Danish humor

   The “Great Dane,” Victor Borge, is without question the chief standard bearer of Danish humor. He found humor in everything -- even otherwise sad occasions. He said that during his father’s funeral there was a tall man with a small hat and a short man as pallbearers. His mother said it is a good thing his father had not seen that -- if he had, he would have laughed himself to death anyway.

  With Danes, almost anything is fair game for humor -- even religion. That famously got them into trouble when cartoonists drew cartoons about the prophet Muhammad.

  Danes joke about taxes, loss of crops. There is a story of a 60-year-old resistance fighter captured by the Germans during World War II. When questioned by the Gestapo, “Have you ever had professional honors?” he answered truthfully, “No -- this is the first.”

    Another quote: “The foreigners, they wanted to cause her grief and pain. They offered her thraldom within her own domain, but just as they thought she was bound in chains and yoke, she laughed so loudly that all her shackles broke.”

   Pawp carried the tradition of Danish humor slyly, always with a sheepish grin. When I would fuss about not wanting to eat spinach or some other distasteful meal, Pawp would say, “Well, go ahead and eat it up quick, then you won’t have to look at it!” (I didn’t think that was funny at the time.) He was also famous for finding “short cuts” to places that always took twice as long as the regular way.

   One of Pawp’s favorite jokes comes from the sea and makes gentle fun of Swedes. Seems there was a terrible storm at sea. The captain, a Swede, told the Danish mate, “Trow o’er de anker!” The mate replied, “But capt’n -- dere’s no shain on de anker!” The captain, outraged at having his order questioned, scowled, stood erect and shouted. “Trow it o’er anyway -- I’m de capt’n of de ship!”

   An uncle of Pawp’s came from middle Wisconsin with two carloads of potatoes to sell to the army at Rockford, IL. He wanted to trade the potatoes for two mules. When he arrived, he laughed a large Haw-Haw -- the two carloads were frozen, and he went back to home with no potatoes and no mules.