The victim Boris Becker

We sports fans don't have long to pause. As soon as the World Cup is over, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are already playing a cup game in England. Offensive, happy, goal-scoring. And there can no longer be any talk of the World Cup participants' teams being exhausted. But these appointments are rather the exception. Luckily, perhaps. Depending on.

Because if there's no sport to watch at the moment - go ahead, it'll continue soon - you can watch other programs and, if necessary, read more than just the sports news. And you rub your eyes. There is always an Oliver Pocher, a so-called comedian. Whatever that is supposed to be. Personally, I associate it with clowning, fun, maybe funny sketches. Definitely relaxing entertainment. Just a comedy. Funny. Giuseppe Verdi had to realize that this genre is not easy to use, as he once experienced one of his greatest failures with an opera buffa (Un giorno di regno).

Boris Becker, former world star. © AFP / JEAN-LOUP GAUTREAU

When I think of comedies, the first name that comes to mind is Heinz Rühmann. With a light hand and a casual demeanor, he was able to play the broken pilot Quax in difficult times (1941). And so much more later. Comedies that entertained. Now the ladies and gentlemen who take on this genre are rather insensitive thugs who lash out at the weaknesses of their fellow human beings (often politicians). Only a few have mastered the subtleties of the language. The above-mentioned Pocher, who runs a so-called podcast and is also in demand on TV, has chosen Boris Becker as a willing victim.

Well, I have to admit that Pocher means about as much to me as a certain Lombardi, whose love life is described in detail in a publication with four capital letters. Apparently he is a well-known singer. Oh well. He probably has an exclusive contract with that newspaper. I can't explain his constant presence any other way. Well, they'll now say, well, Heinrich is reading this tabloid. Yes, he does, because in sports, colleagues are often very well informed, but this also has to do with the special nature of special business conditions with different athletes or other celebrities.

Sad comedy So every day it's Pocher against Becker. I ask myself in all seriousness: Who is this Pocher and what has he already achieved in contrast to the tennis star Becker? The answer is simple. Someone, because he believes he can do that as a comedian, takes on a celebrity - in this case a former athlete - connects with a mass media that prints or sends his statements and thus becomes almost more famous than a former 17th person -year-old tennis player from Leimen. It's almost a comedy if it weren't so sad.

Comedian Oliver Pocher. © Facebook/Oliver Pocher

Being a comedian is certainly an incredibly difficult job and it's amazing how many people dare to take up this profession, although almost all of them basically fail miserably because the bar is very, very high. Dieter Hildenbrandt, Loriot alias Vicco von Bülow and his brilliant partner Evelyn Hamann or Werner Schneyder and of course Harald Juhnke. That was the high school. But they were also cabaret artists. Language artist. Now things have to be loud and often to the point of personal insult. Lawyers have long been busy correcting the linguistic errors of many comedians.

Clowning at Christmas But let's leave this problem behind for a moment and sit back with our remote control. Luckily there are no so-called funny events with comedians at Christmas. Instead, of course, old camels, which are still popular and indispensable classics. And then I stop at my former sports colleague Johannes B. Kerner and at first I think to myself: Is it still Christmas or is it already Carnival. He performs a show with so-called celebrities in a juggler's suit (with heavenly motifs, after all), which is extremely popular at the moment.

Just like quiz shows are popping up on TVs everywhere. Even the mountain doctor Hans Sigl now gets his own quiz show. First question: How high is the Zugspitze? Well, I know that you can't produce hours of television cheaper than with formats like this, but the flood of these simple offers has become an avalanche. Basically, we're back to sports. Sometimes less would certainly be more, but ultimately downhill skiing, ski jumping or even a biathlon race are also inexpensive alternatives for the production budget.

Only football cannot refinance expenses. But that's a thing of the past for now. Now there is a lot of winter sports with little comedic appeal, but rather with tension, drama and tragedy. Yes, this too. In any case, I'm looking forward to the next few months, even if there is a flood of offers that we can at least choose from. Of course, it will rarely be funny. Unfortunately, sport has long since become too serious a matter for that.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize), author and TV commentator looks at all areas of sport in his column “Sigi's Peaks”, sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes very seriously or deliberately provocatively. There should be something for everyone. From time to time he also looks beyond the sporting horizon. After studying sports, Heinrich was editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung for ten years and has been part of Eurosport's repertoire for more than 30 years.

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