The 10 jokes that made me laugh really hard at De Luizenmoeder

Okay, a small ratings reduction for The Caste Mother but well, that’s almost unavoidable when you kick off the season with five million viewers. It might not have been the absolute funniest episode in the history of De Klimop, but it was still packed with knee-slappers, you know. I’ve had ‘Can you tell me the way to Hamelin, sir?’ in my head all day, how about you? Time for a recap, the ten times I laughed out loud at Miss Ank.

1. I love the theme tables at a primary school including reading corners, book exchange shelves, and also reading nights, with the topic ‘fairy tales’. That can almost never go wrong. Oh, but it did.

2. Because you don’t let just any teacher read a fairy tale during the reading night (I would have liked that by the way). No, no, you arrange a Famous Dutch Person for that. Winston Post, for example. Winston who? I was going to look that up. This is Winston's career in a nutshell (the size of a nutshell): Winston played Benjamin in Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden eight hundred years ago.

3. Okay, I hear that the bell still isn’t ringing. I had that with Fons d Poel. And who was Pernille La Lau again? They certainly didn’t convince the one-member jury consisting of Anton. Which BN’er is coming is a surprise. Tip 1: if ‘the father of the cousin of my mother’s neighbor’ is the introduction of a ‘Famous Dutch Person’, then it’s going wrong. One hundred percent.

4. Who is coming to read is still a mystery. But a figure of this stature deserves a proper welcome, so dust off your recorder. ‘Your recorder’, yes, because everyone must own this instrument, right? Duh.

5. But besides flutists, there’s also room for other symphonies in the orchestra. Anton is going to do a round of inventory on the schoolyard to see who else wants to ‘jam along’. Or can the Kurdish Mel strum on one of those guitars that ‘they’ all play? Such a very simple instrument with those ethnic sounds and only three strings. A sas then.

6. Hannah is reading from Rumpelstiltskin in the controversial reading corner and Anton is all ears. I found this the highlight of the episode. It’s all about the rhythm, drumming and dancing on that juicy honey belly while Hannah reads seriously about a spinning wheel and a miller’s son. Hilarious.

7. PhiliPIEN.

8. The moment is here: the reading night can begin. I think a group of toddlers performs the Pied Piper of Hamelin even more purely than what happened there. And then, off with that tambourine, iPhone at the ready. The reveal of the BN’er can begin.

9. Hein Boelen. Question mark. Hein Boelen played in ‘De Fabriek’. Question mark. And is also the voice of Elmo from Sesame Street. Snore.

10. Hein thinks it’s a pretty lame affair too and breathes his last on stage. Died in the line of duty. Henk has become a star. Henk is in the HE…

Bye guys, see you next week.