Author Archives: kknutzen

Ole and Lena Joke – Doctors Office

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Communications Manager
Residence: Woodinville, WA
Performance Date: 4/29/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: Here’s a typical Ole and Lena joke. 

“Ole wasn’t feeling well, so he went to the doctor. After examining him, the doctor took his wife Lena aside, and said ‘Your husband has a very sensitive heart. I’m afraid he’s not gonna make it if you don’t treat him like a king, which means you are at his beck and call every day, 24 hours a day, and he won’t have to do anything for himself.’ On the way home, Ole asks, with a note of concern, ‘Vell? Vat did da doctor say?’ ‘Vell,’ Lena said. ‘It looks like you’re not gonna make it.’”

There are probably thousands, but at least hundreds that I heard from my dad and aunts and uncles. They had books, and every family gathering, it would dissolve into a session of Ole and Lena and Sven and Lars over time. And of course, the jokes are hysterical, because they were silly, and everyone would do the voices, and it was a very traditional thing that they had a lot of affection for. They weren’t offended by the fact that these jokes implied they were stupid. They thought they were funny.

Background/Thoughts:
The informant is the interviewer’s mother, who grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. The informant’s family adhered to many Scandinavian and German traditions, some of which have been in our family for generations. Ole and Lena jokes have remained a staple in my family as well, on both sides of my family. I’ve always found Ole and Lena jokes funny, although I know many people who don’t come from Scandinavian backgrounds who are afraid to laugh at them, because they don’t want to offend anyone. However, I’m not offended by the jokes, even though they paint Scandinavians as slow or stupid, and none of my extended family members are either.

Ole and Lena Joke – Thermos

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Communications Manager
Residence: Woodinville, WA
Performance Date: 4/29/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: There’s a sentiment, and I’m not sure what the origin is, but there’s a sentiment that Scandinavians, particularly Swedes or Norwegians, can kinda be… slow. That they can do something that’s silly or doesn’t’ make sense. So there has become a whole, uh… cottage industry, of Scandinavian jokes, that star a whole host of characters. The main character is a guy named Ole, who’s married to a woman named Lena, and Ole has friends like Sven and Lars and others with the typical Scandinavian type names. There’s books upon books of Ole and Lena jokes, and Ole and Sven jokes, and they’re pretty funny, but they make light of being Scandinavian. 

As an example, I have one here. 

So another thing that happens when you’re Scandinavian is you ice fish. The ice freezes over but the fish are still underneath, so you cut a hole in the ice and you plop your line in through the hole, and can catch fish that way. So here’s a joke:

“Ole and Lars go ice fishin’. Ole pulls out his new thermos, and Lars says to him,” (imitates a Norwegian accent) “‘Ole, whatchya got dere?’ Ole says, ‘Well, Lars, dis here’s a thermos. It keeps hot tings hot, and it keeps cold tings cold.’ After a while, Lars gets curious, and says, ‘Vell, den, Ole, whatchya got in dat dere thermos?’ and Ole says, ‘Well, Lars, I got a popsicle, and two cups of coffee.’”

Soooo, he’s not quite getting the sentiment of what a thermos is meant to do.

Background/Thoughts:
The informant is the interviewer’s mother, who grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. The informant’s family adhered to many Scandinavian and German traditions, some of which have been in our family for generations. Ole and Lena jokes have remained a staple in my family as well, on both sides of my family. I’ve had the same experiences as my informant did – even though the jokes portrayed Scandinavians in an unflattering light, everyone I’ve met who’s heard the jokes think they’re funny, not offensive (myself included). In fact, the people that I’ve met who are hesitant to laugh or think it’s offensive don’t come from Scandinavian heritage at all. I think they’re afraid to laugh, because they don’t want to be offensive in case it is offensive to people of Scandinavian descent.

Lutefisk

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Communications Manager
Residence: Woodinville, WA
Performance Date: 4/29/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: I grew up in a family that was part German, on my mother’s side, and part Swedish and Norwegian on my dad’s side. My great-grandparents had traveled to the United States, and my grandparents were born in the United States, but there were still a lot of family traditions from Scandinavia and Germany and… the ones that really stand out in my mind are the Scandinavian side of things, more Sweden and Norway. My dad especially was pretty connected to those kinds of traditions. One I remember vividly – because it was always brought up as a threat – was the idea of eating lutefisk. Lutefisk is a dried fish, except it isn’t dried, it’s kind of… gelatinous, in a really disgusting way. And it’s a fermented fish, so it gets steeped in lye, which is also not something you think should be ingested, and yet it’s a delicacy! And even better, it’s such a delicacy that it’s saved for the holidays! So, you know, bringing out the Christmas lutefisk was something that was supposed to be revered, but I could never get into it. And then it became a running thing in my family that you’d be made to eat lutefisk if you weren’t behaving to anticipation, or what people were expecting of you. 

Background/Thoughts:
The informant is the interviewer’s mother, who grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. As described in the piece above, the informant’s family adhered to many Scandinavian and German traditions, some of which have been in our family for generations. Lutefisk has remained a threat as the years went on, and I have the same opinions as the informant does. I personally don’t understand the appeal of the dish, but I recognize that many members of my extended family in both America and Scandinavia love it. Even though I’m not personally a fan of the recipe, I do appreciate that it keeps my family in touch more with our traditions and history from Scandinavia.

“A Proper Cup of Coffee…” Tongue Twister

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kirkland, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: My favorite tongue twister… I learned it in England recently, actually. It’s a teacup one. “All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper copper coffee pot. I may be off my dot, but I want a cup of coffee from a proper coffee pot. Tin coffee pots and iron coffee pots, they’re no good to me. If I can’t have a cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot, I’ll have a cup of tea. A nice cup of tea.” Where that comes from? I don’t know. But a nice British lady taught it to me!

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I’d never heard this tongue twister before! I thought it was really fun because my informant learned it in England, where she recently spent a few months studying abroad. It was cool to hear a tongue twister that was so specific to another culture – none of the American tongue twisters I know talk about coffee or tea, and those are both big parts of British culture. Also the use of the word “proper” over and over again, which is a word that doesn’t pop up in America nearly as often as it does in England.

The Ghost Light

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kirkland, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: A big theatre thing is the ghost light. So, typically, every theatre I’ve ever been to has some sort of ghost, that all the techs and actors swear exists in said space. So before we leave the theatre for the night, we always put a ghost light, which is literally just a light on a stick, in the middle of the stage. And realistically, it’s there because if you don’t put it there, someone will fall off the end of the stage and that will lead to a lawsuit. But! The legend behind the ghost light is that it helps to appease the ghost of said theatre, keep them friendly, guide their way. That, or alternatively, it wards off evil ghosts in said theatre. 

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I thought this was very interesting, because I’ve done theatre with this informant for six years, at the same theatre, and we’ve heard very different stories on how the ghost light originated. What I was told was that you put the ghost light out at night so you had a beacon in the dark theatre, so anyone who ventures into the theatre after hours wouldn’t be afraid and there would be less places for ghosts to hide. My informants version works just as well, and we’re both in agreement that the practical reason for it, and probably the reason it’s stuck around so long, is to keep people safe in the dark. It just happens to have a name with a legend behind it.