Het Manneke (''The Little Man'') was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

TV sketch show broadcast on the BRT (nowadays VRT) between 1961 and 1963.

Concept

''Het Manneke'' was a series of

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

sketches starring Flemish comedian Jef Cassiers as the titular character. Cassiers always wore a long coat, a black hat, a long

scarf A scarf, plural ''scarves'', is a piece of fabric worn around the neck or head for warmth, sun protection, cleanliness, fashion, religious reasons, or used to show the support for a sports club or team. They can be made in a variety of diff ...

and frequently carried a ladder around. Most sketches centered only around him, though his brother Cois Cassiers and Doris Van Caneghem sometimes had supporting roles. All episodes were directed by Herman Wuyts. On the BRT the episodes were used as a bumper before their news reports started. In 2012 the old episodes were rebroadcast on New Year's Eve, after the BRT organized a viewer's poll to find out which of their old shows ought to be rebroadcast during that special time of the year. "Het Manneken" surprisingly ended first place.

Comic strip adaptation

In 1962 the character was adapted into a

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of ...

comic strip. Cassiers wrote the gags, while artist Pil (Joe Meuleplas) provided the drawings. Later Mark Payot and Paul Ausloos took over. The gags were published in ''Kwik'' and ''

Het Laatste Nieuws ''Het Laatste Nieuws'' (; in English ''The Latest News'') is a Dutch-language newspaper based in Antwerp, Belgium. It was founded by Julius Hoste Sr. on 7 June 1888. It is now part of DPG Media, and is the most popular newspaper in Flanders and ...

'' and later collected in about 20 albums by publishing company ''Zuid-Nederlandse''.

Sources

External links

* https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270145/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_18 {{DEFAULTSORT:Manneke, Het Flemish television shows 1961 Belgian television series debuts 1963 Belgian television series endings Belgian television sketch shows Television shows adapted into comics Black-and-white Belgian television shows Fictional characters from Flanders Comedy television characters Belgian comic strips Belgian comics characters Male characters in comics Gag-a-day comics Pantomime comics 1962 comics debuts 1962 comics endings Eén original programming