Greg Shapiro is a Jewish-American comedian currently living in Amsterdam.
Originally from Chicago but based in the Netherlands since 1994 he has been delivering political satire with a uniquely international slant through various traditional and online channels and is currently touring with his standup show Part-Time Hypocrite.
Significantly, as a longtime resident of the Low Countries, he know how to be orange. And he does the best Donald Trump impression you can reasonably expect anyone who lives in the city of Amsterdam – great, great city – to do.
In this mock-promotional video for the Netherlands addressed to new President – very important job, believe me – of the United States, Donald J Trump he makes a solid case for the Netherlands becoming America’s new best friend.
“We speak Dutch. It’s the best language in Europe,” he intones in that signature tone of Trump’s which is at once robotic and folksy. “We’ve got all the best words, all the other languages failed!”
Danish, he says, is “a total disaster” while “German is not even a language. It’s a fake language.”
The clip comes from Dutch TV's Sunday with Lubach but has spread beyond the Dutch borders to an international audience – which is a huge, huge audience let me tell you. Biggest ever. The clip has already picked up over 5,000,000 views in just two days.
While a few of the cultural references might be a bit Dutch-specific for British viewers – there’s enough closely-observed amusement here to give anyone a much-needed mid-January mid-week chuckle. And, let me tell you folks, everybody needs all the chuckles they can get these days.