The winners of De Slimste Mens who jointly stand up for Akwasi have been torched in RTL Boulevard. “It made me laugh a bit,” said Rob Goossens.
People dare much more on the internet than in real life, so dark issues such as open racism are also commonplace on social media. Akwasi, himself – in other areas – also not of impeccable behavior, is a victim of this. His participation in De Slimste Mens was accompanied by racist reactions, including to X.
Rob is critical
The former winners of The Slimste Mens have one statement drawn up in which they express their disapproval of this, but they were quite disappointed last night RTL Boulevard. Their TV expert Rob Goossens thinks it’s all a bit ridiculous.
Rob: “I really have the feeling that if those former winners had not spoken out, most people would have completely ignored the online reactions.”
Painful example
This is the order of the day on the internet and nothing new, according to Rob. “A painful example is Mandy (Woelkens, ed.) who is sitting here. I happened to play an episode with her and if you saw what was on Twitter afterwards: that was really no better than what Akwasi had to deal with, and then no one stood up.”
He continues: “And that is when it was still a fun quiz. Unfortunately, we have to face the fact that the internet is not always a pretty place. It is true that it is easier to see what is being written on Twitter, because you simply search for Akwasi and then you can put all the messages together.”
A bit of a laugh
What does Rob think of the joint statement of the Smartest winners? “I had to laugh a bit that as former winners they do it like that. It was also a bit of a humblebrag from: we can say Maarten and Philip, and: we have won The Smartest Person.”
Colleague Vivienne van den Assem: “Well, no, I didn’t read it that way!”
Rob: “And let’s not forget, Sander Schimmelpenninck is also there. And if there is someone who is very good at calling people stupid on Twitter, it is Sander Schimmelpenninck.”
Stupid l*l
According to Vivienne, Rob is forgetting something important. “That is no longer available.”
Rob: “Not anymore, but that is a bit easy of course, now that he is no longer on it and no longer swears at people, to say: ‘No, that is really not possible, calling people names.’”
Akwasi was played home on Tuesday at De Slimste Mens. He lost in the final game to Peter Heerschop.