Berlin – Moderator Barbara Schöneberger, in her own words, has a green thumb. That could have benefited her for a role she slipped into for the new edition of the television show “Do you understand fun?” on Saturday evening on Erste (8:15 p.m.). In the show, which was recorded by SWR in Berlin, the 50-year-old plays a botany professor and thus makes fun of a presenter.
“I have a very green thumb. I’d say I’m close to self-sufficiency,” Schöneberger told the German Press Agency. She spends a lot of time in Sweden and grows everything from lettuce, tomatoes, apples to potatoes. She also keeps chickens and home-bred cattle.
“Do you understand fun?” is now also about botany. In the show, Schöneberger, as a supposed professor, takes aim at the moderator Dominik Pöll. The affected broadcast of the magazine “We in Bavaria” on Bayerischer Rundfunk was shown in February. Schöneberger is disguised as a funny expert who talks about a special plant that only rarely blooms.
Also guests on Saturday evening are entertainer Thomas Gottschalk, pop singer Beatrice Egli and the Austrian ex-football professional Toni Polster.
Reversed decoy roles
The recording is again characterized by a lot of use of hidden cameras – this time it even hits the 50-year-old herself. Schöneberger, who – disguised as a gatekeeper – thinks she is a decoy for Gottschalk at Bayerischer Rundfunk, is instead led into the dark by the moderator. “It was very, very strange because I realized once again that I am the most innocent, gullible person who can be fooled for hours until I realize it,” said Schöneberger.
For her role as a gatekeeper, who is actually supposed to deny Gottschalk access and make life difficult, she was in the mask for three and a half hours – for false teeth, a false nose, wig and contact lenses. “It was very funny in retrospect because I didn’t need it because he tricked me.”
Schöneberger: I’ve now arrived at the show
Schöneberger has been hosting the Saturday evening show for two years now, having made her debut there in April 2022. Things are slowly going smoothly, she said. “I have now arrived on the show. It’s a bit unfair when you host such a big show that only takes place four times a year. That means: I now had my ninth day at work. And on the ninth day of work, I would say I understood how it works.” She now has the necessary calm and is no longer so excited.
This makes it all the more exciting for pop singer Egli, who is frightened with many technical tricks and illusions during a recording of her podcast “Egli Extrem”. The “Do you understand fun?” team has converted an inconspicuous-looking property into a haunted house in which the Swiss woman can go ghost hunting. “She was really very tense and then very relieved when it was over,” said Schöneberger. A making-of for the film will also be uploaded to the ARD media library and YouTube.
Toni Polster is lured into the trap with a documentary on the occasion of his 60th birthday, which contains significant errors in the ex-professional footballer’s statements. Also among the guests are influencer Sally Özcan, actress Stephanie Stumph and actor Thomas Heinze (both: “The Old One”).