One of the European biggest broadcasters, RTL, has taken off several episodes from the German show premier, facing criticism for body shaming and sexism after teasers were released. Comedian Chris Tall, who was branded by some as a Nazi sympathizer in 2017 for controversial wordplay “Chris-Tall-Nacht,” he used to greet the audience (hint at the infamous the Night of Broken Glass, when Jews were killed), raised eyebrows with his late night show.
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In the new program Darf er das?, which can be translated as Does he dare?, he apparently got his guest to guess if a woman was pregnant or fat. Some activists posted screenshots of the episode online, slamming it as misogynistic.
Warum ich mich gegen Bodyshaming und Sexismus einsetze?
— Ricarda Lang (@Ricarda_Lang) 27 сентября 2018 г.
Weil es fucking 2018 ist und bei @RTLde Typen raten, ob Frauen schwanger oder einfach nur zu fett sind.
Foto via @hashcrap pic.twitter.com/L552hWclBx
Why do I fight against bodyshaming or sexism? Because it f**king 2018 and the RTL guys are guessing if the woman is pregnant or just too fat?
A quiz on sexual orientation was also found offensive by netizens.
Geht übrigens stabil weiter: pic.twitter.com/vTSPPtiu9D
— Schwester Ewald (@hashcrap) 27 сентября 2018 г.
The development is steady.
An avalanche of angry and shocked comments followed, so RTL hurried to comment on social media that the comedian’s purpose was to call out prejudices, and pointed out that there had been misunderstanding, promising to cut out the debated episodes.
In der Show geht es um den Unsinn von Vorurteilen im Alltag, auf die Chris Tall hinweisen will. Er ist Comedian und spielt damit. Da es nun im Vorfeld schon zu Missverständnissen kommt, werden wir entsprechende Elemente aus der Sendung nehmen. Danke für den Hinweis.
— RTL.de (@RTLde) 28 сентября 2018 г.
The show is about the nonsense prejudices of everyday life, and Chris Tall wants to point at them. He is a comedian and plays with it. Since there is already misunderstanding before the release, we will take the elements from the program. Thanks for the heads-up.
Some netizens has pointed out that the German broadcaster, based in Koln, had adopted the concept of discord from a Dutch TV show, which triggered uproar in 2017 and was shut down following a scandal.
However, many sided with the show’s host.
Heulen die Leute sich über #darferdas aus. Ich finds gut, was er macht. Die Leute, die sagen, dass man über Dicke keine Witze machen darf, grenzen damit doch diese Gruppe aus.
— Steven (@Streaven) 30 сентября 2018 г.
People howl over #darferdas. I like what he does. The people who say that you can not joke about fat, exclude this group.
There were those who branded RTL as cowardly.
Wie feige: @RTLde zensiert #DarfErDas mit #ChrisTall wegen ein paar Stellvertreter-Emanzen #Shitstorm pic.twitter.com/AGyApCHbP8
— Karsten Be (@crizcgn) 29 сентября 2018 г.
How cowardly: @RTLde censored #DarfErDas with #ChrisTall because of a few proxy emancipation fans #Shitstorm
