Freek de Jonge has incurred the anger of volunteers from the Ambulance Wish Foundation last night. The comedian joked on Twitter about the terminally ill Aart (69), who attended the Rolling Stones concert as a last wish. Still, the foundation is not angry, says director Kees Veldhoen. “I understand the emotion of our volunteers, but we are not angry. We will just continue to fulfill wishes.”
“Someone who doesn’t feel like getting out of bed for the Stones,” De Jonge wrote on Twitter last night with a photo showing the hospital bed with the terminally ill Aart in it. The message sparked angry reactions in no time. ‘New low point of Freek… No chance comment’, someone wrote. And another: ‘I have always found Freek de Jonge to be a top-shelf rusk and this once again makes it clear why. It concerns a terminal patient whose last wish is fulfilled. Intensely disgusting remark from a disgusting man.’
The message also reached the volunteers of the Ambulance Wish Foundation, who shared their displeasure and called De Jonge, among other things, a ‘dirty bastard’. Kees Veldhoen, director of the foundation, says he understands the anger of the volunteers. But, he nuances: ,,Perhaps they could have worded it differently. Although I understand their anger. We have 270 volunteers who put their heart and soul into helping people who sometimes only have a few days left. They experience the emotions of the people’s family and I understand very well that such a message touches them.”
Veldhoen is not angry with De Jonge, however. ,,I am sorry that someone can react like that, but we are above it. We also deliberately did not respond to it. We just continue to fulfill wishes. In one way or another, he has also created attention for the foundation again,” it sounds optimistic.
The Ambulance Wish Foundation director is amazed at the amount of statements of support they have received after De Jonge’s tweet. ,,We have all received e-mails, which means a lot to us. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ people wrote, for example. And in principle we don’t. It’s just sad to read something like that.”
jokes
De Jonge does not seem to have any regrets about the joke. A few hours after his message, he reacted cynically to all the angry comments: ‘Oh dear, I made a joke that went wrong. You can’t always get what you want†
De Jonge is known for his stale jokes. In an interview with newspaper Fidelity last year he went into the basics of ‘real humor’. ‘Good and evil are never absolute. There is always a fraction of good in evil and a fraction of evil in the extreme good. It all runs right through each other, and that’s just so wonderful. I’m finding out more and more that I’m a serious comedian. I won’t say that I have my fill of humor, but I’m okay with it sometimes. Joy to me is something greater than laughing at a joke. Joy is being able to accept fate and feel life deeply.’
fuck the young
@freekjonge
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