Critics feel it in everything: Chateau Bijstand can go very wrong for the Meilandjes. That laughing at poverty in 2022 is really no longer fun, was shown yesterday in the talk show HLF8.
The Meilandjes came yesterday in the talk show of Johnny de Mol to promote their new amusing assistance show Chateau Bijstand. Just before that, two ladies were sitting at the table – one on welfare, the other on disability benefits – who are extremely concerned about the bizarre rise in energy prices.
painful image
Grietje Bouw (photo above) and Hanny Heuvelink (photo below) told Johnny in detail how difficult the situation is currently for people on benefits. Hanny didn’t keep it dry. Less than ten minutes later her tears gave way to the screaming Meilandjes. They just made fun of this problem for a month.
A picture is worth a thousand words: when Johnny shows an excerpt from Chateau Bijstand in which Martien and Maxime are yelling about the ‘assistance house’ they enter (“Oh how small!!! Oh how bad!!!”), the foreground Grietje entitled to disability benefits in the picture. Her face speaks volumes: this is not something for benefit recipients.
“Oh, how small!”
In the fragment in question, Maxime and Martien approach their ‘assistance home’. Well, that’s what SBS 6 calls it: in reality it concerns a private sector home of 1,750 euros (!) per month. “Oh, it’s very small!” Martien screams. Maxime: “Oh how small it is!”
For the sake of effect, Talpa has made this private sector home just as nice and dirty on the inside. Martien: “Oh, what’s on the floor? Oh, that’s carpeting. Oh yeah, no, that’s not good. Oh girl, it’s dirty.” Erica: “Oh how bad.”
Then the Meilandjes are in the normal living room of the single-family home, which has a total of almost 100 square meters. Martien: “Oh how small it is!” Erica: “Yes, but that’s how the houses were then.” Martien in the kitchen: “Oh how bad! There is water.”
Hanny stunned
Grietje can’t yet smile when the images of the hysterical Meilandjes pass by. The very wealthy TV family clearly has no idea that most Dutch people live in these types of terraced houses. Johnny edifyingly to Martien: “Yes, but what is small for you may be a palace for someone else!”
Hanny out loud: “Yes!”
Martien to Hanny: “Yes, that’s possible, but yes, that was of course the entire transition for us, from: go do it! Well, we made it through, didn’t we?”
Elephant in the room
Johnny sticks to one semi-critical question: “Let me (…) name the elephant in the room. We have of course just heard this story and you are stepping into this story. Isn’t that a bit of a squeeze somewhere?”
Erica Meiland: “Yes, of course. We only did it for a month. That is of course very different from when you are in it for years. That is of course clear. Anyway, we have of course committed ourselves to charities and it is also important to draw attention to them. We really just experienced it.”
Martien: “It was natural for us from the luxurious life in Noordwijk to Uithoorn. Well, then you got there in that very tiny house. That was my biggest concern. With that money I thought: well, we’ll see. But that small living room with three adults and two children and two dogs…”
And Johnny’s co-host Britt Dekker? She wisely kept her mouth shut. Also from SBS 6.
countdown
In vain Johnny tries to find a deeper layer with the Meilandjes: “How do you feel, Erica?”
Erica: “Well, actually you’re really glad you’re back home. You just have. You are counting down a bit.”
Wonderful, counting down the days until you can return to your luxury life. Hanny and Gretel can only dream of that. Hanny: “Grietje and I and a lot of people with us have to think every day and think every day in front of that letterbox: ‘Please, don’t clatter.’ What kind of fate falls within? We have no buffer.”
“Can’t you work?”
Then another fragment is started: Erica and Martien walking through the thrift store. They see a sofa. “Smell it,” says Erica, as if people who can shop at the thrift store can only score filthy stuff.
Life on welfare is really no laughing matter, according to Hanny: “Every day from you get up until you go to bed, we have to be busy with: can I get by today? Can I wash? Yes, I can wash, but then I can no longer vacuum in terms of energy. I don’t have a dryer at all.”
Martien finger pointing: “But isn’t it so Hanny, because you articulate everything very well… Can’t you start working part-time or something?”
martien
Martien in his ‘little living room’:
Comments
The reactions on social media are scathing: