The Tokkie family is seeking rehabilitation in a new documentary. More than twenty years ago, the family became nationally known through the reality series ‘De Tokkies’, where the family, originating from a working-class neighborhood in Amsterdam, was closely followed after a dispute between neighbors that got out of hand. AD columnist Angela de Jong has mixed feelings about the documentary. “I honestly wonder whether we have managed to clear their names,” she says in Goedemorgen Nederland on NPO 1.
Due to the popularity of the former reality series, the term ‘tokkie’ has even been included in the Dikke van Dale. Much to the chagrin of the protagonists themselves. “I became famous through pain and sadness,” Hanna says in the documentary. “My nephews and nieces were just beaten at school because their name was Tokkie.” It becomes clear that the family has consciously distanced itself from the media over the past twenty years. Until now.
Neighborhood dispute
What makes a reality series interesting, according to De Jong, is that famous people, who apparently lead special lives, are actually very ordinary. “Or that they take you to a part of the world or country that the majority do not know very well. That is of course this family, who live in a working-class neighborhood and exhibit different behavior than the average person.”
The Tokkie family came into the picture due to a huge dispute between neighbors in their neighborhood in Amsterdam. “They approached the media themselves, because they perhaps thought that was the right way to avoid being evicted. Because then people would see how it really works.” According to the family, the image that emerged of them in the media was already incorrect. “But approaching the media turned out terribly wrong for them.”
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Clear name
The documentary shows how the family goes through life twenty years later. “We see how they live now and how they are burdened by the fact that they have a well-known name. The surname has been corrupted into a kind of swear word.” According to De Jong, the awareness that Tokkie is a surname, and not just a swear word, has completely disappeared among the youngest generation. It is striking that the family is not actually called Tokkie at all, but Ruijmgaart. “Only the mother is called Tokkie, from her maiden name.”
The AD columnist emphasizes that the family’s story is sad. “When I saw the documentary, it left me with an unpleasant feeling. These are people who should have been better protected from themselves during that period. They didn’t know how television worked.” The AD columnist emphasizes that the family was lucky that the reality series was recorded twenty years ago. “And that Twitter didn’t exist yet.”
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Financially well-off
At the same time, the documentary makes it clear that the family has also benefited greatly from their fame financially. “For example, that they had a hit and performed with it. The problems only arose when the income from it dried up. On the one hand you feel sad, on the other hand you also hear them say that you should give a shit about what people think of you. That makes it double.”
Reality series are making a real comeback. “And you see that the edges are being explored again,” says De Jong. She warns people who are considering signing up for a reality show. “You have no idea what to expect. Even though in all your naivety you think that you are just being yourself and that you are behaving very nicely, it can look very different in the editing. You never know how makers will get away with it.”
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By: Rick Hartkamp
