Comic accused of racism understands anger, not sorry

Comedian Guido Weijers meant no harm when he shared a controversial joke, a edited photo of a 5 year old boy, on Facebook last week. Argelia Pools' son was the model for a Zeeman advertisement which advertised plush bears and monkeys. On the photo that Guido shared the plush monkey was cropped out. "Did we not just have that damn Zwarte Piet discussion... Zeeman comes with this..." the comedian wrote on the post.

Thereby Guido created the implication that the dark skinned boy is a monkey. Guido received a lot of criticism, even though he quickly announced that the joke was really not meant as racist. Pools, like many others, found the joke a form of racism. She announced that she will be taking steps against Weijers. Weijers explained to RTL what happened from his point of view. "I made two posts online: one was a picture that has already been circulating the internet for a while, the photo of the little boy, but then cut off the Zeeman. And then I posted a message to the effect: if you do not know the whole context, you get the wrong idea." "I wanted to show that if people do not know the whole context, that they can understand things wrong', said the comedian. "I just never thought it would turn against me." He understands that the mother is defending her child. In his own words, Weijers responded to her angry email "within 24 hours". "I replied that i find it unpleasant for her son and that I am very sorry that everyone falls over that post. If she wants to report me, she should do so. I think I was very clear on the internet. I posted two messages, and if she read both, this would all be unnecessary."