Do you have Dutch grandparents? Or had a Dutch nanny? Then maybe you were presented with a broodje aap verhaal as a kid. Or maybe your Dutchie friend fooled you with one recently — without you realising!
So, what exactly is this broodje aap verhaal?
Monkey-sandwich story?
Yup, you read that right! Broodje aap verhaal literally translates to “monkey-sandwich story.” But don’t fear, your oma, nanny, or that funny friend didn’t feed you monkey sandwiches. 😉
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A better (or at least more accurate) translation is probably an old-wives tale or urban legend.
But why?
If a broodje aap verhaal really means an old-wives tale, why did the Dutch come up with “monkey sandwich story”? Trust us, we were a little lost at first, too.
However, like with many other quirky Dutch words or expressions (some of which aren’t even translatable!), we need to understand the origin of the term broodje aap verhaal to understand the translation.
in Dutch the term "monkey sandwich story" (broodje aap verhaal) is used to refer to something that is untrue or made up 🙉
— Untranslatable (@untranslatabl) October 8, 2022
The phrase originates from a, well, kinda gross (but thankfully untrue) story.
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Once upon a time, a truck was entering a hot dog factory when it collided with another truck. The back doors of the first truck opened in the collision, and a decapitated, skinned corpse fell on the street. Panic!
But, a plot twist: it wasn’t a human corpse that fell on the street. Instead, police found it was the body of a gorilla.
The hot dog factory was investigated and discovered to be filled with monkey and bear bodies that had been bought cheaply. Um… hot dog, anyone? 🌭🤢
It’s always bread-related
So, the Dutch term for an old wives’ tale essentially comes from a famous old wives’ tale!
It seems that the original broodje aap verhaal was meant to put children off junk food — served up as a sandwich, which probably wasn’t how they’d envisioned getting a monkey with their Happy Meal.
There are many more peculiar Dutch broodje aap verhalen floating around, but we’re hardly surprised that one of the most famous ones has to do with bread. It is the Netherlands, after all. 😆
Do you know any broodje-aap verhaalen? Or were you ever fooled by one? Tell us in the comments below!
Lived in The Netherlands for 16 years and never heard of this saying, ever!
Hmm, misschien hadden we het niet moeten vertalen naar monkey sandwich, maar ape sandwich. Een gorilla is immers geen monkey.
grew up in the Netherlands; left in 1981
Don’t remember hearing “broodje aap”
Everybody in the Netherlands knows what it means. It’s quite common. Even newspapers use the phrase.