Brussels, that well-known comedy goldmine
The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer
0.0 • 0 Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The EU is a lot of things. But is it funny? And would Europe be a better place if we *could* find it funny? This week we're talking to Lise Witteman, one of the co-founders of live comedy show The Schuman Show, about finding humour in the Brussels machine. We're also talking about Pope Francis' face-off with Viktor Orbán and the Italian tourism campaign that spawned a thousand memes.
Do you live in Europe, and do you enjoy this podcast? If so, you can celebrate democracy and fund our show at the same time, by signing up to join the Capital of European Democracy jury. It only takes a few clicks and it's a huge help to us! Sign up here: https://join.capitalofdemocracy.eu/europeanspod
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/brussels-that-well-known-comedy-goldmine
You can find out more about the Schuman Show at https://www.schumanshow.eu.
The final visual version of the episodes in our series This Is What A Generation Sounds Like, produced by our friends at Are We Europe, can be found here.
This week's Isolation Inspiration: The Allusionist's Eurovision episodes and 'The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania'
00:22 King's Day and erotic fiction penned by a finance minister
03:53 Good Week: The Pope v Viktor Orbán
11:44 Bad Week: Open to Meraviglia!
18:12 Help us out by joining the European Capital of Democracy Jury!
20:26 Interview: Lise Witteman on making the EU funny
31:58 Isolation Inspiration: The Allusionist's Eurovision episodes and 'The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania'
35:53 Happy Ending: Gamefy The Dam Removal
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review or giving us five stars on Spotify.
Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | How are you feeling, Dominic? |
| 0:24.6 | Why are you whispering? |
| 0:26.3 | I'm whispering because a little bird tells me that someone went quite big on Kings Day last week. |
| 0:32.1 | And I thought you might still be feeling a little delicate. |
| 0:34.2 | Hey. |
| 0:35.1 | Care to explain this unruly behavior? |
| 0:37.8 | I usually ignore Kings Day. |
| 0:40.2 | For people who don't know, Kings Day is like a huge national holiday where the whole |
| 0:43.6 | country goes a bit bananas. |
| 0:45.4 | There are like flea markets everywhere, but also day-long street parties, which is just |
| 0:50.2 | a bit mad. |
| 0:51.5 | I didn't have too wild a time. |
| 0:53.5 | I just went out into it for a bit. I didn't get |
| 0:55.7 | drunk, Katie. Did you have one more peppermint tea than usual? Yeah, exactly. I'm a singer. |
| 1:01.4 | I thought British lads had been banned from Amsterdam. They should take away your residency permit. |
| 1:06.4 | I don't have a residency permit. I'm German, remember? Damn, can't kick you out. But yeah, I actually |
| 1:12.3 | decided that Kings Day can be quite fun. I've always been a bit reluctant to embrace it because |
| 1:16.1 | of the whole like royal family celebration thing, which I find a bit weird. But I kind of understand |
| 1:21.1 | it now. The way I managed to embrace Kings Day was by realizing that it's just like gay pride, |
| 1:25.6 | but for straight people. Oh. |
| 1:33.7 | There's something nice about a moment where everyone decides to let go of loads of societal rules and just treat the city in a completely different way. |
| 1:37.4 | Our producer Katz posted a Instagram story about how one of the wildest things that happens |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.