This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
The Swedish immigrants who came to the Rock Island area by the hundreds in the 1880s and ‘90s to work for John Deere brought with them a rich folk literature which they have kept alive to this day.
It is called the Norwegian Joke.
As a Norwegian-American, I can tell you that not everything that calls itself a Norwegian joke is one, for instance, those stories that keep the same punch line whatever group is the subject of the joke. Let me just hint at some of the finer points so you can separate the wheat from the chaff in case you find yourself among Swedes. We Norwegians want to keep the record straight.
A true Norwegian joke has three identifying characteristics. The subject of the joke ought to be a Norwegian who berates another character for his stupidity, but who turns out to be just as ignorant himself. For instance, Ole and Sven were having such a good day fishing that they decided to boat out to the same place the next day. "How will we find the same spot," asks Ole. "Well," says Sven," I put an X on the side of the boat." "You stupid thing," says Ole, "How do you know we'll get the same boat tomorrow?"
That's almost a Norwegian joke, but to be really genuine, the story must have an outhouse. For instance, one day Ole accidentally dropped fifty cents down the outhouse hole. He took off his watch and threw it down, too, then his billfold, and his rings. "Ole, what are you doing that for?" asks Sven. Ole says "You think I'm going down there for fifty cents?"
Now, if you combine both the know-it-all character and the outhouse, here is what you get: Ole says to his wife, "What does that Sven think I am? He tried to rent me the bottom of a two-story outhouse for $10 a month." "O fer dum," says his wife. "You bet," says Ole, "but I talked him down to $5."
Now think a moment. Did you pause for even a fraction of a second at that last line and think "$5—why that's not so bad"?
If so, you provided the third ingredient of a true Norwegian joke: the perfect audience.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
