Dutch Jokes

[Jaga]

Pieter,

somebody just posted it on the facebook. Dutch people can make fun of themsleves:
stuffdutchpeoplelikebook.com/

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

Making fun of ourselves (selfmockery) is a large part of Dutch humor.

Dutch humor has changed over the centuries. In the 16th century, the Dutch were renowned for their humor throughout Europe, and many travel journals have notes on the happy and celebratory nature of the Dutch. Farces and joke books were in demand and many Dutch painters chose to paint humorous paintings, Jan Steen being a good example.

The main subjects of Dutch jokes at the time were deranged households, drunken clerics (mostly of the Roman Catholic Church) and people with mental and/or physical handicaps. A main theme was the reproof of immoral ethics: the 'Vicar's wagging finger'. However, at the end of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was in decline, and the Dutch Reformed Church denounced laughter and advocated sober lifestyles. Etiquette manuals appeared which considered it impolite to laugh out loud. This continued into the 1960s: during World War II, American soldiers were instructed not to tell jokes to the Dutch as "they would not appreciate it".
Famous Dutch comedians include Hans Teeuwen, Herman Finkers, Wim Sonneveld, Toon Hermans, Bert Visscher, Youp van 't Hek, Najib Amhali, Theo Maassen, Kees van Kooten, Sara Kroos, Brigitte Kaandorp, Karin Bloemen, Claudia de Breij, Tineke Schouten, Jochem Myjer and André van Duin.

Pieter's comment:

I can add to this Dutch humor story that there are various kinds of Dutch humors. You also have humor connected to Peoples cultures of regions, cities and towns. You have typical Amsterdam peoples humor (with a strong Yiddisch element in it), in Amsterdam city dialect. The Amsterdam population has a heritage of North-Holland people, the Sephardic Portugese jewish immigrants, the later Eastern- and Central-European and German Ashkenazi jewish immigrants, the French (Protestant) Huegenot immigrants and the Flemish Calvinist merchants who fled to Amsterdam during the Eighty years war to the North (often people from Flemish cities like Antwerp and Gent), ad some English and other immigrant elements (Surinamese, Dutch Antillian, Moroccan, Turkish and Kurd) to that and you get the Amsterdam sense of humor.

The Rotterdam sense of humor is a world harbour kind of sense of humor with Dutch, German, English, French, Belgian and Southern-Dutch (Brabant, Limburg and Zeeland), migrant and other influences in it. A city with a lot of harbour workers, construction workers and factory workers, it has a typical working class sense of humor in the Rotterdam city dialect.

The Hague is the countries government center, administrative center, diplomatic city and class differences (aristocratic or merchant class vs the The Hague working class and lower middle class people) has a very strong Southern-Holland city dialect and typical sense of humor which is difficult to explain to people who do not speak Dutch and are not from Germanic region.

It is difficult to explain what inlfuence all the regional and local dialects and regional languages, identities, city dialects the pillarization and religious pluralism had on Dutch culture and humor. You could say you have a typical Dutch Roman-Catholic (Southern rural) Brabant and Limburg kind of sense of humor, a Calvinist Protestant sense of humnor of the Zeeland people in the South-West, Holland in the West and partly Friesland and some Low Saxon provinces in the North and East. Maybe in Poland you have Kashubian, Goral (karpatian), Silesian, German (minority), Ukrainian (minority), Poznanian, Crakovian, Varsovian and Białystokian (Eastern-Polish) and Northern Gdańskian humor? General Dutch humor came to existance due to the depillarization, secularization and class struggle (egalization) of the 20th century via student comedy, workers movement comedy mand the formation of a progessive leftwing intelligentsia via press, media, the art world (hapenings and performances) and subcultures.

But the deeper lying regional rooted and oriented peoples humor is older, and always connected to a city, town or region.

Rotterdam humor


Rotterdam poet, writer, night mayor and jazz musician


The Hague humor

A rightwing political party has it's own militia, with the Germanic name Wodan


The Hague humor. A mother and a moody son. She can't drive and he hasn't got a driving licence due to mental problems. He stil lives withe his mother. This was a famous comedian duo in the Netherlands during the eighties and nineties. They had several scetches and types.


This is brilliant Dutch self mockery, because everybody reckognizes the scetch of a familymember, some neighbor or other person from the neighborhood who can't park their car. In the Netherlands parking space is limited and therefor the Dutch are very skilled parking people. This mother has enough space for her car, but just keeps driving the wrong way and makes her son mad. He wants a feny sport car and a beautiful blond girlfriend, but he has his mother and has therapy ( a shrink) for his mental problems. This was on of the many very popular characters of the comedy duo van Kooten en de Bie.

