René van der Gijp sat next to Wierd Duk again last night in Today Inside, despite the fact that he does not want to and his wife campaigned to get the Telegraaf star out of the show. “No eye contact.”
It was quite a surprise in mid-August: René van der Gijp announced in his podcast that he no longer wanted to sit next to Wierd Duk in Today Inside. “I just said: ‘I don’t really like having him next to me.’ (…) I just can’t stand it when someone has no humor, no self-mockery and takes themselves way too seriously. I don’t accept that.”
Messiah complex
Things are ‘going crazy’ with opinion makers like Wierd, René said. “People have the idea that if they have an opinion about Gaza, that opinion really matters. It doesn’t matter at all! Not at all, you know. In recent months I thought: you know, it’s starting to make me laugh a bit, those types. It’s pedantic.”
A month later, René also went live in VI on Wierd. “Wierd does have a bit of delusions of grandeur if you think you are the Messiah. That you think you are the one in the Netherlands who has to do it. Then you have a messiah complex that makes me think: I have to laugh about it rather than take it seriously. Very honest.”
Woman goes wild
The monkey soon came out of the sleeve: René’s wife Minouche van der Gijp threw up on Wierd. A day later, she railed against the Telegraaf journalist on her social media — dismissing him as an ‘inhumane crackpot’. “Let’s no longer give these people a platform where they can express their extreme right-wing views.”
The situation escalated completely a day later. She then demanded Wierd’s departure from VI. “You may think that you are a breath of fresh air for VI, but this program has been managing for many years without your extreme right-wing view of life. (…) As long as you keep shouting that no genocide is being committed, they will vomit you up after a while.”
Yet side by side again
René and Wierd sat side by side again yesterday. Why? Because René joined us on Wednesday for the first time this week, because he didn’t want to miss the broadcast with Boris Becker. Normally Wierd sits in Gijp’s place on Wednesdays, but now he was moved up an evening.
It’s uncomfortable, viewers of VI think. “Gijp avoids eye contact with Wierd Duk,” says viewer Rob on X. And Elaine: “Minouche allows Gijp to sit next to Wierd Duk??”
‘It’s going fine!’
After the first commercial break, Wilfred Genee asks the gentlemen if things are going well. “Things are going great between you, right? Nothing wrong, man.”
René pretends his nose is bleeding: “What do you mean?”
Wilfred: “Yes, nice man!”
René: “But you know, I mean…”
Wierd: “Let’s stop talking about it!”
René: “For God’s sake, let’s not make things bigger than they are. I really feel bad about that: how big do you want it to be? Jesus Mina, get out of here man.”
Wilfred: “Everything is made big in this world, right?”
Well, and of course the Gijpjes have given no reason to do so…