Contrary to what most people think, the tension between theoterrorism and free speech did not start with the Rushdie Affair, but two years earlier, in the Netherlands and in Germany.

On New Year's Eve (Sylvester in German), 1987, the German television broadcast some highlights from Rudi Carrell's (1934-2006) “comedy show”. Carrell was a Dutch-born entertainer who became one of the most beloved show masters on German television. Successes in his home country led him to seek new challenges, and in 1965 he moved to Germany. There he mastered the German language, although he spoke it with a heavy Dutch accent for the rest of his life. The Rudi Carrell Show (1965-1972) and Rudi's Tagesshow (1981-1987) were both huge successes. On at least one occasion, in 1987, he drew a viewership of twenty million people.

By 1987 Carrell, born in the Dutch town of Alkmaar (famous for its cheese market), had been working in West Germany for twenty-three years and acquired a reputation as one of the most popular TV personalities. He was especially notorious for poking fun at German politicians using photo-montage tricks, or, as the Germans say, “Bildwitze” (jokes with pictures): a combination of pictures, texts, and spoken commentary.

The 1987 highlights from Rudi's Tagesshow contained footage of Willy Brandt walking on his bare feet, Nancy Reagan falling off a podium, Pope John Paul II, Helmut Kohl, Margaret Thatcher, and other world leaders in more or less compromising situations. The Tagesshow was Carrell's most famous program, a parody on ARD's main evening news, the German “Tagesschau”.

One clip was noticeably lacking from the 1987 Tagesshow highlights: a spoof broadcast earlier that year, on Sunday 15 February 1987, and watched by 20.5 million viewers. Here Carrell used cinematic tricks to make it appear as if women are throwing their underwear at the feet of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.