Posted on 09/04/2012 11:27:01 AM PDT by nickcarraway
If you’ve ever met a Swede, chances are you asked her the following question: “What do you think of [ABBA/Ikea/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/socialized medicine/the Swedish Chef]?”
For Swedes, it’s the last of these questions—the one about the unintelligible, shotgun-wielding, and much beloved chaos Muppet—that is especially vexing.
I know this because it was one of the first questions I asked my Swedish wife when we were introduced. “I don’t see how it’s funny,” she responded in a tone that I took at the time to be an endearingly sarcastic deadpan, but would soon learn was actually an endearingly sincere deadpan.
The Swedish Chef does not speak any known language, and the fact that his nonsense words are so widely interpreted as Swedish-sounding is bewildering and annoying to Swedes.
“What has always struck me is that the Chef is probably based on a Norwegian sing-songish accent rather than a Swedish one,” Maaret Koskinen, a film studies professor at Stockholm University, wrote in an email when I asked her about the Swedish Chef’s cultural influence in Sweden.
Swedish and Norwegian share a common linguistic antecedent, and Swedes and Norwegians easily understand each other’s languages. The accents are quite different, however, and there are words that are exclusive to each dialect. The tongues are dissimilar enough for Swedes to be able to hear Norwegian in the Swedish Chef’s ramblings instead of Swedish.
“I think it sounds much more Norwegian,” Cecilia Browning, the general manager of Washington D.C.’s House of Sweden (the home of the Swedish Embassy), told me when I asked her about the accent.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
My grandparents came from Sweden, I speak Swedish, I’ve spent a lot of time in Sweden, and I have never thought that that Swedish Chef character sounded very Swedish or was very funny.
Character 1: "Crazy Swedes!"
Character 2: "They're Norwegians."
Character 1: "Whatever!"
“Mork! Mork! Mork!” is Swedish for “Please pass the ketchup.”
Chaos Muppet.
Now there’s a name for a band.
As long as we’re at it, we should ask the Muslims what they think about Crazy Harry (a.k.a. the “bomb Muppet”).
Swedish people have no sense of humor and are way too sensitive.
The author of the article managed to get all of these Swedes to state that the Swedish Chef sounded Norwegian. The obvious followup would be to ask a Norwegian or two whether the Swedish Chef sounds Norwegian.
I like this one;
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h20/BigB26/?action=view¤t=RobotChicken-SwedishChef.mp4
My favorite character in Hell on Wheels (aka AMC's version of Deadwood - PG13).
My grandparents also came from Sweden, and my grandmother actually WAS a Swedish chef at one time in her life.
I never heard of this Swedish chef character before this day, and I wish I never had. Pure idiocy, but that about sums up the whole Muppets thing.
I never heard of this Swedish chef character before this day, and I wish I never had. Pure idiocy, but that about sums up the whole Muppets thing.
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Nonsense—The Swedish chef is a beloved icon of the Swedish experience in America. All true Swedes should be proud to claim him as one of their own. And anyone who tries to challenge my knowledge of things Swedish should know that I learned these truths from the Muppets!
Trust me, the Swedish Chef never entered the discussion. I was too busy trying to get the emergency contact phone number of the Swedish Bikini Team.
I loved the Muppets as a kid, but my uncle is a real Swedish Chef. He speaks with a Southern Swedish accent (Malmo area). He also found the skits amusing.
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