Die Wochenshow was a German Sketch Comedy show, originally broadcasted from 1996 to 2002 on Sat.1, and one of the most popular German comedy shows of its era. The show was mainly a News Parody, but also parodied other show formats you need hosts for, mostly specially themed talk shows. The title is an allusion to Wochenschau, the German term for weekly newsreel, and also to the fact that there was a new episode once weekly.
Ingolf Lück was the anchorman and Anke Engelke played the co-anchorwoman, but of course they and a bunch of other comedians also assumed quite a number of other roles. Most of the cast are still well known to the German audience.
Has been revived in March 2011, with Ingolf Lück as the only member of the old cast reprising his role(s).
This show contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Gay: Brisko Schneider (played by Pastewka), the host of fictional show Sex-TV, is certainly very campy, but his sexual orientation has never been explicitly shown or stated (although
Pastewka once said in an interview that he considers Brisko being in a Transparent Closet.) - Ascended Extra: Matze Knop was a recurring guest in 2002, when his character Richie had a recurring segment. In the 2011 revival, he was a regular cast member.
- Attention Whore: Herbert Görgens (played by Lück) always tries to get into tv with his "visionary" inventions and ideas, which are either totally silly, useless, frauds, or have already been existing for a long time.
- *Bleep*-dammit!: In a spoof report on some criminal activity, the reporter began to interview somebody with a Censor Box covering his face. It did not move with him when they sat down.
- Catchphrase:
- Zurück zu Lück! - Danke, Anke! (Back to Lück - Thanks, Anke!) - Lück and Engelke as anchorman and -woman
- Hallo liebe Liebenden... (Hello, dear lovers...) - Brisko Schneider
- Komm ich jetzt ins Fernsehen? (Do I get on tv now?) - Herbert Görgens
- Fun with Acronyms: SHIT – Shopping im TV
- Innocent Innuendo: In Geh ran, Dana Rama (played by Annette Frier), interviews people concerning their occupations, which are always rather ordinary. However, she tends to automatically interpret everything they tell her in a sexual way.
- Kent Brockman News: Due to the show's concept, the occurence of this trope was inevitable.
- Large Ham: Ingolf Lück often got the "hammy" roles, like that of the anchorman or the above mentioned Herbert Görgens.
- Nazi Grandpa: Opa Adolf Frey (played by Marco Rima), from the segment Was der Großvater noch wusste (What Grandpa Still Did Know), is implied to be one.
- News Parody
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted most of the time with characters named exactly like the people they are a parody of, although sometimes the names are slightly changed due to the Rule of Funny (e.g. Sabine Christiansen —> Christiane Sabinsen).
-
Spiritual Successor: Of Rudis Tagesshow, a News Parody from The '80s. - Spotlight-Stealing Title: While many sketch themes were shown once and never seen again, others were repeated quite regulary, if popular enough (e.g. Sex-TV and Ricky's Pop-Sofa).
- Those Wacky Nazis: In a "Hits of the 40s" segment.
- Too Dumb to Live: Ricky (played by Engelke), the host of fictional show Ricky's Pop-Sofa.
- You Cloned Hitler! One of the recurring sketches featured a bunch of Hitler clones (Cloned out of the original one's famous mustache! It was a Russian soldier's war trophy.) living in the present as flatmates.
