Joke

Many jokes deal with inhabitants of a neighboring country. So the English make jokes about Irish, and vice versa, the Germans laugh about the Polish, and vice versa. We Dutch ridicule the Belgians, and most of the jokes are about their lack of intelligence (in Dutch eyes, because a recently survey revealed that the Belgians have an average IQ higher than the Dutch have). Anyway this story is not a joke but an event that really took place in 1998:

A Belgian travels by air from Brussels to Los Angeles. There is a ticket check above the Atlantic Ocean and the Belgian travels business class, however he has an economy class ticket. The ticket checking crew member tells him this, but the Belgian says he has paid for the flight and the plane will fly no matter what class he is in, those special expensive fares are useless and only etc. etc. So the crew member doesn’t succeed in getting the Belgian out of his chair, let alone moving to where he belongs according to his ticket. Then the steward interferes and asks if there are problems. But despite his muscular appearance he cannot get him from the chair, neither do two stewardesses with a charm-attack. Then, at last, the captain is asked for help. He leaves the steering to his assistant and goes to the Belgian. The other crew members see him exchange a few words with the stubborn guy and they are astonished to see that he takes his luggage and moves to Economy Class. After he left, they ask the captain how the heck he managed this. Oh, very simple said the captain, I knew he was Belgian and told him that the front part of the plane would remain in New York and the rest would go on to Los Angeles.