The satirist Jan Böhmermann had previously expressed negative opinions about the Twitch streamer Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris in 2020. Since the summer of 2022, however, he has been notably frequently engaging with the streamer and taking on his role.
What was the conflict in 2020? In his podcast “Fest&Flauschig,” satirist Jan Böhmermann spoke about Twitch and the danger of viewers slipping into a right-wing corner:
“There are YouTubers, Let’s Players, fans of MontanaBlack, and hardcore neo-Nazis further to the right, who are trying to pick up the MontanaBlack community that has developed a taste for it.”
His partner Olli Schulz also joined in on the criticism:
Nowadays, you create an internet channel, tattoo your face, claim you have a foreskin constriction, and all sorts of things, and people love you for it and say: “Hey, that’s someone like me, he’s just as messed up” and then you even write a book about it: “My Hard Path of Suffering,” and then they all buy it […] And I have to say: What a stupid idiot I am for having taken such a dumb path?
MontanaBlack lashes out at Böhmermann: failed career
What happened next? MontanaBlack was outraged in May 2020 about being pushed into a right-wing corner. He was especially annoyed that Böhmermann had “defamed” his entire community.
MontanaBlack accused Böhmermann of being envious because his career had failed.
Böhmermann then clarified his criticism, stating that he did not think MontanaBlack was right-wing but that he had a great responsibility and needed to become aware of it. Precisely because Twitch is so unregulated, the “stars” of the platform must clearly position themselves and take responsibility.
Some are aware of their role, but others couldn’t care less about this responsibility. That is a fundamental problem.
Since summer 2022, MontanaBlack has been the target of parodies
What is the situation now? Böhmermann rediscovered MontanaBlack in the summer of 2022 and developed a parody of him, which he has already embodied several times.
After an episode of “ZDF Magazin Royale,” in which he reacted live as a MontanaBlack lookalike, four more “reaction streams” from Böhmermann in the role of a Twitch streamer, who is strongly modeled after MontanaBlack, have now appeared in the ZDF Mediathek and on YouTube: He rambles on, is unprepared, snacks on chips, burps, and comments on whatever comes to mind.
In the parodies, he has so far commented on:
- The ZDF Fernsehgarten – 690,000 views
- Bares für Rares – 600,000 views
- “Lizard on the Go” – 330,000 views
- Do You Understand Fun? – 350,000 views
What’s up with the mega show? In the show “ZDF Magazin Royale” from Friday, Böhmermann attempted a new format, broadcasting live, taking viewer calls, and reacting to the opinions of callers. He apparently oriented himself on radio formats with viewer calls that he had done before – but publicly presented it in a way that suggested he had staged the show in homage to Twitch and MontanaBlack.
At the end of the show, he seemingly disappointed said:
It is 11:31 PM, unfortunately the show is over much faster than feared. I thought we would do the MontanaBlack mega stream tonight, I specifically tanked Alge-Alge-Alge like Knossi, I am really psyched up and pumped because I thought you, ladies and gentlemen, could get our show back on the right track. You could push us back onto the rails. You could provide us with facts and topics. Clearly, that has not succeeded.
Böhmermann gets a taste for reacting and improvising
What’s behind this: You can see how the relationship between Böhmermann and Twitch and MontanaBlack has changed over 3 years:
- In 2020, it was a critical outside perspective – Böhmermann mainly aimed to say that some people there, especially MontanaBlack, needed to take more responsibility
- From 2022 on, it becomes clear that Böhmermann has intensified his engagement with the Twitch scene and its peculiarities. Even though he mocks it, he apparently realizes how successful such a “just sit down and talk” approach is
This fundamental principle was already discovered many years ago by former gaming journalist and later influencer Fabian Siegismund. Siegismund had created elaborate tutorial videos for Battlefield for years for GameStar but eventually started uploading unedited gameplay that he had to record for the tutorials anyway.
Ultimately, he realized: Livestreaming is much less effort, you finish early and get almost as much out of it as with the elaborate tutorial videos.
Thus, the large, journalistic 30-minute shows are clearly more successful for Böhmermann, but the 9-minute reaction streams, into which clearly much less work flows, also bring relevance and viewers.
With his criticism that MontanaBlack is not doing justice to his responsibility, not even when it comes to “loot boxes” in FIFA, Böhmermann does not seem to be reaching the streamer:
