Comments on: Bork bork bork!

Bork bork bork!

jbickers — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:40:51 -0800

Meatballs! Donuts! Banana splits! Chocolate mousse! Lobsters! Cake! Frog legs! Eggs! Turtle soup! Salad! Angry dough! Singing with Cleo Laine! Friday fun featuring the Swedish Chef.

By: Koko

Koko — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:08:25 -0800

bork! bork! bork!

By: Koko

Koko — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:09:16 -0800

Which of course is the title ... I'm going back to bed now.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:09:55 -0800

Oh great! Another YouTube Fest.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:11:12 -0800

I'm going to bed too.

By: device55

device55 — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:12:44 -0800

*weeps felt tears of joy*

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:15:06 -0800

Koko, stop poking me. I was asleep.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:15:53 -0800

Yes, I was snoring but I can't help it.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:18:05 -0800

Oh! For goodness sake! I'm going to the spare room. Good night.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:20:03 -0800

Buy this. Then buy this, too. Maybe Disney will actually get off their butts and release the remaining three seasons.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:26:52 -0800

For the record: My grandfather was Swedish. Born and raised in Uppsala. He was a mechanical engineer who came to America in the 50's after serving in the Swedish Merchant Marine during the war. He was rotund, often wore a chef's apron, had bushy red/blonde eyebrows and a hat. A poofy white chef's hat. A poofy white chef's hat. Although he died when I was only two (and consequently, my memories of him are suspect-to-nonexistent) I'm told by my mom and dad that he was quite an excellent cook, and would prepare meals while speaking happily (and incomprehensibly) to himself in Swedish. From what I've heard, I don't believe he ever saw "The Swedish Chef", or even if he did, that he would have found anything unusual or stereotypical about the character. As an older child, I remember watching the Muppet Show and asking "Mom, didn't I know the Swedish chef?", to which she would just smile and reply "Yes you did -- and he loved you very much."

By: angry.polymath

angry.polymath — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:44:37 -0800

Great story, Avenger - made my day. :-) Anyone remember Don Music? Never made a lick of sense to me as a kid, but now whenever I get a crippling case of writer's block, I play one of his clips and it at least makes me feel better. Good god, we need Jim Henson back. And Douglas Adams, while we're at it. [ heavy sigh ]

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:59:48 -0800

I just favorited this so hard I broke my bork bork bork.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:01:13 -0800

Wedding! Wedding! Piggy froggy wedding!

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:08:55 -0800

Meetbells! Dunoots! Bununa spleets! Chuculete-a muoosse-a! Lubsters! Ceke-a! Frug legs! Iggs! Toortle-a suoop! Seled! Ungry duoogh! Seenging veet Cleu Leeene-a! Freedey foon feetooreeng zee Svedeesh Cheff. Bork, bork, bork!

By: forallmankind

forallmankind — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:22:19 -0800

Am I mad, or did you miss out the awesome Chicken In A Basket?

By: the painkiller

the painkiller — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:40:09 -0800

this post is hoookey-dokey!!

By: rokusan

rokusan — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:42:45 -0800

Oh great! Another YouTube ~~Fest~~ Feast. Feex thet fur yuoo.

By: Area Control

Area Control — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:43:59 -0800

I'd love it is someone made a post like this about Animal. Start with the video of him, Beaker, and the Swedish Chef singing "Danny Boy". Oh boy oh boy oh boy....

By: Cookiebastard

Cookiebastard — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:37:31 -0800

Dee Alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork FAQ-ee Leest Elsu efeeeleble-a here-a is zee Incheffereezer, a prugrem vreettee by Juhn Hegermun. Zeere-a ere-a seferel ferseeuns.

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:50:31 -0800

Avenger's story above is one of the sweetest things I've ever read here.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:53:02 -0800

Avenger's story above is one of the sweetest things I've ever read here. Agreed - total sidebar material, and flagged as such.

