Alles kan beter (11)

Blokken

"Goeienavond en welkom in Blokken!"

If you've never heard this sentence, it means you've never watched this quiz programme hosted by Ben Crabbé, a 'BV' playing as the drummer for De Kreuners.

Here's a parody of the show made by Chris en co:




Next week the 3000th 'aflevering will be broadcast, consisting in a final between the best contestants that this show has known (and I underline here some of our familiar 'Konnex-uitdrukkingen':

Blokken 3000

In de aanloop naar de drieduizendste aflevering van Blokken komen enkele sterke kandidaten uit het verleden terug. Uit de laatste vijfhonderd afleveringen werden acht ijzersterke spelers geselecteerd: vier mannen en vier vrouwen. Zij hebben stuk voor stuk een indrukwekkend parcours afgelegd en krijgen nu de kans om de grote winnaar te worden van de drieduizendste Blokken.

Vanaf maandag 24 november nemen de acht superquizzers het tegen elkaar op in een poulesysteem. De vier mannen mogen de spits afbijten. Zij spelen van maandag 24 tot vrijdag 28 november vijf afleveringen tegen elkaar. De twee mannen die minstens twee keer winnen, gaan door naar de finaleweek. Vanaf maandag 1 december is het de beurt aan de vrouwen. Ook voor hen geldt dat de twee beste vrouwen doorgaan naar de volgende week.

Tijdens de finaleweek van maandag 8 tot en met vrijdag 12 december spelen de vier toppers tegen elkaar. Wie tijdens deze week minstens twee overwinningen behaalt, mag naar de finale op zaterdag 13 december.

De twee allerbesten spelen tegen elkaar in de 3000ste Blokken op zaterdag 13 december, in prime time. Dat wordt een historische veldslag.

Now you know what I'll be watching on 13 December!

Alles kan beter (4)

Let's watch a couple of other fragments from the tremendously hilarious show Alles kan beter. The first extract is evidence that French-speaking students of Dutch are not the only ones who make mistakes when saying the plural form of a noun:



Waw! The former rector of the K.U.Leuven, André Oosterlinck, had a combover! Gotcha!


"Na de maaltijd begaf minister-president Van den Brande zich naar de toiletten. Daar zag ie drie lavabi. Hij deed pipo in de middenstens.



"Blind date?"
"Een 'Braille-afspraak'."

"Hoe noemt men Vlamingen in Benidorm, bijvoorbeeld? 'Paellatievepatienten'?"
"Baignoren."
"VTM-ers?"

Alles kan beter (3)

The team of Alles kan beter hasn't forgotten old people who are a bit deaf: they've created a special newsprogramme for them:



"Met een beetje geluk, tot morgen!"

A comparison between the VRT and VTM news programmes:

Dummy prince

Please watch this account of an interview of prince Philippe that was broadcast on Koppen, a VRT één programme. We get a sharp analysis of Philip's (un)ability to become king of our country when King Albert II dies.

"Is de prins er klaar voor? Het antwoord is: "Ja". De koning moet gasten ontvangen en met zijn foto op koekendozen kunnen staan, en dàt is meer dan in orde. Als België blijft bestaan, zal Filip er koning van kunnen zijn, maar of hij echt zal wegen, dat moet nog blijken."

A bit of Dutch, for a change

Here's a video from the VRT showing a Seaking helicopter bringing a mast at the top of the Atomium.



And here's a report on the reception of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (by Dany Boon) in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais:

What A Mistake, Mr Leterme!

Christophe Deborsu works as a journalist for the RTBF (Radio-Télévision de Belgique Francophone, i.e. the Belgian, French-speaking broadcasting corporation), whose Flemish equivalent is the VRT (Vlaamse Radio en Televisie). Usually, he does reports for the news, but a few years ago, he was also doing reports in a UFO-like program (Projet X) with topics about silly things that happen in Belgium. Sometimes, we was tickling politicians, finding upsetting things about their project, etc. That is the reason why he was nicknamed by some: "le fouille-merde".

I told you in yeasterday's post that I went to Brussels to attend the celebrations of National Day, and I also stated that hardly anyone can actually say why the date of 21 July was chosen as National Day, nor sing the national anthem, the Brabançonne. Ok, but what does it have to do with Christophe Deborsu? Well, I saw him yesterday: while I was waiting outside the cathedral with my brother, I saw him walking towards the official cars, running after someone. On that moment, I said to myself: "Tiens, Deborsu vient faire son fouille-merde ?". It's authentic.

That very same evening, I discovered that Frédéric Deborsu had managed to make Yves Leterme stumble on something rather symbolic… (Yves Leterme will become Belgium's next Prime Minister. There's no doubt about it.)

Watch this video: Frédéric Deborsu's whole report (originally about the lack of knowledge of politicians about the Belgian History), then the Flemish viewpoint on this case, with help of the interview of Christophe Deborsu.



The burgemeester of Ypers actually didn't know that 21 July stands for the oath-taking of Léopold I in 1831, then he sang the two first lines of the Marseillaise, the French national anthem!!! A republican hymn in front of a cathedral in which a mass was about to be given in honour of a monarchy!! Surrealism in its pure form.

There's what happened: he made a mistake. He didn't know the anthem, as the huge majority of Belgian do.

(Remember: in a previous post, I told you I was the only one in the class who could actually sing the lyrics of the Brabançonne. After some research, I realized that there are so many different versions of the anthem that it's impossible for me to determine which is the good one. I learned at school a version that doesn't seem to be the same as the one as that in Le Soir of 22 July…)

So, Mr Leterme didn't know the lyrics at all — even though I'm sure he knows the lyrics of the Vlaamse Leeuw, the anthem of Flemish nationalists — and song the first patriotic song he had in mind. The problem is that the Walloons thought of it as a provocation… It was merely a mistake, but the Walloons have a prejudice about this man. They (I'm Walloon, but I don't share their — public — opinion) think he's trying to give more powers to the Region of Flanders (and I personnaly think it would be a good idea) up to the point of splitting the country in two (and I personnally think this is not his goal at all: Flanders would lose a lot if it becomes independent).

Later on, in Dutch, Mr Leterme appologized for having offended people, even if it wasn't his intention. He said he'd made a mistake. Then, when asked to re-say it in French, he said it was out of the question. On VTM (private Flemish television), he was (implicitly) more aggressive towards the RTBF, saying that people who would want to discredit him would pay the price of it…

Already threatening the media? Usually, we can see such things in a dictatorship, I thought. Fearsome… Then I thought that the next four years were going to be great fun (I'm just being ironic) with this man as Prime Minister…

And I can say: "I was there when it happened"!!!