Scandinavian Humor and Other Myths

by John Louis Anderson

Scandinavian Humor & Other Myths is America's best-selling book of Scandinavian Humor. A sophisticated, loving look at a stoic crowd that actually prefers cold weather, almost always wears suits (Pants, Leisure, or Snowmobile), and doesn't like Food that Hurts. "So Funny that you almost laugh out loud."
- An Old Swede

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1986

Reviews

[Robert]

Speaks to my swedish heritage.

[Lorin Arendt]

I have a philosophy on humor books: if I can pick it up and laugh out loud, I'll buy it.

I bought it, with no hesitation.

[Thea Stayton]

Hilarious. I recognized so much of my family heritage in this, I almost laughed out loud!

[Jen]

The title was for sure the funniest part of the book! Found among my aunt's things, given to her by my mother.

[Jen]

Three stars for quality, five for corny charm. So much rang true for this Swede raised by Lutherans. Good humor.

[Stephanie R.]

I am Scandinavian and I found this book very boring. There were one or two moments where I almost laughed, and that's all the book promised so I guess I can't complain.

The only part of this book I found funny was the part about food and recipes. My relatives do eat like that, although they are trying to assimilate. My mom once served tortilla chips with medium salsa at a family gathering. So there.

The problem is that this book was written almost 30 years ago (1986) and it refers to a very specific subset of Scandinavians: that is, those who live in Minnesota. Nobody in my family lives in or has ever lived in Minnesota, so all of the Minnesota/snow/ice fishing references were wasted on me. There's lots of material about Luther League, which is a Lutheran youth group everybody is supposed to have fond(-ish) memories of. Despite growing up in the LCMS Lutheran church, I have never heard of Luther League. We didn't even have a youth group. It also spends a whole chapter talking about lutefisk, something I've heard of but my family doesn't eat. The chapter about Bergman films? Also irrelevant to me. The other problem with this book is the frightening photo on the cover. I am donating this book to Paperbackswap so that I don't have to look at it anymore, and because it will be funny to inflict Scandinavian "humor" on some unsuspecting stranger.

[Georgene]

Being married to a half Swedish American (the other have of him is from Iowa. Same difference!), I found this book quite humorous.

I do have this to add: We always said about my father-in-law, who was ALL Swedish, "You can tell a Swede, but you can't tell him much"! My father-in-law was actually a marshmallow: crusty on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. Here's to you, Grandpa Art!!

[Marita]

This was a gift to us back in our school days. I thought this book took itself a bit too seriouly. It includes about every aspect of one's life. I found the transations and pictures hilarious, the rest of it just so and so.

[Barbara]

It's probably a lot funnier if you are either Scandinavian, Lutheran or from Minnesota, a lot of it I just didn't identify with. There were still some funny parts though.