Peer Steinbrück, Actually Funny

I wasn’t expecting to laugh at a politician. But there was Peer Steinbrück on Circus HalliGalli, a German late-night show where two comedians run guests through absurdist bits, and he was funny. Not performing funny. Just funny.

They did a fake debate where they asked ridiculous questions—legalize hashtags, who’s swag between Obama and Putin, did he preorder the PS4. He dodged every one with actual wit instead of the usual nothing-answer shuffle. No desperation, no reaching. Joko and Klaas looked genuinely surprised, like they’d walked in expecting a cautious politician and got something else entirely.

But the real moment was when the show stopped performing at him and he stopped performing back. Just hanging around, doing random bits, laughing at himself. That’s when you saw the difference—not a guy managing an image, just someone who could take a joke.

There’s something impossible about the whole setup. Politicians have to be superhuman and untouchable, which makes them robotic, which makes people mad, which means any moment of humanity gets punished. Nobody wins that. But watching Steinbrück crack jokes and give answers that sounded like actual thoughts—not press-office text—it struck me that this is just asking people to do the impossible. That doesn’t mean he’s right about anything. It just made me willing to believe he might actually care about trying.

The show itself held up fine, even on mainstream television. Still felt chaotic and silly and like it might fall apart, which is exactly what made it work.

I remember him laughing at his own answer to one of the questions, this completely unstudied moment where the politician fell away and there was just a guy who found something funny. I walked away from the show wanting him to win, which wasn’t part of the plan. I don’t know if that means anything.