What is the “schaal van Geubel” in Flemish comedy?
Grappige Vlaamse gesprekken over vrouwen en pretparken
C1 Dutch listening practice · Flemish Dutch · Picked for people who know a lot
Flemish stand-up loves to invent in-jokes that travel beyond the original sketch. The schaal van Geubel (“Geubel scale”) is one of those running gags: a fake unit of measure named after Belgian comedian Steven Geubels, used by his colleagues to rate everything from car prices to dating prospects. The scale has no fixed range; it’s the shape of the joke that matters, with comedians awarding “an eight on the schaal van Geubel” for anything they want to mock-rank.
This clip plays the gag straight: in a banter sketch about ideal partners and amusement parks, one comedian announces “Tine kreeg de negen op de schaal van Geubel” (“Tine got a nine on the Geubel scale”). The Flemish comedy circuit runs on this kind of self-aware referencing.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Flemish late-night comedy (De Tafel van Vier, De Ideale Wereld)
- ▸In Flemish stand-up specials by Steven Geubels, Bart Cannaerts, and Wouter Deprez
- ▸In Flemish radio comedy on Radio 1 and StuBru
- ▸In Flemish podcast humor (Welkom in de Republiek)
- ▸In Flemish TV game shows (De Slimste Mens ter Wereld)