Sjef van Oekel was a TV comedy character created by Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers and played by Dutch comedian, singer and actor Dolf Brouwers (1912–1997). Van Oekel started as a side character in '' De Fred Hachéshow'' in 1972 but became such a cult figure that he gained his own television show, '' Van Oekel's Discohoek'', songs and even a

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

series, all written by Schippers.

Character

Wim T. Schippers created Sjef van Oekel in 1972 as a Belgian

french fries French fries, or simply fries, also known as chips, and finger chips (Indian English), are '' batonnet'' or '' julienne''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin. They are prepared by cutting potatoes into even strips, drying them, and f ...

salesman from the village Reet. Schippers had never visited Reet, but had seen the name on a company manufacturing car accessories and enjoyed the

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...

of the name ("Reet" means "crack" or "buttcrack" in Dutch). In line with his character's origin Van Oekel originally used a Flemish accent, but quickly dropped this in favor for his own Dutch accent. Van Oekel is typically dressed in a fine black

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and North American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal ...

and always talks and behaves in a refined manner, complete with

archaism In language, an archaism is a word, a sense of a word, or a style of speech or writing that belongs to a historical epoch beyond living memory, but that has survived in a few practical settings or affairs. lexicon, Lexical archaisms are single a ...

s. However something always went wrong during his presentations, either on the set or he himself tripped or went nauseous. Situations like these always lead to his well-known

catch phrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

: "Ik word niet goed!" ("I'm starting to feel not well!"). Whenever Van Oekel said this he usually used a handkerchief to clean off the sweat on his forehead. In one controversial episode he threw up in the bicycle bag of his sidekick Evert van de Pik (played by Jaap Bar), which outraged Dutch journalist Henk van der Meyden so much that he started an unsuccessful campaign to get the program banned. Other well-known catch phrases of Van Oekel were "Als het ware..." ("As it were...") and "Pardon...reeds" ("Pardon... already").

History

The character made his debut in 1972, in '' De Fred Hachéshow'', a controversial television show created by Wim T. Schippers. He later returned in two later Schippers shows, '' Barend is weer bezig'' (1972–1973) and '' Van Oekel's Discohoek'' (1974). The van Oekel character was ancillary in ''De Fred Hachéshow'' and ''Barend is weer bezig'', both of which had Barend Servet as the lead, but central in ''Van Oekel's Discohoek'', where he played the host of a music show on television that parodied popular music programs of the era. Van Oekel quickly became a cult figure with viewers. Brouwers recorded many Schippers-penned and other songs, most of which comic and dramatic. With Manke Nelis he recorded "Vis wordt duur betaald" (#46 in the Dutch charts in 1988), but his best known song is probably "Vette jus" (" auerkraut withgreasy gravy"), a dish still associated with him in a song that is little more than a list of Dutch dishes. The song was first performed on the 1973 Christmas special for '' Barend is weer bezig''; it was written by Schippers, Gied Jaspars, and Clous van Mechelen.

Comics series

In 1976 Wim T. Schippers and Theo van den Boogaard drew a celebrity comic series based on the character. Many stories and gags feature Van Oekel embarrassing other people or meeting rather eccentric and exhibitionistic people himself. Sjef van Oekel quickly became notorious for featuring very risqué subject matter, including religion, pornography,

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...

, prostitution, vulgar language, and so on. The stories were published in ''De Nieuwe Revu'' and sold well enough to be translated in French ("Léon Van Oukel", later "Léon La Terreur"), German ("Julius Patzenhofer", later "Leo, der Terrorist"), Danish and Spanish.

Brouwers' personal backlash

Van Oekel made a few media appearances in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but by 1984 this came to a halt too. Brouwers felt increasingly exploited by Schippers, especially regarding the comics series. In 1989 he dragged Schippers and Van den Boogaard to court because the comics frequently portrayed him in vulgar situations without him earning a penny from it. The judge ruled in favor of Brouwers and decided that the series could continue, but the character was no longer allowed to be portrayed in "obscene or pornographic situations". A financial settlement was also agreed on. Whether van Oekel was just used or also abused by Schippers and others was the topic of a 2004 theater production. According to Hein Janssen, writing in ''

de Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...

'', it is certainly true that Brouwers jumped at the opportunity to become a celebrity, but the extent to which Schippers and the other writers and directors pushed Brouwers (he balked, for instance, at having to simulate sex with an inflatable doll) is questionable.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:van Oekel, Sjef Comedy television characters Television characters introduced in 1972 Sjef van Oekel Dutch comics characters Sjef van Oekel Comics characters introduced in 1976 Sjef van Oekel Sjef van Oekel Sjef van Oekel Sjef van Oekel Sjef van Oekel Sjef van Oekel Sjef van Oekel Fictional television personalities Fictional singers Fictional characters from Flanders Wim T. Schippers Sjef van Oekel Male characters in comics Male characters in television Television controversies in the Netherlands Controversies in the Netherlands Obscenity controversies in television Obscenity controversies in comics Comics controversies Dutch satire Counterculture of the 1970s