The Bum And The Comic Strip

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Major, high-profile cities have a tendency to attract odd people. People of supernormal or unconventional behavior roam the streets of these cities, adding to the charm or as a deterrent, depending on who’s behind the camera. Amsterdam in the liberal Netherlands is no exception. The Dam square in the heart of the city is the ideal spot for people-watching. This spot is the gathering point for everyone who visits the city at one point or the other, centrally located between the central train station and the museum quarters.

The square is decorated with a huge war monument. The wide steps leading up to the monument and the socket on which the pillar is mounted make up ideal seats, where people rest after a day at foot. Rich as well as poor is welcome, from loaded tourists to street bums. One particular bum sitting next to us on the monument on this particular day managed to get hold of a newspaper. He appears to be rather uninterested in the news sections, quickly browsing through the rest of the sections, until he reaches the object of his fascination. Throwing away the rest of the paper, he focuses all his attention to the comic strips.

He reads through it once. Then another time, as if he did not quite get the punchline the first time. The third time he starts to giggle, a giggle that soon enough turns into a loud laughter. One might expect that he would decide to drop the case at this point, and give in to the fact that this is merely a comic strip. However, in order to fully grasp the depth of the joke, he stands up, holding the newspaper in front of him, carefully observing every turn of events in this little strip. He standing up seems to bring a whole new dimension to this strip, as he now is laughing hysterically.

As if this was not enough, this very joke is of such wit that the bum now throws away the paper, throws himself to the ground, if possible laughing even louder, kicking frantically with his legs and hitting his fists on the ground out of happiness. As a gesture of good faith to the rest of the world who have seemed to miss out on this masterpiece, he picks up the paper and brings it over to us. In order to make us understand this treasure he provides explanations in Dutch as well as in English. In order not to ruin the whole existence of this man, we noddingly agree that this is indeed a funny joke. This man may not have much in life, but if all else fails, at least he knows he can always flip to the last page of the newspaper for a moment of extreme joy.

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