MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Flap and Flop are two comedians from Bilzen, a village in Limburg. Flap and Flop’s jokes are so bad that no one wants to hear them. If Flap tells a joke, only Flop laughs, and vice versa. They travel from village to village in their cart. Sometimes Flop stands on the cart, and sometimes Flap. They go to the places where there are fairs and markets, and try to draw people’s attention by singing loudly or shouting jokes. However, they are always chased away and have mud and stones thrown at them. Once Flap and Flop had the idea of making a big trip to Spain. They were going to go by train, but they didn’t get further than the station of L. They spent half their money in a café next to the station celebrating their departure. When they finally went to set off, they were so drunk they couldn’t read the departure board at the station. So they didn’t go.
Flap and Flop spend the cold winters in Sint-Alexius, a clinic for the mentally disturbed. At the end of April, in spring, Flap and Flop are sent on their way, and they have to fend for themselves until the end of November, when they are readmitted to Sint-Alexius.
Flap likes to eat spaghetti with mustard sauce and onion. Flop likes white bread sandwiches with cheese and Nutella. Flap and Flop have been living like this for 30 years, and there is no prospect of their lives changing.

(Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys)