Tax humour
What one person finds funny, may not be at all funny to someone else. At the museum, we showcase a selection of cartoons that are occasionally changed. The criterion is that it should be clear at first glance what a cartoon is about.
Many drawings mock high taxes: a Dutchman bearing a heavy weight is squeezed like a lemon or milked like a cow. Often, finance ministers are depicted as a kind of Grim Reaper or the stereotypical usurer out to take money from ordinary people.
The Dutch childcare benefit scandal also led to many cartoons. No one was laughing at the injustice done to the victims. But the resignation of the Rutte III cabinet on 15 January 2021, after the brutally harsh report on this scandal, is depicted quite humorously. Inside a daycare centre called The Small Inner Court, Prime Minister Rutte and Finance Minister Hoekstra are portrayed as toddlers in diapers.
The childcare benefit scandal and the benefit restoration scheme have already given rise to many cartoons. The snail’s pace at which benefit restoration and compensation is taking place is a cartoonist’s dream.
More about the artist
Eliane Gerrits studied at the St Joost School of Art & Design in Breda, the Free Academy in The Hague and the AKI Academy for Art & Design in Enschede. She works for various clients: NRC Handelsblad, EW Magazine, the Huffington Post, Gouden boekjes, and the VPRO guide. Gerrits also paints, takes photographs and creates non-commissioned works.
Which cartoon do you think is the funniest?