Above: Anton Ligaarden captured Dale “Snuffy” Smith’s winning moment on film at the conclusion of the Sven & Ole World Championship joke telling contest held at Sven & Ole’s restaurant. Ligaarden and his partner Kristian Balsrod were in Cook County the past few weeks filming various residents with Norwegian roots for an interactive documentary they have been working on for the past year. They were also here for one month in the summer. Left: Tess Dornfeld was spot on with her Norwegian accent, capturing first place in that category, while Smith won for the funniest Sven & Ole jokes. The first-time event was packed and had a great many contestants in each category.
It wasn’t exactly Foreman versus Ali, but Dale “Snuffy” Smith beat back a large group of people competing to see who would win the crown as the best Sven & Ole joke teller in the world. Or at least in Grand Marais.
Before the contest it is rumored that Snuffy gargled with cod liver oil, rolled around in a pile of old herring and then ate two extra big helpings of Lutefisk. It’s even said that he turned the mirror in his bathroom upside down and practiced telling jokes until the blood rushed to his head and he got dizzy and had to quit. Such is the dedication of a world champion.
The contest was held Wednesday, February 20 at Sven & Ole’s Pizza. Although it was slated to begin at 7 p.m., it took a bit longer for the straggling Scandinavian (and everyone that was Scandinavian for the night) contestants to arrive. The joke telling didn’t get under way until 7:30 p.m. with Rod Dockan emceeing.
With the house packed, the competition got off to an uproarious start and the laughter didn’t die until the jokes ended at 9 p.m. Norwegian college students Anton Ligaarden and Kristian Balsrod filmed the entire show. The two journalism students came up with the idea for the contest to see if transplanted Scandinavians would come out and celebrate their heritage. And come out they did!
The first round contestants gave their best joke and several “professional” judges picked three finalists for the joke telling portion and three finalists to determine who had the best Scandinavian accent.
Smith won with the joke on the right.
Smith won a plaque and received a $50 gift certificate for his first place win.
Tess Dornfeld received a $25 gift certificate and a plaque for the vintage Scandinavian accent she displayed.
All of the contestants received gift certificates to the restaurant.
Sid Backlund, owner of Sven & Ole’s Pizza, said he plans to have a second Sven & Ole’s joke telling contest next winter. Ligaarden and Balsrod said they would like to return. Before leaving for home Ligaarden said, “I don’t feel like I’m going home. I feel like I will be leaving home to go back to Norway. Everyone has been so kind to us, this feels like my home now.”
Balsrod said he too will miss Cook County, but they will come back in May and maybe again in August.
As for Snuffy Smith, when asked how his life has changed now that he’s a world champion he replied, “Ya sure, my life has changed. I don’t even dare to go downtown anymore because of all of the autograph hounds.” Will he come back to defend his crown? “I suppose I’ll have to. I just want to add that those Norwegian boys were some swell fellows.”
Snuffy Smith’s winning joke:
Ole and Lena were going to go ice fishing and Sven asked to come along. So Ole said, “Ya sure, you can come Sven.”
As Ole drove his truck out onto the very thin ice it broke in the middle of the lake and the pick-up sunk to the bottom. Ole and Lena struggled to open the doors and after a mighty fight they got out and slowly swam their way to the surface where they pulled themselves out onto the ice and then waited for Sven.
One minute passed and no Sven. Two minutes passed and no Sven. Ole looked at Lena with great worry on his face. Three minutes passed and still no Sven. By now it was apparent that Sven wasn’t going to make it. Ole and Lena were very sad until all of a sudden Sven popped to the surface gasping for breath. Sven slowly crawled onto the ice where he lay for several minutes trying to recover.
Finally Ole asked, “Sven, vat happened? Vy did it take so long for you to get to da top?
“Vell,” said Sven who was still trying to gather his wits about him, “I had trouble opening your tailgate.”
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