How Troy Hawkes compliments hilariously confused a bystander in Amsterdam

As Troy Hawke, comic Milo McCabe has won more than a million followers on both Instagram and TikTok for videos of himself paying people delightful compliments in the street.

But possibly the best reaction he got came in Amsterdam, when the language barrier added to the gentle confusion the character often elicit.

In an interview with the New York Times, McCabe remembers filming late at night next to a bike lane – what could be more Dutch? – shouting out his encouraging words.

But then a man who has been watching from a nearby snack stand came up the the comedian and said: ‘I know English but I don’t know every word. What is that word you keep saying – "cyclist"?’

As Hawke, he replied: ‘Cyclist, sir? That’s someone on a bicycle.’

A simple answer, but the man ‘absolutely lost his mind’, McCabe recalled. ‘He’s got this lovely organic reaction where he genuinely was throwing his head back and laughing like a medieval king. 

‘What happened was that he’d put the word in the same family as "sexist" or "racist" and he’d thought I was standing outside his fruit stall accusing people of being cyclists.

Published: 18 Feb 2025