Tag Archives: ole and lena

Ole and Lena Joke

Text

Transcribed Text from Informant:

“One day, he…Ole that is…went to his doctor to complain about his sex life with Lena. So the doctor’s like ‘Okay, well…try walking ten miles a day and see what happens…’ Oh, and then he says call me after a week. So a week later Ole calls his doctor and the doctor’s like, ‘well? How’s your sex life going’ And Ole goes, ‘what sex life?’ I’m 70 miles away from home.”

Context

Ole and Lena jokes represent a canon of humor found in the Upper Midwest region of the United States (Including North Dakota, the birthplace of my informant). All of these jokes generally center around a married couple – Ole and Lena – and can vary dramatically in length. While not true of every single “Ole and Lena” joke, many of these jokes feature sexual innuendos or blue humour.

My informant heard many of these Ole and Lena jokes growing up, both on the playground from other kids, and from her parents and parents’ friends joking around with each other at night. When I ask my informant for her analysis of this piece of folk humour she laughs and goes “it’s self-explanatory, no? Instead of walking 10 miles every day and returning home, he leaves home entirely and keeps on walking. A lot of Ole and Lena jokes feature…like…a misinterpretation I guess you could say of something someone said.”

My Analysis

From the Ole and Lena jokes I’ve heard in my life, this seems to follow a formula similar to one followed by many Ole and Lena jokes. Someone says one thing and usually Ole – though sometimes Lena too – misinterprets the saying or takes the phrase too literal. I fear that analyzing a joke too much strips the joke of its innate humour and staying-power that makes it apart of German-Russian North Dakotan folklore, but I found this particular Ole and Lena joke to be funny indeed.

I was able to find this particular joke in a folklorist archive, cited here:

“Ole and Lena Joke Book – the Gold Scales.” Nvg.org, 2019, oaks.nvg.org/ole-lena.html.

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Ole and Lena Joke

Transcribed Text from Informant

“Okay…so…Ole gets home from work, and he and Lena are going to go out on a date. But when he gets to the bedroom…Lena’s completely naked (laughs). So Ole says ‘what are you doing naked’? And Lena tells him that she has nothing to wear…so…Ole goes to their closet and starts shifting through her clothes going ‘what do you mean you have nothing to wear’? (coughs) You have a white dress here, a black dress here, an orange dress here, Sven is here, and a…red dress here.”

Context

Ole and Lena jokes represent a canon of humor found in the Upper Midwest region of the United States (Including North Dakota, the birthplace of my informant). All of these jokes generally center around a married couple – Ole and Lena – and can vary dramatically in length. While not true of every single “Ole and Lena” joke, many of these jokes feature sexual innuendos or blue humour. Sven is also a friend of Ole and Lena that appears every once in a while in the canon of jokes, and is seen in the particular joke told about.

My informant heard many of these Ole and Lena jokes growing up, both on the playground from other kids, and from her parents and parents’ friends joking around with each other at night. My informant chuckles as a response to slight uncomfortableness when I ask her how she interprets it. She goes on to say “Well…it’s…obviously a joke on Lena being unfaithful, and Ole finding Sven in the closet.” She presses that infidelity is not endemic to German-Russians, and that it’s just light-hearted blue humour.

My Analysis

Like many Ole and Lena jokes, this particular joke features sexual innuendos that are common in the Ole and Lena jokes told by German-Russians in North Dakota. It’s a humorous joke that I believe still holds up, hence why the joke’s stayed in German-Russian folklore.

Ole and Lena Joke

Transcribed Text from Informant

So…Ole and Lena go to the ballet…and after a little bit Ole leans over to Lena and whispers ‘why are they dancing on their toes? Couldn’t they have just gotten taller dancers?’”

Context

Ole and Lena jokes represent a canon of humor found in the Upper Midwest region of the United States (Including North Dakota, the birthplace of my informant). All of these jokes generally center around a married couple – Ole and Lena – and can vary dramatically in length. While not true of every single “Ole and Lena” joke, many of these jokes feature sexual innuendos or blue humour.

My informant heard many of these Ole and Lena jokes growing up, both on the playground from other kids, and from her parents and parents’ friends joking around with each other at night. My informant says that she’s particularly fond of this joke, in large part due to how silly Ole’s observation is.

My Analysis

I agree with my informant that this joke is very funny. The sort of silly, “brain-dead” humor is emblematic of a lot of the German-Russian North Dakotan humor. While nothing in the joke itself references the specific cultural practices of German-Russians, the humor itself serves as a beacon of the folk humor popular within these North Dakotan communities.