New uploads on my YouTube page.
They are from a Christmas show made by the Danish music and comedy group De Nattergale. (The name is a Danish pun combining "The Nightingales" with "The Madmen". Sort of.) I think their music is great. But I imagine that most of the excellent humor is lost if you don't speak Danish. Of the great ideas of the show was that these "nisser" (It's a Scandinavian/Danish thing.) are from the US, and so they speak English... but not really. They speak it atrociously bad, with inch-thick Danish accent, and with like every third word in actual Danish. Trust me, it's hilarious. :)
I discovered to my great horror that there was nothing from that show on YouTube. So I carefully isolated, ripped, and uploaded these from the DVD. I think they will be appreciated by the many Danish fans and help the sales of the DVD. When this show aired in the early nineties, everybody spoke in the catch phrases.
Hey, I just discovered I understand Dansk!
ReplyDeleteI like the picture quality of your rips. Much better than U-Choob in general.
Here's a sketch from a Finnish comedy show called Kummeli. It's about a guy who is suffering terrible Hang Over (English subtitles).
"I like the picture quality of your rips."
ReplyDeleteThanks. It seems that if you overshoot the quality needed, you can achieve high quality in the end product. Meaning I rip them to higher resolution and bandwidth than seems necessary.
Eolake claimed: "little people or Santa's helpers. It's a Danish thing."
ReplyDeleteHuh? The elv myth has been alive throughout northern Europe at least a couple thousand years. This includes countries such as Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
If you must place its origin somewhere in the map, I believe folklorists currently would have it somewhere in the eastern parts of what's currently known as Russia. It came to Denmark from either Norway or Sweden.
Sheesh!
If you follow the links, it's explained. I meant the connection between nisser and Christmas has Danish origins.
ReplyDeleteBesides, they are not elves. I should probably not have said "little people".
ReplyDeleteI understand but I strongly doubt it. The Swedes have their jultomten, Finns have joulutonttu, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe word "nisse" may be originally Danish, but the concept of Santas helpers is present in the pagan folklore of all Scandinavian countries and many Eastern European countries.
The Santa myth has pagan origins as do Santas helpers. However, the helpers' original role during pagan times was somewhat different -- more sinister. They have been repurposed into the Santa story. Just like the original Yule Bock was repurposed into what we currently know as the Christian Santa Claus.
They are called Santa's elves in English, but 'tomten' and 'tonttu' and so on in other languages.
Depending on the country there are variations on how they are said to look and act. So even while the Dansk version of the myth has its special features this doesn't change the fact that the story has been known throughout Northern Europe from pre-historic times. I see no evidence that it would have its origins specifically in Denmark.
"In the eastern parts of what's currently known as Russia"?
ReplyDeleteI thought the island of Flores was in Indonesia? ;-)
"The Santa myth has pagan origins"
Quite true. His red costume was a Coca-Cola advertising idea.
Eolake said...
ReplyDeleteI should probably not have said "little people".
Right. You should've said "vertically different".