Englishman Reacts to... Norwegian Comedy - Russian submarine captain goes 'fishing'

Harald Eide Steen Jr was an true comedy genius and legend, such an loved comedian by the Norwegian people, i miss his humor one off a kind ; ))

If I remember correctly, this was made after a Soviet Russian submarine had been caught in the Swedish waters in the early 80s. Edit: Yes, i know. I was wrong. This was a few years before. It has been said many times now 😂

"You can't see the border under water" is a widely recognizable quote in Norway to this day.

Sadly, this comedy sketch aged extremely well :)

How to avoid answering questions. This is a classic in Norway.

It's a sketch and it is one of the most hilarious in my opinion. This is the aesthetics of Soviet responses in the 1980's. Every "serious" question from the reporter is answered with some bonkers trivial rethoric.

Far from new sketch, 1978, but remembered fondly and as relevant as ever !

"Når nettene blir lange" means "when the nights get longer", but "nettene" can also mean "the nets" as in fishing nets, so there's a lingual trick there ;)

The sketch with Harald Heide-Steen Jr. as a Russian submarine captain is from the entertainment series Etter Dagsrevyen, which aired on NRK.

It's funny that the sketch is still remembered so fondly, since it's topical, and topical humour doesn't usually age well. There were other sketches of a similar nature. They all relied on Harald Heide Steen playing a different character, related to some news of the day. They just set up the situation and let him improvise the whole thing. Totto Osvold wasn't even a comedian. He was a regular newscaster, and his job was just to conduct the interview as if it was serious, only without laughing. I imagine that that must have been difficult enough. 😂 Another famous sketch is the "Spantax pilot." Spantax was a Spanish low cost airline involved in some near accidents, so of course Harald would play a pilot being interviewed about their erratic flying.

One of the greatest comedy Norwegians of all time. Harald Heide Steen

Harald Heide Steen jr. (1939-2008]. He was a very funny Norwegian comedian, here playing a russian submarine captain. He speaks in broken Norwegian with a think Russian accent. Totally Monte Python. The song at the end is a Norwegian christmas song for children where he confuse the word for nights with fishing nets.

There was a period with a lot of observations of unknown submarines in Norwegian fjords. There was even one occasion where a trawler cough a Russian submarine in its net. They were going full speed ahead but yet they were going astern. Eventually the submarine surfaced and cut the net. In Sweden there was an episode outside their most important naval base where a submarine in the whisky class grounded and were struck for several days. It was by comedians as whiskey on the rocks. A couple years ago they made a comedy movie about the event and the film was naturally named “Whisky on the rocks “.😂😂😂

As a Norwegian I remember this well, brings back old memories from childhood and I am almost 50 years old.

Harald Heide-Steen Jr. was one of the most beloved Norwegian comedians from 70s and 80s, back then comedy were the real thing. Him, Arthur Arntzen/Oluf, Rolv Wesenlund, Trond Kirkvaag, Aud Schønemann, they were all like rockstars. "At the dentist" with Rolv Wesenlund and Harald Heide-Steen Jr. is one of the proper classics. I could not find it with English subtitles so it is auto translated. Horrible but with a bit "understanding" you will get through it. /watch?v=DBLiweCPkHk

he also ha one about fling low -flying spantax airlines . as the pilot.

Harald called it black talk. He talked every language in the world, in his mind. So good. I am so old I smile just of his face, still remember when all the alarms went off due to Sovjet Subs.

He is speaking Norwegian with an "excellent Russian dialect" !!

In the middle of the sketch, the "reporter" asks the submarine captain how anyone could believe he was "fishing" from a submarine caught in the inner part of the Oslofjord (Drøbak), only a few nautical miles from Oslo.

And i think most of this scetch was improvised:)