''De lachende scheerkwast'' ("The laughing shave brush") is a Dutch television show written and directed by

Wim T. Schippers Willem Theodoor "Wim T." Schippers (; born 1 July 1942) is a Dutch artist, comedian, television director, and voice actor. During the 1960s, he worked mostly as a visual artist, associated with the international Fluxus-movement. As a television w ...

, who also plays one of the lead characters, Jacques Plafond. It ran on

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more ...

television for six episodes in 1981 before being canceled, and then returned for another six episodes.

Content

The show's plot was intentionally unclear, though one plot line involved the head of a "school with the bible", Rein Schaambergen, whose marriage is threatened when he meets singer Ingrid Gortebroek in the bar "The Old Dick" and decides to produce a record for her. ''De lachende scheerkwast'' turned out to be a play written by writer Jacques Plafond (played by Schippers), and the show itself was a chaotic affair ("anarchist...always derailing") with more emphasis on absurdist, comical scenes and linguistic jokery than on story development. It was a prequel of sorts to Schippers' later radio show ''

Ronflonflon ''Ronflonflon'', or ''Ronflonflon avec Jacques Plafond'' ("Ronflonflon with Jacques Plafond"), was a radio show on the Dutch broadcaster VPRO. It was produced and directed by Wim T. Schippers who also played the principal character and radio host, J ...

'' (1984-1991) and his television shows '' Opzoek naar Yolanda'' (1984), '' Plafond over de vloer'' (1986), and ''

We zijn weer thuis ''We zijn weer thuis'' (''Back home again'') is a Dutch dramady-series broadcast by VPRO from 1989 to 1994. It was written by Wim T. Schippers and co-directed with Ellen Jens as his swansong-series for VPRO. The series was released on dvd in Oct ...

'' (1989-1994). The cast likewise returned in many Schippers productions, and included jazz musician

Clous van Mechelen Clous van Mechelen (born Jacob Philip (Jack) van Mechelen; 12 March 1941 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch musician, arranger, and actor. Van Mechelen scored a minor hit in 1969 with his band The Butlers, and became widely known through the radio and telev ...

(as Jan Vos).

Cast

* Lex de Regt - Rein Schaambergen *

Mies de Heer Mies may refer to: People * Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), architect *Maria Mies (born 1931), German feminist * Richard W. Mies (born 1944), U.S. Navy admiral and fourth commander in chief of the United States Strategic Command *Mies Bois ...

- Ria Schaambergen-Rotsak * Zillah Emanuels - Ingrid Gortebroek *

Dolf Brouwers Dolf Brouwers (31 August 1912 – 23 September 1997) was a Dutch comedian, singer, and television actor who rose to fame late in life playing the character Sjef van Oekel in the 1970s satirical television shows aired on VPRO, written and directed ...

- Sjef van Oekel *

Mimi Kok Maria Christina "Mimi" Kok (25 January 1934 – 19 April 2014) was a Dutch film and television actress. Biography Kok was discovered by Toon Hermans after winning a beauty pageant in Zandvoort in 1951. He hired her to perform with his theater sh ...

- Gé Braadslee *

- Jan Vos * Rob van Houten - Boy Bensdorp *

-Jacques Plafond * Dick van den Toorn - Otto Drissen * Janine van Elzakker - Elsje de Wit

Legacy

The show is praised for its influence on Dutch language and culture; many of its catchphrases and buzzwords found their way into the language and some of its fictional locations became real. The Dutch village Olst, for instance, named one of its parks for the show's Willy Dobbeplantsoen; Willy Dobbe, a Dutch TV announcer for the

TROS Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology) In Greek mytholo ...

broadcaster, stood for the petty bourgeois mentality the show made fun of. Dobbe herself was the guest of honor at the park's ten-year anniversary, which was attended by Schippers alumni such as Dolf Brouwers (Sjef van Oekel), Clous van Mechelen (Jan Vos), and Rob van Houten (Boy Bensdorp). At the occasion, Olst's mayor, Tom Strien, indicated how controversial the show was since he was forbidden by his parents to watch it.

DVD release

The series was released on DVD in 2008 as volume 8 of ''Wim T. Schippers' Televisiepraktijken - sinds 1962''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lachende scheerkwast, Die 1981 Dutch television series debuts 1981 Dutch television series endings Dutch drama television series Surrealist television series Wim T. Schippers 1980s Dutch television series Dutch-language television shows