Greetings, lovers of Dutchness. It is I, Frank, with your daily dose of Dutch news.
“I fart in your general direction!” “It’s just a flesh wound…” “Always look at the bright side of life.” The Ministry of Silly Walks. “NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!”
If those phrases mean nothing to you, then you would have had my pity, had I been a weak and feeble slave-morality exercising bastard. Shame on you for not knowing the awesomeness that is Monty Python, the most innovative and dry of all British humor this side of Blackadder. They tag-lined their iconic movie Monthy Python and the Holy Grail as: “The movie that makes Ben Hur look epic”, how awesomely self-aware is that?
Seriously, watch and listen to this little gem. You know you want to:
I’m sure you know that Monty Python is getting back together after a three decade break. Proof of their legacy is that after all this time, their forthcoming show sold out in just 43,5 seconds! The geriatrics of Monty Python were so flabbergasted by all this that they decided to throw in a few extra shows just for good measure.
And speaking of records being broken, we in The Netherlands are still wondering how on Earth it was possible that a 74 year old woman who had died in her own house had gone unnoticed for ten years. Ten. Years! Needless to say, this sparked a lot of debate about the current state of our society, a word that we Dutchmen know as samenleving, a conjunction of the words ‘together’ and ‘living’. Talk about awkward.
Meanwhile, the storm in een glas water (“Storm in a tea cup”, a phrase meaning something like: “Much ado about nothing”) about Gordon’s racist remarks against the Chinese television show candidate Xang Chiao continues. Television host Gordon, who unleashed a string of absolutely terrible ethnic puns against the Asian contestant in a talent show, came under heavy fire from just about anyone. The incident has been talked about ever since. Today, Gordon finally responded to the matter and stated that, though he had no intentions of offending anyone, he did not feel like he had to apologize for anything. I find the first notion particularly out of place, because insulting and offending the contestants is precisely why these shows are so popular in the first place, but whatever.
Enough of that. On to the weather report:
