Bellman joke
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The Bellman joke is a type of simple joke popular among Swedish schoolchildren, always including a person named Bellman as the main character.
The jokes first became popular in the 19th century, and were originally inspired by the life of the poet and composer Carl Michael Bellman. The first known Bellman jokes survive in a book from 1835, which quotes a Bellman joke in a letter written 1808 by a contemporary of Bellman. 19th century Bellman jokes tended to focus on CM Bellman's life at court, and often contained sexual humour. Since then, however, the Bellman character of the jokes has changed into a generic person, rather than the historical figure. The shift from jokes told by adults to jokes told mainly by young schoolchildren up to 10 years of age probably happened in the first half of the 20th century.[1]
The modern versions of the Bellman jokes often include Bellman and two other characters of different nationalities, with the former coming out victorious from a tricky situation. However, in many Bellman jokes, Bellman is portrayed as something of an anti-hero, who may cheat, lie or even smell very bad in order to get the last laugh. Another common theme is that Bellman fools or makes fun of a priest, policeman or other authority figure. He can thus be seen as a modern sort of a trickster. The jokes tend to involve bodily functions such as urinating or defecating.
The ubiquitous character of the stories and the fact that they have been told in various forms for so many years have made them subject to study by ethnologists such as Bengt af Klintberg[2] and researchers in children's culture.
[edit] Example of a contemporary Bellman joke
Bellman, a Russian, and a German wanted to see who could swim from Europe to America the fastest. First out was the German. He swam 1 kilometer and drowned. Next came the Russian. He swam 10 kilometers and then he drowned. Now it was Bellman's turn. He swam and swam until he almost reached the coast of America, but he got tired and swam back.
[edit] References
- ^ Klintberg, Bengt af. 1987. Varför är Bellmanhistorierna roliga? In: BUKS | tidsskrift for børne og ungdomskultur no 9. Available: http://www.buks.dk/PDF/Varfor_er_bellmannhistorierna_roliga.pdf
- ^ Klintberg, Bengt af. 1998. Kuttrasju: Folkloriska och kulturhistoriska essäer. Stockholm: Nordstedts
