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Thing a Day: 011/365 (Patreon)

Published:
2020-01-11 13:47:11
Imported:
2023-01

Content

The followup to the post on IG. But a bit of backstory, I once got to MEET the Swedish chef. It was at an expo, I was a journalist working for a magazine, and the Muppets came to town, courtesy of our local PBS affiliate.

ANYWAY! Elmo? Whatever. Kermit? Drama whore, couldn't care less. Animal? Cool guy — we did a line of coke off Ms. Piggy's belly. Good times.

But my main man — there he was. Swedish Chef. 'Sitting' at a table, his floppy head and weird, humanoid hands. I can't remember feeling the way I felt since I was a little girl, and still believed that Santa Claus was a real thing. I was so fucking nervous.

"Hi, Swedish Chef!"

"Errr! Vërts der nërmen?!"

"H-Heather."

"Hey-thërrr! Sporky börd!"

"You toooo!!!"

The rest of the conversation was a blur. I had it recorded, and I can't find the recording for the life of me, but I would ask him questions. Real, honest to God, journalist questions. His favorite recipe, what restaurants he worked in, were there any character conflicts on the show. Of course, he would answer in complete gibberish. It was the awesomest thing ever. The article literally contained words that weren't words.


I swear, I was literally glowing for days. I got to meet my childhood hero. James Beard? Julia Child? Jacque Pepin? (I was a PBS cooking-show nerd.) Nah. Show me the travesty that can ensue if you try to fry a live chicken, and you've got my attention forever.

Fun fact. I have a couple of friends from Sweden. And apparently, the Swedish Chef is reviled there. They think he's a racist stereotype. And at the best, they think he sounds Finnish. I didn't think it was possible to be racist toward the Swedish. Safe cars? Easily assemble furniture? Mooses? (Chokolate mooooseees?) Snow?

Apparently, however, there was a Swedish academic who wrote a paper on the Swedish interpretation of the Swedish Chef. And he had a really great sense of humor about it, so I suppose that's something. (I think the title of the paper was "Ibsen borden berken Der Chokolate Mooooose: Bork Bork Bork.")

Not to make light of racism. Because racism sucks, and a whole category of people, with their unique cultures, histories, traditions, and worldviews, should never be boiled down to a single stereotype under any circumstances. And I can see, if you're Swedish, that that representation of your culture to a global audience might be percieved as narrowminded and overtly silly.

But. I still love the Swedish Chef.

Bork.

Files

Bork Bork Bork!

This is "Bork Bork Bork!" by Heather Beck on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Comments

heatherbeck

Can you imagine how awesome of a time Dave Grohl had doing that?!

Anonymous

The Swedish Chef's sketches were some of my personal favorites. To be offended by him as a negative / racist stereotype is just silly. Too many people are looking for any reason to find something offensive so they can ban it for everyone. I'm part French and have the surname to prove it, and I find French stereotypes and Frenchisms to be hilarious -and even spread them on occasion!

heatherbeck
>>40078587

Oh, I feel ya. I have a Swedish friend who loves the Swedish Chef. She thinks he’s silly, and stupid, and hilarious. Her only complaint is “he just sounds Finnish!” Which isn’t even a real complaint, because what he saying is gibberish, and that’s the point. I think a lot of us have forgotten about satire. When the Swedish Chef began, public television was full of a bunch of very talented, foreign chefs. Absolute luminaries in their field, but a part of the reason they were popular was because they were European, and exotic, and came from this immense culinary heritage during a time when, in the United States especially, the culinary scene was nowhere near as developed as it is now. So, enter the Swedish Chef. Sweden, a country that, unlike Italy, or France, is not necessarily renowned for its culinary scene. There are some foods they do really well! But when was the last time anybody saw “that trendy new Swedish restaurant in town”? The relative obscurity of Swedish fare, outside of IKEA, does add to the humor. And then, this character is an absolute bumbling buffoon, which I think is more of a commentary on the necessity of television chefs to also have a sense of showmanship so viewers stay tuned in. So when people find the Swedish Chef offensive, I can’t really get on board? To me, it’s all just a big piece of satire, that makes fun of the entire zeitgeist, without poking fun at Swedes in general. The joke would’ve worked identically if he was from Denmark, Finland, or Norway. Plus, and I know I’m walking into a minefield here, but shouldn’t the term “racism“ be applied more exclusively to individuals from cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic brackets that experience hardship as a simple byproduct of existing? Not to say there aren’t people from even the most developed countries who, regardless of these factors, don’t experience hardship. I just kind of wonder why outrage against the Swedish Chef usually comes from individuals who don’t possess any sort of outrage against, say, the circumstance of a black man from the south side of Chicago. There’s an interesting article that was published by a Swedish academic that talks about this a bit more extensively. I can’t remember his affiliation, nor can I remember the exact title of the article, but it was something very similar to “Derben Dorben der Chokolate Moooose: Bork Bork Bork.” I can’t speak for anybody else’s experiences definitively, because I don’t have the context. I will say, that as an American who has spent a great deal of time abroad in a variety of countries, that my existence is happier when I serve as the best possible ambassador I can, warts and all all, to my homeland. Sometimes that requires self deprecation, sometimes that requires a roasting from others who have their own American stereotypes, but it always involves a sense of humor. In certain circumstances, that’s where relatability comes from, and that’s where connections are made. You just have to have fun with this kind of stuff... while knowing that there is a pretty big difference between the Muppet Show, and a Minstrel Show.