Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 January 24

= 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)
 * 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)
 * 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)
 * 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". I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the "joke" in question. Bus stop (talk) 04:35, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Not just from Belgium, as with expressions like "Dutch treat". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:19, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, Dutch treat. Bus stop (talk) 05:25, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
 * 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)
 * Here are some jokes Dutch people make about Belgians. You can draw your own conclusions. Alansplodge (talk) 17:49, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
 * The Belgian revenge:
 * – Why do the Dutch love Belgian jokes?
 * – They are cheap.
 * --Lambiam 15:33, 25 January 2020 (UTC)