Studiointerview (also The interview or Plastology)In Loriots Dramatische Werke und Gesammelte Prosa erschien der Text als Studiointerview. In Das Frühstücksei erschien der Text unter dem Titel Das Interview. This is also the name of the cartoon in the VHS collection Loriots Vibliothek. In the DVD collection Sein großes Sketch-Archiv, the sketch is called Plastologie. In the complete DVD edition The Complete Television Edition, it is called Plastology (studio interview). The website loriot.de, run by Loriot's heirs, writes "Studiointerview (also: Plastologie)". As with most of Loriot's contributions, no title is given in the episode itself. Felix Christian Reuter calls the sketch Studiointerview in his dissertation, Stefan Neumann uses the title Das Studiointerview and Uwe Ehlert titles his analysis Studiointerview Pneumatische Plastologie. is a cartoon sketch by the German humorist Loriot. Divided into four individual sections, it is part of the first episode of the television series Loriot, which was first broadcast in March 1976. The content of the sketch is a television interview with a scientist who is able to enlarge his own body parts using breathing techniques. With the television and science parody as well as the depiction of failed communication, the sketch takes up three basic motifs of Loriot's television work. It also contains a number of sexual allusions, a typical creative device for Loriot.
Studiointerview was also shown in the re-edited version of the series Loriot from 1997. The text of the sketch first appeared in 1981 and has since been included in several Loriot anthologies.
Action The sketch has a total length of around six minutes. You see two men sitting on chairs in a television studio. Both are drawn as the bulbous-nosed men typical of Loriot. The one on the left is the TV presenter Gilling, the one on the right is Professor Häubl, holder of the Chair of Pneumatic Plastology. Gilling wants to interview Häubl but has to wait for the program to start because, as he suspects, something is wrong with the technology. Gilling tries to bridge the waiting time with small talk. He talks about his star sign (Pisces) and that of his wife (Capricorn). However, Häubl only addresses this to a very limited extent by talking about his long-haired dachshunds. As they are still not on air, Gilling asks Häubl whether he knows three (generally unknown) people from Gilling's circle. Häubl denies this each time and responds with a question about Professor Duwe, who is unknown to Gilling,Loriot: Gesammelte Prosa. 2008, p. 351. to make the absurdity of his questions clear to Gilling.
When the interview finally begins, Häubl initially doesn't feel like doing the interview because of the long wait. After Gilling remarks that everyone else would be happy to be allowed to broadcast his nonsense on television, he finally gives the information. Pneumatic plastology enables plastic changes to be made to one's own body through breathing techniques. He also demonstrates this when Gilling asks. He holds his breath until his head turns red and uses it to enlarge his index finger, which becomes about 30 cm long and 8 cm thick. Shortly afterwards, he also enlarges his ears tenfold. He also guides Gilling in a self-experiment in which he enlarges his nose to a length of about 20 cm and a thickness of 15 cm.All figures for the enlarged body parts are taken from the stage directions of the published sketch text. In contrast to Häubl, whose body parts return to normal size after exhaling forcefully, Gilling is unable to reduce the size of his nose again. Häubl blames Gilling's clumsiness for this and advises him to come to his consultation at the end of August.
Production and publication The animated film was created in Loriot's animation studio, which he founded in the early 1970s in Percha on Lake Starnberg not far from his home Ammerland and where he employed up to five people.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 45. As is usual in Loriot's animated films, Häubling's and Gilling's mouth movements are synchronized with their spoken words. To achieve this, a large number of individually drawn phases were necessary. As with almost all of his animated films, Loriot took on the two speaking roles himself.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 226.
The cartoon was shown for the first time in the first episode of the series Loriot, entitled Loriot's Clean Screen, which was broadcast on German Television on March 8, 1976.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p 255. The film is divided into four sections, which are shown throughout the entire episode. The first part is shown before the title is shown and is therefore the first segment of the entire series. Initially, it is only about Gilling's suspicion that something is wrong with the technology. The second part contains a conversation about zodiac signs and long-haired dachshunds. In the third section of the film, we see the dialog about the unknown persons. The fourth and final part of the cartoon is introduced by an announcement from Loriot sitting on a green sofa. This is the first time we learn the names of the two people portrayed. In contrast to the cartoon, the first names Gillings (Hartmut) and Häubls (Wilhelm) as well as the University of Tübingen as the seat of the Chair of Pneumatic Plastology are also mentioned here.
Loriot's Clean Screen was positively reviewed by Manfred Sack in Zeit after the broadcast. You have to laugh a lot and loudly at the mocking jokes. He rated the animated film Studiointerview as "a nice, harmless, not entirely meaningless piece of nonsense."
In 1997, Loriot reorganized his television work and divided the six old 45-minute Loriot episodes into 14 episodes with a length of 25 minutes. This recut version, also entitled Loriot, also included contributions from other Loriot programs such as Cartoon and Loriot's Telecabinet. It had become necessary because, at the time, German television stations no longer provided slots for comedy formats that were longer than 30 minutes.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 304. Studiointerview is part of the sixth episode Unusual things from the concert hall, bad luck in the studio and a living room catastrophe, which premiered on Das Erste on May 27, 1997. celebrated its premiere. In it, the sketch is divided into the same four parts as in the original version, but Loriot's announcement for the last part is missing.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 415. The film was also shown in its entirety in the show for Loriot's 70th birthday on November 12, 1993.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 411–412.
In the 1984 VHS collection Loriots Vibliothek, which contains many sketches by Loriot and a few by Cartoon, the Studiointerview is included in a version without interruption.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 459–460. The DVD collection The Complete Television Edition from 2007 also contains this version of the cartoon as part of Loriot's Clean Screen. While compiling the DVD collection, it was noticed that there were two versions of the film, differing only in the pattern of Häubl's tie. While he wore a dotted tie on the MAZ tape from Radio Bremen, it was striped in a film from Loriot's archive. Due to the better quality, Loriot and his friend and collaborator Stefan Lukschy opted for the striped version.
The text of Studiointerview first appeared in 1981 in the anthology Loriot's Dramatic Works, which contains the texts of most of the sketches from the series Loriot as well as some of Loriot's other television works. The sketch is assigned to the chapter Culture and Television. The text has since been published in other Loriot anthologies.
Analysis Gilling's character is a clear critic of television, which Loriot had already expressed in earlier sketches. At several points, Gilling demonstrates his obvious incompetence and poor preparation for the interview. For example, Häubl has to draw his attention to the red light on the camera that indicates the start of the interview.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 305. He changes the name of Häubl's chair to "plasmatic pneutology". Even after a correction by Häubl, he is unable to pronounce the correct name and instead uses his modification once again.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 306. Another word twist occurs when he says that Häubl is in a "legal public institution", a distortion of the phrase public-law.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 308. Gilling's exclamation "Sa-gen-haft!" in response to Häubl's simple statement that pneumatic plastology is based on new findings in the psychosomatic field also illustrates Gilling's only very superficial approach to the subject of the interview from the point of view of Germanist Uwe Ehlert, who dealt with the representation of misunderstandings in Loriot's work in his dissertation.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 307.
Häubl's behavior is also viewed negatively. According to Uwe Ehlert, Häubl's assertion that Gilling could apply his method himself without prior knowledge showed his overestimation of his own abilities as a scientist. After Gilling fails to change his nose back, Häubl quickly moves on to accusing Gilling of denying any responsibility for the accident and trying to make himself unassailable as a scientist. Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 311–312. Häubl's response to Gilling's question about the usefulness of his development reminds the German scholar Stefan Neumann, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Loriot's life and work, of the clichéd answers given by real scientists to such questions. According to Häubl, scientists work altruistically in the service of humanity and science is not a question of usefulness, but of progress. However, Häubl's altruism is called into question by himself at the end when he quotes Gilling in his consultation.Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 256. In addition, Uwe Ehlert points out a logical error in Häubl's argument, because research "in the service of humanity" also presupposes that the results are useful.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 309.
In addition to parodying television and science, faulty communication plays such a central role in the studio interview that the German scholar Felix Christian Reuter describes the cartoon in his dissertation on Loriot's television sketches as "a veritable treasure trove of communication errors".Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, Komik, Kooperation. 2016, p. 164. The first such disruption occurs at the beginning of the sketch. In response to Gilling's question as to whether there is something wrong with the technology, Häubl replies that he is not allowed to ask him that. Gilling cannot hear this answer and asks: "What do you mean?" Häubl then repeats his statement, which Gilling now relates to his second question. The two subsequently fail to clear up the misunderstanding. After a brief back-and-forth, they return to the initial problem, with Gilling again failing to understand Häubl's statement that he should not ask him about technical problems. This is the first time the sketch is interrupted in the TV version, which resolves the disruption and the two can continue their conversation undisturbed in the next part.Uwe Ehlert: „Das ist wohl mehr 'ne Kommunikationsstörung". 2004, p. 300–302.