Van Kooten En de Bie

Van Kooten en De Bie were a Dutch comedy duo formed by Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie.

The two cooperated for years, before they started to work for the public broadcasting organization VPRO, where they first performed for radio broadcasting, and later took to making shows for television. Their first television appearance was in 1972 with the program Het Simplisties Verbond (The Simplistik League), with a carpet-beater as their symbol. The show mainly featured sketches whose returning intricate characters and running gags quickly became very well known in The Netherlands. In 1980 they changed the name of their weekly programme to Koot en Bie, a year later renamed Van Kooten en De Bie. In 1989 the show took a turn to focus more on current events, and was therefore renamed Keek op de week (View on the Week). They had then become such a household name that many people just referred to their show and work as "Koot en Bie".

They were mostly known for the incredible accuracy of their hilarious stereotypical characters and their critical view of the Dutch society and politics. In the course of years they performed many characters, fictional and non-fictional.

Their final TV-appearance as "Koot en Bie", took place on 16 November 2003 in the VPRO-program Terugkeek van Van Kooten en De Bie'.

Van Kooten and De Bie were very important for the Dutch culture from the 1970s until the 1990s, and their intelligent political criticism still resonates today. Their popularity is reflected in their 30th place in a 2004 public poll for the all-time "greatest" Dutch person, being the first television personalities on the list and as comedians only preceded by the cabaretier Toon Hermans. A lot of typical Koot en Bie expressions made it into the Dutch language.

The show Draadstaal is commonly mentioned as reminiscent of Van Kooten en De Bie.