These sisters of van Kooten and de Bie are brilliant too. An uncle and aunt of mine who live in the area where the sceth was recorded said that they had neighbors just like there pair of sisters. Brilliant type cast.


Eccentric Amsterdam couple. Furious woman attacks her husband

Man buys stup work of art for 1200 Euro, his wife flips(You have to die, you have to die.) This is a pair of comedians too.

Living together

Quarel between homeless character and one of the duo

You see on the expression of de Bie's face that he is deeply insulted by the homeless character (played by himself)

Drunken Amsterdam students invite pubkband


The samen students, one of them has made a vulnerable song


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kraaijkamp,_Sr.


And here some of the most crazy Dutch comedians



This guy is brilliant, because all 7 dwarfs are in 7 different Dutch and Flemish dialects.

Amsterdam neighbors. A white trash (Trailer trash) couples lives next to a decent middle or high class couple. The class difference causes trouble

All people are actors, colleages, this scene is staged.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

Dutch couple converts to Islam. The wife is more radical.


Rap battle of European politicians


The Wizard of Oz is a former Dutch rightwing populist politician

At the end she loses vote after vote, seat after seat in parliament

Moroccan comedians play Londsdale style far right Dutch youth. Say they were the first racists and nazi's

The music shows the style of music and subculture of the Dutch hooligan and far right youth. The funny thing is that these Moroccan migrant youth copy the style.



Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

Here you see the importance of a comedian in Dutch culture.



The French Gouvernante of the comedian Jean-Louis Pisuisse


Famous Dutch comedian with his popular character, a joyful Roman-Catholic priest with a Southern Limburgian accent.


This Limburgian comedian had a popular act. He doesn't like Sinterklaas and black Pete. Weird couple, stupid songs, silly customs and traditions.


Political comedian imitates the leaders of the Dutch Labour party and christian democratic party in a brilliant mannner


A very good Dutch comedian and singer. He died young unfortunately. He sang in Dutch like a french chansonnier. (But in a Dutch atmsophere, sentiment and tradition, which is different than German, French, English or Felmish)


A Dutch female comedian covered his song


Dutch comedian sings a song in Afrikaans, the South-African language of half of the white South-Africans


Very funny Dutch selfmockery about a simple minded Dutch man and woman.

[pieter]

This is a mocking video about Dutch public servants about their sillyness and bizar office humor.


Heavily exaggerated.

[pieter]

Mocking Dutch politicians, the leaders of the Labour party and the socialist party, in the smart quiz and a weird historian and America expert (the guy with the beard and moustache).



And here the real characters:



The Leader of the socialist party, Emile Roemer


The Leader of the (social democratic) Labour party, Diederik Samson


The ironical, sometimes cynical leftwing historian Maarten van Rossem

[pieter]

[pieter]

Mocking boring Dutch radio dj's from the national public radio


I think that the art of selfmockery comedy and stand up is a British and Dutch speciality. But I know that Poles, Jews, some Belgians and Germans are good at it too. Selfmockery is a delightful form of self relativation and making the image of yourself less serious and heavy. It is good to be able to laugh at yourself and in the same time at good humor about others (the Putin video).

[pieter]

Dutch people visiting the James Bond museum



Mocking the Dutch women bookclub and upperclass tea party culture

[pieter]

Very funy comedy scetch of the rightwing populist Geert Wilders who visits a leftwing (liberal progressive) art program 'stars on the canvas' in which artists paint portaits of wellknown Dutch personalities (tv and radio stars, musicians, movie stars and politicians like wilders.



Geert Wilders enters the room with his body guards. The leftist artists (who are mocked at the start of the program themselves) start with showing their disaproval and disgust for the gues they have to paint. Don't be to enhousiast, Wilders reacts ironically. He always talks about Henk and Ingrid as the healthy, common Dutchmen, the native Dutch people (in contrast with the foreign, migrant and leftist elements in his country). One of the artists asks Wilders to turn a little bit to the left in his pose. Wilders replies, not for you, move to the right (politically) yourself. To the female presenter he says; "Let me be clear, I consider you to be the most repulsive, leftwing, multi-cultural, subsidy absorbing, from this whole leftist elitist clique."

Shen replies with: "Welcome at Stars on the canvas, Artists go, let's work." Geert Wilders: "It doesn't matter how the Netherlands looks at me, it matters how I look at the Netherlands."

I will explain it once again to you miss leftist church, and then the mutual irony and mocking continues. ...... (leftist and rightwing stereotypes pass the stage).

And with the Dutch prime-minister


And here the real program: