Han Lips writes about what he noticed on TV every day. Today: Sunday with Lubach.
After months of absence, Zondag met Lubach was back in the familiar setting on Sunday evening: not in a ‘situation room’, but in a theater with an audience. Arjen Lubach was clearly looking forward to his last season at ZML, and Lips too. The speed was old-fashioned again, and that while the current situation has changed very little in recent months. On the last episode of last season, we were in the middle of the first wave of corona, now we are most likely at the beginning of the second wave. In the meantime, all corona jokes have already been made, and often they weren’t fun the first time.
The editorial staff of ZML took up the corona joke challenge and came up with, among other things, a strong and witty item about the failing Dutch testing policy. Minister Hugo de Jonge in particular had to suffer because of his wobbly testing policy and his noncommittal appeal ‘Let us know’. The deadly serious indictment was brilliantly rounded off with the cheerful musical intermezzo Let us know in the manner of the Christmas classic Let it snow. It was vintage Lubach: sharp and yet a laugh.
Also strong was the fake corona press conference, the setting of which was already masterful: the usual admonition “Only together we can get corona under control” was corrupted to “Only together we get corona”. Lips had to laugh heartily, as did Lubach’s statement “In the region of The Hague, we see the wrong decisions quickly accumulating, especially among De Jonge.”
It’s great how Zondag met Lubach managed to come up with a few original and witty items after more than half a year of corona trouble. After this welcome comeback, Lips sincerely hopes that this will not be the last season of ZML.
Comment? hanlips@parool.nl