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Cologne (dpa) - A cabaret triumvirate goes overboard: With the last appearance of Jürgen Becker (61), Wolfgang Schmickler (66) and Uwe Lyko (66) in the WDR program "Mitternachtsspitzen" ends this Saturday (December 19th / 9.45 p.m.) an era.
"It was a great time, and I'll miss the" midnight peaks ", but now younger people should take over," says Becker, presenter of the longest-running cabaret show on German television.
The first episode of “Mitternachtsspitzen” ran in 1988, and Becker and Schmickler have been involved since 1992.
While Becker regularly ranted about God and the world with antlers on his head as a folk “homeland deer”, Schmickler took on the role of the rumbling moral apostle, who targeted political and social developments in breathtakingly fast monologues.
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“When we started, we actually had the attitude that we are against society, against the establishment,” Becker said in an interview with the German press agency.
But the strengthening of the AfD and right-wing populist currents have dissuaded them from this stance: "Now we have to defend society and democracy."
Of course, as a cabaret artist, you can still critically examine the work of the federal government, emphasizes Schmickler.
"But you always have to separate politics and the people who make them."
Cabaret artists have to counter the aggressive tone that has found its way into public debates.
"We can exert an influence and make a small contribution to friendlier cooperation."
Lyko, with his star role of the Ruhr area pensioner “Herbert Knebel”, has also been part of the regular cast of the “Mitternachtsspitzen” for more than 20 years.
Performing there is more of a challenge than when he is on stage with his own program, he says.
The audience in the old waiting room in Cologne, where the “midnight peaks” are traditionally recorded, is “mixed and therefore difficult to assess - and I don't see the television audience”.
At their last appearance on Saturday, Lyko and his colleagues have to play in front of an empty hall due to the corona pandemic.
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For the TV viewers, according to WDR information, there will be another reunion with “Loki & Smoky in Heaven”.
The parody, in which Lyko former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Schmickler played his wife Loki, was one of the highlights of the “midnight peaks” for years.
After Loki Schmidt's death in 2010, the column was renamed “Overrated Couples in World History”, in which Chancellor Angela Merkel (Schmickler) engages in dialogues with celebrities like Vladimir Putin and Jogi Löw.
At the end of the program, Becker will hand over his artfully knotted TV remote control to his successor, Christoph Sieber.
The 50-year-old will host the “Midnight Peak” on February 6, 2021 for the first time.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201218-99-739677 / 2
Midnight peaks