Bastiaan Ragas is quite haunted by Marc-Marie Huijbregts’ accusation that he is an alcoholic. “He needed another riot for his podcast.”
Marc-Marie Huijbregts has portrayed Bastiaan Ragas as an alcoholic, someone who cannot keep away from the bottle. The comedian thinks that Tooske Ragas’ husband came across as a drunken beetle in the program Race Across the World. And that image continues to haunt him now, even during promotional work for his new book.
Red wine
There is a new book by Bastiaan in stores, Jesus Why?, and he will promote it in the program The Friday Move. Its presenter, Wilfred Genee, notes: “What I find funny – you’re having tea now, by the way – is that the book is always about alcoholic drinks, isn’t it?”
Bastiaan: “Yes, another journalist also said that.”
Wilfred: “Then someone stays behind with a glass of red wine, then again at the hotel bar, then another beer.”
Riot
Bastiaan sees nothing wrong with that. “Yes, it has to remain fun. I love life, yes.”
Wilfred notes: “Yes, but then you get what people always say about you, right? ‘The Alcoholic’…”
Bastiaan is surprised: “Well, I don’t know how many people say all that.”
Wilfred: “Yes, that was outlined at some point, right?”
That all comes from Marc-Marie, says Bastiaan. “Yes, Marc-Marie needed another riot for his podcast. Well, gut-gut.”
Compassion
People should be a little nicer to each other, Bastiaan thinks. That’s what his book is about too. “About compassion, it’s about trying to listen to the other person and not immediately coming up with an opinion and not immediately judging and about us stopping that very aggressive cancel culture that we are in.”
Wilfred: “Yes, that about Matthijs van Nieuwkerk also bothers you, doesn’t it, that he was treated like that?”
Bastiaan: “Well, almost all of them. Without investigation, people are beheaded in the social marketplace. I really think so and that is very bad.”
Cancel culture
The cancel culture is suffocating for Bastiaan. “Have you never done anything wrong yourself? Have you never had a receipt written down for business purposes while it was private? Have you never paid your maid undeclared? Have you never had a beer?”
According to him, the DWDD riot has completely gone off the rails. “Six, seven pages in the Volkskrant… Then you think: do you really have nothing better to do?”