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Hello, sweeties. Long time, no see. Anyhow, I have a story to share (again) and it involves a few people of the same Nordic origin as a lot of our TL membership: the Swedes.
Before I begin, let me make my love and admiration for the Scandinavians and their governments and societies very clear: I admire their achievements of being placed top 5 on the United Nations Human Development Index year after year, their universal healthcare, low levels of government corruption, strong labor unions, generous public pensions, free education, and a strong social safety net. You guys know how to build a good society.
But there's something that bothers me: their sense of humor.
Two days ago, I was attending a graduation (or something?) party at the invitation of a good friend of mine. Usually, I avoid these "friend-of-a-friend" types of gatherings, but I sincerely had nothing else to do, so I tagged along. There was a lot of alcohol, a lot of people I did not know, and no real way to avoid talking with them, so I had to get a few drinks and get comfortable and just try to mingle and chit-chat with everyone.
After drinking a bit, I felt more loose and confident and I overheard two guys speaking a foreign language. It sounded vaguely Scandinavian, so I walked up to them and I said "Hey, are you guys speaking Norwegian? Or something?" in a very friendly, warm tone of voice and one of them looks at me and says
"Maybe."
and I said "What?"
and he said "It could be!"
and I just stood there with a stupid look on my face because his tone of voice, along with what he was actually saying, was so weird to me that I didn't know what to say. Then he puts his finger up to my face in the shape of a gun and says "BANG!" and then he and the other Swede walk away.
Okay, that was weird. Whatever. I feel slightly embarrassed, but I move on.
Some other people were playing dominoes at a table together and they invited me to play, so I sat down for a game and I notice there's a girl speaking that language to ANOTHER girl and they're chit-chatting and discussing the game with each other and I was already drunk and had forgotten the previous embarrassment and blurted out "Where are you two from?"
One of the girls (I believe her name was Elva) said they were from Sweden and I said "And those other guys? Are they Swedish, too?" and she said yes and explained they weren't students, they just had friends here in Texas and were here to have fun for a few days, so I talk with them for a little bit and then I mentioned the incident about how the other two Swedes had reacted when I asked what language they were speaking and she says this:
"Americans, they can't take a joke and they can't stop eating."
Again, her tone of voice, along with what she actually said, left me again speechless with a stupid look on my face and then she looked at me and stuck her tongue out and made these weird, silly noises and then her and the other Swedish girl both get up and walk away.
Now, I'm embarrassed AGAIN and I make a decision to stay away from them for the rest of the night, but while I was getting another drink in the kitchen (which was EMPTY, by the way) another guy walks in, who I had been chatting with, and he asked how things were going and I said "Is it just those particular Swedes or is everyone from Sweden a sarcastic cunt?"
He laughs, I laugh, I go back out the door, no one heard what I said, the place was empty, it was a joke between him and me.
The SECOND I step out the door, ALL FOUR OF THEM are standing there and looking at me and just started BERATING me about what I had said and I was too drunk to mount a defense, so I just kept apologizing and tried to explain it was a joke and let me tell you, it was a goddamn NIGHTMARE.
Eventually, they all settle down and they explained that there's differences in humor between our two cultures and Americans don't "get it" and they weren't trying to be offensive or rude to me.
Anyhow, I wish I could say it ended with something more exciting, but it didn't. Happy Mother's Day and please don't be mean to me, Swedish people. 
 
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It can all be attributed to the alcohol, and that they are probably young. People over here do things I can't understand, the humour, the gestures, the language. The posturing, the preening. But it seems to breed out of them when they get older and less drunk.
stuck her tongue out and made these weird, silly noises and then her and the other Swedish girl both get up and walk away.
sounds like the beginning of a weird porno
all in all still sounds like a night to remember
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well that was anticlimactic
but it was also very funny and well-written XD
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Sounds like very childish Swedes, but Swedish people generally dislike american people, sadly :/ Still... very odd behaviour. How old were they? Like 14?
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REALLY odd behaviour, I'm guessing they were really young and shouldn't be drinking in the first place, who the hell are yo hanging out with?
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Well, by the sound of it, you actually can't take a joke. There's a difference between calling someone fat and calling someone a cunt, you know.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50611 Posts
oh wow its pubbanana, I know you!
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Nah, Swedes are cool. You just met some weird ones.
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This sounds like a scene from Monty Python. A type of humor us Germans don't get. Weird.
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I read this, then I re-read it. Still don't get if you had bad luck finding strange Swedes or if you're socially awkard yourself. I've been travelling a lot and never had problems with any culture, except drunk football hooligans från England(when they are in another country).
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On May 14 2012 15:54 surfinbird1 wrote:
This sounds like a scene from Monty Python. A type of humor us Germans don't get. Weird.
This is hilarious, I've met lots of Germans who have problems understanding irony/sarcasm. Quite funny! : )
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Sounds to me like they were being idiots, the Swedish and USA culture over here is so mixed with each other that there's practically no difference between Swedish and USA sense of humor. You were most likely talking with very strange people....
