Danish comedian Rasmus Wallbridge spent four months believing he was on the verge of making his first feature film. According to Spiegel, he was in fact the unwitting lead of a six-part television series built entirely on deception. The show, titled "Alle elsker Rasmus" ("Everyone Loves Rasmus"), aired on the Danish broadcaster TV2, and Wallbridge only learned the truth in its final episode.
Roughly 150 people took part in the scheme, Spiegel reports, among them friends, acquaintances, colleagues and public figures. Participants not only misled Wallbridge but in some cases recorded him with hidden cameras. A close friend and business partner of the comedian was among those who helped organise the deception.
Why it matters
The case has grown well beyond a single television stunt. It has set off a broad public argument in Denmark about how far broadcasters may go in the name of entertainment, and about who answers when the joke lands on a real person. Criticism has come from newspaper editors, the culture minister and the prime minister, turning a programming decision into a question of ethics for the country's publicly funded and commercial broadcasters alike.
Broadcaster removes series and apologises
After sustained criticism, TV2 took the series off the internet and issued an apology to Wallbridge. The broadcaster has also said it will carry out an internal review. Spiegel reports that calls for an independent inquiry and for consequences for individuals at the channel are growing louder.
The reaction from Danish media was blunt. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper Politiken wrote that anyone could see the affair amounted to bullying of the worst kind, according to Spiegel. Critics have described the series as malicious and characterised it as psychological violence.
Zenia Stampe, Denmark's culture minister, told the broadcaster DR that TV2 had acted in a wholly blatant and unethical manner and had made a fool of Wallbridge over a period of months, Spiegel reports.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also commented on the case. She said she hoped the unhappy episode would leave everyone more conscious of the moral and ethical responsibility involved in deciding what to publish, according to Spiegel.
Wallbridge breaks his silence
Wallbridge did not respond publicly at first. Over the weekend he addressed the situation on Instagram, writing that he was aware of what was being said about him and sent to him, but that he was not in a position to join the discussion. He also had a direct message for TV2 should the channel plan similar formats in future: he said he would sincerely urge it to stop.
Spiegel notes that TV2 has drawn scrutiny for controversial programming before. In the documentary "Der schwarze Schwan" ("The Black Swan"), journalists used hidden cameras and an informant inside a target organisation to expose links between Denmark's criminal underworld and its elite. That programme raised questions about the limits journalists should observe when gathering material. Danish public broadcasting more generally has a reputation for experimentation; Spiegel cites a children's animated series about a man with an oversized penis that drew attention at DR some years ago, and a TV2 programme that interviews celebrities before their deaths and broadcasts the conversations once they have died.
For TV2, the immediate pressure points are the promised internal review and whether it satisfies critics demanding outside scrutiny. Watch for whether the broadcaster names anyone responsible or changes its rules for hidden-camera formats.
