Weidling was one of the most recognized television personalities in the former German Democratic Republic. His variety show "Treff mit O.F." made him a star in the early 1980’s, and his pointed satire about politics in the GDR made him a target of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED). Weidling skewered the SED for the last time in 1984 at a live event celebrating the opening of Berlin’s Friedrichstadtpalast, a glitzy socialist remake of a famous 1920’s cabaret theater of the same name. Members of the politburo who attended the event had him banned from GDR television and the offending jokes ended up on the cutting room floor.

Hausmann, whose most recent film "NVA" was also a comedy about the GDR, said "The appeal of making a comedy about humor in a dictatorship is intense. Here is a man who has come to a point where he is standing on stage at the Friedrichstadtpalast in front of the politburo and has to make the most important choice of his life – between the punch lines and his career."

Weidling’s son, Carsten, who is the author of the book that will serve as the basis for the movie, wrote on his website that Hausmann had told him he had decided not to make another film about the GDR, but found his fathers’ story too compelling to pass up.