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January 24

Belgian bus

Today I heard a Dutch person allude to a seemingly well-known joke, "the Belgian bus with many drivers and one passenger." Is there any more to the joke than that? —Tamfang (talk) 02:21, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's an English language idiom about excessive bureaucracy "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians" if was to take a wild guess at the meaning of the Dutch idiom you note, it may mean something similar. But after a good faith search, I can't find anything resembling your idiom.--Jayron 32 02:37, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It also sounds like a shot at their neighbors, like the way the English make fun of the French. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:26, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Someone writes: "Background for those not from The Netherlands or Belgium: good-humored rivalry between the two countries has produced many jokes with the Dutch calling the Belgians stupid, and Belgians calling the Dutch cheapskates".[1] I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the "joke" in question. Bus stop (talk) 04:35, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not just from Belgium, as with expressions like "Dutch treat". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:19, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Dutch treat. Bus stop (talk) 05:25, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not familiar with the particular joke, but Belgium is quite famous for having a very complicated system of government, see Communities and regions. Apart from that, they don't have a major-minor party and have a quite splintered political environment with the Flemish nationalistic party on one side and the Wallonian version(s) on the other side, so forming a government without any big party to take control has taken ages in the past (541 days is the record). Quite interesting, having an ex-office government without mandate to implement changes resulted in better economic growth than having a "working" government. Rmvandijk (talk) 09:12, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Here are some jokes Dutch people make about Belgians. You can draw your own conclusions. Alansplodge (talk) 17:49, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Belgian revenge:

– Why do the Dutch love Belgian jokes?

– They are cheap.

--Lambiam 15:33, 25 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]