Arjen Lubach

Arjen Henrik Lubach (; born 22 October 1979) is a Dutch comedian, author, music producer and television presenter. Between 2014 and 2021 he was the host of the weekly news satire television show Zondag met Lubach ('Sunday with Lubach') on NPO 3. Between February 2022 and October 2024, he hosted his next show, De Avondshow met Arjen Lubach ('The Evening show with Arjen Lubach') on NPO 1. The day after the last episode, he announced that he, along with his whole team, would leave NPO and VPRO to transfer to RTL 4 with a new show, starting in March 2025, in January 2025 revealed to be titled Lubach. Since August 2026, he hosts a Dutch version of Taskmaster on RTL 4, together with Diederik Smit.

Early life and education Lubach was born on 22 October 1979 in a hospital in Groningen. He was raised in Lutjegast, where he lived until age 15.

Lubach's parents were both lawyers and his father was a professor at the University of Groningen.

Lubach was 11 years old when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died a year later. The choice was made in part because his father had promised to raise the children religiously on his mother's deathbed.

From the 13th season of Wie is de Mol?, Lubach presents the programme MolTalk on Radio 1 and on the second screen, where he looks forward to and back on every episode of that day. In 2013, Lubach and linguist Paulien Cornelisse started a monthly language segment on De Wereld Draait Door.

On Sunday 9 November 2014, the first episode of Zondag met Lubach aired. It is a satirical talkshow, in which he takes a critical look at the last week's news. Because of 22 March 2015 episode in which he mocked the Dutch monarchy by proclaiming himself "Pharao of the Netherlands" and launched a citizens' initiative to confirm it, Lubach was awarded the title of Republican of the Year 2015 by the New Republican Society.

In early 2017, the Zondag met Lubach video "The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words" that ridiculed United States President Donald Trump while at the same time using self-mockery, went viral and was viewed more than 73 million times worldwide. It inspired the similar German late-night satirical talkshow Neo Magazin Royale of Jan Böhmermann to launch a Europe-wide video contest to let every country make its own parody video.

Music In 2001, Lubach and Janine Abbring scored a number 3 hit under the pseudonym of Slimme Schemer ft. Tido. This song, Jelle, originated as a joke at the Noorderslag festival; it is a parody of American rapper Eminem and British singer Dido's song Stan. It is about a fan, Jelle, who disappointedly sings (in second person singular) about De Kast singer Syb van der Ploeg, blaming him for not replying to his messages.

In 2014 Kygo released a song named Firestone, which was written by Arjen Lubach and Martijn Konijnenburg, who worked on it together. The song was sold without their knowledge. In 2020 Lubach released a book (Dutch: Stoorzender), the story is described in this book.

In 2015, Lubach secretly released the song "Justified (Sunrise Funk)" under the pseudonym Hartebees, which became a hit. Radio host Domien Verschuuren discovered Lubach was the artist, because his name was listed as producer on Deezer. In July 2016 it became known that Arjen Lubach is part of a dance duo called The Galaxy. The Amsterdam-based DJ duo released their Bass Country Club EP in 2015 with the Barong Family label, which was founded by Yellow Claw. The Galaxy released their second EP, Moon & The Stars EP in late 2016.

Views Lubach described himself as "a republican to the core" and has spoken out against the Dutch monarchy. He considers belief in a God to be something remarkable and has taken an assertive position against the excesses of religion. During the Zondag met Lubach episode of 17 September 2017, Lubach ferociously criticised animal suffering in factory farming, recalling the 2017 fipronil eggs contamination, numerous farm fires killing hundreds of thousands of animals and mistreatment of animals in farms (particularly De Knorhof in Erichem) and slaughterhouses. He then launched a new ironic certification mark for animal-unfriendly meat, whilst commenting on "real meat": "I do not buy that shit anymore". One month later, Lubach jokingly tweeted that the "Zondag met Lubach" menu at his workplace contained many meaty dishes, wondering whether the VPRO canteen was aware he did not eat meat.

During COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, he has been supportive of the Dutch government's firm position against the proposed Eurobond, blaming the citizens of Southern European countries (more specifically in this case Italy) for electing anti-austerity politicians for decades.