Basically, a television program of almost 45 minutes is nothing more than a tweet with 280 characters. A good idea is enough, then it works. Before the return of the "Neo Magazine Royale" from the winter break was bubbling in the microwave of the rumor mill, Bela B. Felsenheimer of the doctors will probably announce "on air", as it continues with the group. New album? Resolution? Good idea. Stay tuned!

Staying in touch was not so easy at first, but the "Neo Magazine Royale" once again followed the recipe for ironically providing the near to the obvious and for raising it to the absurd. So Jan Böhmermann returned in the opening credits of the tour of the Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld as what might be in Mainz under "Rockstar" imagines - really with cocaine and fur collar and the destruction of guitars. Yeah, haha.

The opening monologue touched on topics from the past few weeks. The SPD is again second strength in polls? Certainly, and "that is what the 107 pulmonary physicians have". The 100th anniversary of the Weimar Republic was applauded rhythmically, as if it had been a militaristic ordination - and not rather its opposite.

Running gags and automatic laughter

Mention was also made of the happy racism of a fruit juice bottler and the preponderance of Donald Trump, who now wants to "build a wall around his fridge" and, anyway, hehe, have pretty small hands. Soon, Marie Kondo would come, "to clean up the stomach". It followed the demand, whether because the ZDF viewer probably knows Netflix.

It may be that Jan Böhmermann is still something of a major Tom of the digital cosmos to the classical viewer; in this role, he also took over the Twitter account of the comparably venerable and correspondingly cautious "time". In the sixth year since the existence of the "Neo Magazine Royale" hardly any more spark can be found. The Running Gag is now as lame as the expected cheap "hashtag of the week": #heidihaltsmaul. The same has already been said by Roger Willemsen. And better, because harder.

Not even the excitement about the "Framing Manual" of the ARD was more than the joke, the ZDF had "dug up the whole TV garden", without finding comparable. The more tired the Pointen (or their aimless avoidance), the harder and more joyless the moderator angeackerte himself. Was this laugh always so automatic? You would have to rummage through the media library.

The beating of Bela B. was a real salvation. The musician presented his debut novel "Scharnow", about the Bohemian man had only fleetingly informed - airtime free time. With the crazy book you could have done more than put it on the table.

The @neomagazine year could not start more exciting: In #heidihaltmaul at 10:15 pm in @ZDFneo @BelaB_official breaks his silence for the first time and answers the question that concerns you all. https://t.co/qveOvnv3b0

- Neo Magazine Royale (@neomagazine) February 21, 2019

When the guest stated that he had taken real people as his model for which he would have to apologize, there is no real idea, but an interesting moment. Böhmermann: "Do not you drive over there and then take the pain that you cause in other people, right back as energy for the next book?", Which Bela B. throws in: "So does Charlotte Roche that all the time, right? " Böhmermann: "Who?" Joyless machine laugh.

The one good idea: nothing for five seconds

Finally and with start then the crucial question, which is actually no and on which one does not expect an answer, but on which but the whole consignment zufief. Böhmermann: "Do you dissolve?" Bela B. raises to an answer, brings meaningful air ... and the stream falters. The picture hangs up. The ZDF logo pulsates, as it does not know the classical viewer, but the Internet users like to drive in the madness. When the stream "runs" after five confusing seconds, the cat is out of the bag. The audience simulates turmoil, Böhmermann is concerned and announces, "to come down again," a stupid game.

And that was her then, that's a good idea. A game of expectation, which is then broken under the delusion of a technical inadequacy, the introduction of tactical glitch as an element of television entertainment.

An idea, as it could certainly be conceived elsewhere, but would certainly be rejected as too "weird" - at the "Neo Magazine Royale" it is executed. Five great seconds in which nothing happened. The remaining 2652 seconds could be reconsidered after 136 episodes.