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Sweden1345 Posts
I'm with Integra on this. We work so hard to adapt the American way over here it's starting to get annoying. Either way, we watch the same comedy shows, listen to the same music and are influenced by the same things (except maybe out view on society and "freedom") and the people you met just sounded...fucking weird. There was no comedy in that, in any country...
And that gun in your face, "BANG" shit, would've earned him a trip to the hospital with a snapped finger if he'd pulled it off in northern Sweden. Fuck that shit.
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Those guys were obviously retarded, doesn't sound like Swedish sarcasm at all. Why would you do the gun and "bang" thing because someone mistakes Swedish for Norwegian? Any swedish person with any sense would actually be impressed by an American being able to recognize a language as scandinavian, so those guys were obviously idiots.
As for the girls, I can see joking about americans only being good at eating, but I don't think most people would do it in front of an American they don't know, especially not when in America. And even if they did, they should make it pretty obvious that they are joking, and not walk away which makes it seem like a direct insult.
Overall, I wouldn't worry about it. You didn't meet swedes, you meet assholes who happened to be swedish 
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Sweden33719 Posts
They sound like retards, but deadpan absurd humor is pretty swedish imo.
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I'm sorry Swedes but you can be condescending cunts. Both abroad and in my home town (Oslo - which seems to be under occupation by the swedes) Ive met people that I just wanna slap. When i hit the town last monday there were a shitload of em'. For some reason it always either/or. Some Swedes are just totally awesome - outgoing, polite, fun to be with - and some are total jackasses.
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On May 14 2012 18:25 Aphasie wrote:
I'm sorry Swedes but you can be condescending cunts. Both abroad and in my home town (Oslo - which seems to be under occupation by the swedes) Ive met people that I just wanna slap. When i hit the town last monday there were a shitload of em'. For some reason it always either/or. Some Swedes are just totally awesome - outgoing, polite, fun to be with - and some are total jackasses.
The same can be said for any nationality, it's just personal analogies. There's nothing inherent about Swedish culture/humor which makes Swedes more likely than any other to be condescending.
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On May 14 2012 18:21 Liquid`Jinro wrote:
They sound like retards, but deadpan absurd humor is pretty swedish imo.
(Everyone, please ignore this, it's personal)
FrozenArbiter, I still remember to this day how I had that documentary in my possession (the one about Elky walking through the streets of Seoul) and I even had the same series featuring ChRh, and I promised to upload it to YouSendIt, but I had deleted it by accident. To this day, I feel bad about making you wait for something that I never delivered.
And I'm glad you've realized your dream and even though I do not keep up with pro-gaming at all anymore, I remember the Korean interview you gave in which you said "ta-ning pon-teu" (turning point) in Korean and it made me so happy. 
You were the one who everyone quoted about Garimto when he said this about the Bamboo Rush "Even though you know it's coming, you can't stop it."
And my favorite team, the HanBit Stars, you wrote about how [Oops]Reach only sleeps four hours a day, even though he was a Starleague champion.
And by the way, FrozenArbiter, you are a really handsome guy.
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Okay, I've read all of the responses and most of you seem to agree that it was either because of the alcohol or the fact that they were strange Swedes ... but it could it be a combination of both? Obviously Aphasie has had the same experience, but those Swedes were not nearly within the same context as my experience. Now, I'm kinda of torn between two worlds ... their behavior was so fucking weird that I did not know how to react to it. But, every Swede who posted here said that wasn't Swedish humor, and then a Norwegian pipes up about Swedish behavior in his country (which, unfortunately, I understood).
This is a blog in which I am really torn. I still love all of you, but I'm torn 
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On May 14 2012 18:55 pubbanana wrote:Okay, I've read all of the responses and most of you seem to agree that it was either because of the alcohol or the fact that they were strange Swedes ... but it could it be a combination of both? Obviously Aphasie has had the same experience, but those Swedes were not nearly within the same context as my experience. Now, I'm kinda of torn between two worlds ... their behavior was so fucking weird that I did not know how to react to it. But, every Swede who posted here said that wasn't Swedish humor, and then a Norwegian pipes up about Swedish behavior in his country (which, unfortunately, I understood). This is a blog in which I am really torn. I still love all of you, but I'm torn
It's more that their behavior would be met by the same response in Sweden. Of course, we weren't there and can't tell how the situation felt, we can't hear their tone of voice and see their expressions, but if someone acted the way you explained, I would probably tell them to their face immediately that they were being dicks. From what I can tell from your post, they weren't joking at all, they were flat out insulting you and tried to play it off as a joke.
The same is true with the Norway remark. Danish people often whine about Swedes acting like idiots in Denmark, but that's because young swedes go there to drink since they aren't allowed to do so in Sweden, and they wouldn't act that way here. It's not because they are swedes, it because they are young drunk idiots. It's true for all nations, go to some nice summer resort in southern Europe and enjoy the shit-eating english hooligans, the dumbass germans and the annoying french. It's not humor, nor cultural, just young people being dumb.
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EPT