By: spoobnooble

spoobnooble — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:09:13 -0800

Dee Alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork FAQ-ee Leest Elsu efeeeleble-a here-a is zee Incheffereezer, a prugrem vreettee by Juhn Hegermun. Zeere-a ere-a seferel ferseeuns. posted by Cookiebastard at 11:37 AM on November 30 [+] [!] I so-o-o-o-o wanna yell out "eponysterical" -- close, but no cigar. /COOKIE!!! AH-NUM-NUM-NUM-NUM....

By: rtha

rtha — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:56:59 -0800

Avenger, that's a fantastic story. We should all be so lucky as to have a Swedish chef in our lives.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:56:26 -0800

Thanks guys. My first sidebar! I actually do have a picture of grandpa with his chef's hat on somewhere around here, but no scanner to grab it with. Anywho, I'm off to make some Swedish pancakes with lingonberry preserves...bork bork bork....!

By: Eringatang

Eringatang — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:02:28 -0800

When I lived in Sweden I gave a presentation on the Swedish Chef as a Swedish class assignment. I got a lot of blank stares. My classmates from all over Europe and my teacher explained to me that they knew this muppet character, but they had never heard him called the Swedish Chef before. There, he was known as "The Chef." And the teacher said she never would have guessed he was supposed to be Swedish!

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:11:56 -0800

Awesome post. When making chocolat moose, don't forget to prep the moose with fermented crab apples.

By: grouse

grouse — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:13:19 -0800

Search Google with the Swedish Chef

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:43:23 -0800

Start with the video of him, Beaker, and the Swedish Chef singing "Danny Boy". This. Bears repeating: Good god, we need Jim Henson back. And Douglas Adams, while we're at it.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:40:00 -0800

Cool it.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:41:23 -0800

then burn it up.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:27:39 -0800

I love you SO much for posting this. I do. And Avenger...that is the sweetest thing evah!

By: Daddio

Daddio — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:14:12 -0800

On a tangentially related note, much fun can be had reading Metafilter after it's been run through The Dialectizer.

By: effbot

effbot — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:00:48 -0800

> There, he was known as "The Chef." That's puzzling, because he's definitely known as "svenske kocken" over here. If not else, the occasional use of the word "smörgåsbord" gives him away ;-) (btw, there's a guy who claims to be the inspiration for this character who does business as Svenske Kocken; his story is that he was invited to show swedish cooking on live television in the late sixties, found himself alone on the stage, and got a complete brainfart. Representatives for Henson later paid him $80 for the rights. This story was denied by a muppet show writer, but the writer doesn't remember where the idea comes from, so I'm not sure he's more reliable than the other guy...)

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:00:56 -0800

Ah, those were the days. As for "Danny Boy," it made my entire weekend.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:34:43 -0800

Byörk! Mørk! Spørk! Seriously, though... someone really needs to sue ikea for this. It's just uncool to pretend to be the "real" Swedish chef... as if he wasn't real or something.

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:26:52 -0800

Danny Boy

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:05:43 -0800

Pulp Muppets The Muppet Matrix

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:09:33 -0800

I can't believe I missed this thread earlier. So. One of my favorite Muppet factoids from a Jim Henson biography that I read years ago (and highly recommend) is about the Swedish Chef. Usually Jim Henson did the Chef's voice and the hands were Frank Oz's hands. So you've got this character who is already expected to do crazy spastic things being controlled by two people at once. Frank Oz liked to do unexpected things with the Chef's hands to throw Jim Henson off and make him adapt. So in those videos when the Chef grabs something weird and does crazy things with it, Jim Henson was often adapting the fake Swedish to go with it on the spot, while he was still unsure what the hands were going to do next. Which to me makes watching these even more fun than it was before I knew that. Brian Henson also described it: And if you watch The Swedish Chef one of the most exciting things about it is the head is just speaking away and trying to follow the hands which are grabbing meat cleavers and throwing chickens over his head. To me the best part about the Swedish Chef is the more you don't understand him, the more you love him.