Generation gap: Theo and Thea are still laughing from laughter, while their daughters look on in amazement

A person seems to develop his taste in music between the ages of six and sixteen. What you listen to during that period turns out to determine the rest of your life. A disturbing thought for a father with young daughters who spoil his Spotify algorithm with Snollebollekes, Los del Río and André van Duins Pizza song.

A sense of humor develops in a different way, but apparently early childhood experiences also play a role. Otherwise it can hardly be explained that the aforementioned daughters did not raise much more than a surprised eyebrow when looking at Theo and Theawhile their father rolled off the couch with cramps in his stomach from laughing.

The VPRO repeated an episode of the legendary children’s show from the eighties on Monday evening. There was no direct reason, although there is one Theo and Thea not necessary and yes, the ‘who-what-is-it-actually-about’ was April 1st. Or actually prudishness (‘that you sit in the bath with your clothes on because you are ashamed’) but that didn’t matter much either, it ended up in total chaos as always.

For almost ten years, Arjan Ederveen and Tosca Niterink formed a television duo, first with the unsurpassed Theo and Theathen with the equally brilliant one Creative with Cork.

Ederveen perhaps only experienced his artistic peak afterwards, with the two unsurpassed seasons of 30 minutesbut the carefree fun of the first years of Theo and Thea (later Theo and Thea in the Gloria) are cherished childhood sentiments for many people who grew up in the eighties: the arguments between Ans Aarsema and Bea Hofman of the Batavierenplantsoen, the doctor’s practice of Prof. DOM Zuurbekje and of course the iconic front teeth (which you could cut out yourself from the lid of a container margarine). Where the sentence ‘have you ever won a liverwurst?’ what happened is still unexplained.

It’s tempting to say that Theo and Thea would not make it into the NPO’s children’s programming today, but children’s series such as Welcome to History and Vlogmania are certainly equally absurd and funny. And in thirty years’ time, today’s children will look back at it with shaking bellies and not understand why their children don’t laugh along.

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