanish: In a segment featuring time zones, he comes across a still of a turning globe, where countries go from night to day. When Spain comes by, he ends up blabbering at them, telling them to wake up, resorting to Spanish when he believes they are not listening. Remember that "they" are a projection on a screen.
- Hand Puppet: When the new Foreign Minister Stef Blok gave an interview, Lubach had the perfect explanation for the man's amusing verbal tics: he was practicing a sock puppet act.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Lubach, during a report on Russian hackers:"That employee didn't get a small black bar in front of his eyes, but a whole square! This can mean only one thing: Spongebob is also part of the conspiracy!"
- He also mocked the party DENK after their leader accused a reporter of "secretly" observing him doing a press conference, depicting said leader as a Conspiracy Theorist who strings together a vast plot that includes ducks implanted with microchips sent to spy on him.
- Lubach, during a report on Russian hackers:
- Manipulative Editing: Done occasionally with clips of people saying things relevant to the subject, but usually not used to make a statement. Instead, it's often Played for Laughs.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Following the time being set to winter time, the timer on a security cam is seen going to 2 a.m. after reaching 3 a.m., which Lubach presents as being an always beautiful phenomenon.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Lubach made a satirical video where Trump gave the viewers a tour through the White House. When he showed his photos he said the following line:Trump: Photos of my loved ones. And Melania.
- Non Sequitur: On the topic of daylight saving time:Lubach: "In what time do we want to live? Till when can we sit outside in June? Is it still dark when our kids go to school in February? What do our grandchildren think of jazz?"
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: In a segment on politician Geert Wilders, Lubach shows a series of clips where Wilders describes his disgust or disapproval of a wide range of things, causing Lubach to wonder if Wilders simply hates everything. It turns out that no, Wilders loves the Efteling (a local amusement park centered on fairy tales).
- Overly Long Gag: Thierry Baudet, a Dutch politician, made a tweet about how his friends got harassed by Moroccans in the train. Later it turned out that they where actually ticket controllers and not even Moroccan. In response, Thierry said the most important part wasn't that he was incorrect, but that something like this could've happened. After this Lubach revealed that he had interviewed one of the Moroccans that could've been in the train. This caused a long gag about hypothetical situations that went on for two minutes.
- Quote Mine: Played for laughs in a sketch where Lubach did a "time travel interview" with former Dutch attorney Bram Moskowicz, who was a major public figure before he was met with a rapid string of misfortunes in recent years, including being disbarred. The interview is carefully edited to make it seem like Moskowicz is responding to being informed of his own future failures, which gets plenty of Lampshade Hanging.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Since the COVID-19 semi-lockdown measurements in the Netherlands, every episode has been taped without an audience, from a supposed "Emergency Room" with a Spreading Disaster Map Graphic behind Lubach and only two other staff members seated around a conference table.
- Running Gag:
- Any time minister of Justice Grapperhaus is mentioned, Lubach will start playing House Music.
- Former Christian-Democrat party leader Buma once pre-emptively commented that what he said would probably wind up on Lubach's show, ending with a sarcastic "Congrats!" ("chapeau!"). Sure enough, Lubach took to quoting him ironically.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Lubach himself, always appearing in a suit, as expected of a TV host.
- Subverted Kids' Show: There's a sketch where one of the Sesamstraat puppets becomes a right-wing vlogger.
- Third Wheel: Parodied when the King and Queen were accompanied on an official trip by the Foreign Minister, Stef Blok. Lubach pitched a bunch of romantic scenarios with the royal couple, but Stef Blok had to be present at each of them.
- Visual Pun: The intro cartoon shows Lubach throwing a ball at a line-up of various powerful political and media figures. He's throwing a curve ball at the establishment.
- Vocal Dissonance: Shown with a clip of an Italian member of the European Parliament. His voice is dubbed by his translator, who is a woman with a horrendous accent.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: After the Dutch parliamentary elections of 2017, Lubach dismissed foreign press reports about "populism being stopped" and a "Green Party victory" by noting that several prominent parties rose in power through populist tactics, and even Geert Wilders secured a bigger victory than the Greens while basically running a non-campaign.
