Swedish tracktioneers: Groundhog Day on TV3 this evening!

[cellular]

First, i want to make it clear my nickname (which is also what i release music under) does not refer to cellular phones. The connection actually bothers me somewhat, as i think mobile phones in some ways have done a great deal of damage to our social lives.

Anyway, as others have also stated, in Sweden we are generally very literate in north american culture, so these shows are not really strange for us. I personally loved King of the Hill, and Letterman is good too, although i prefer Conan O'Brien. We see a lot of tv and movies from the US, and we generally follow what goes on there both politically and otherwise. I'm sure it also helps that we study quite a lot of english in school, and that we subtitle foreign tv-shows and movies instead of dubbing them. That way we are not in the hands of incompetent translators.

20 minutes until Groundhog Day. I really have high expectations on this one now.

cellular,

I think your username is interesting from my short (6 veckan) visit to Sweden to work in Trollhättan in 2000.

I recall seeing many children with mobile phones checking in with their parents.

This is only starting to become common in the US.

Do you know the story behind 'Groundhog Day', not the movie, but the unofficial holiday?

In short, there is a story that says that if a certain groundhog (a large rodent native to the US) by the name of Punxsatawney Phil (named after the town where he lives), comes out of his hole in the ground on February 2, and sees his shadow, then we are doomed to another 6 weeks of winter like weather. However, if he does not see his shadow, then spring weather is soon on the way.

The movie is only marginally related to that story. I can't imagine that the movie translates well to Swedish.

In fact, I recall that most of the US TV shows that I saw broadcast in Sweden really had quite twisted US humor in them, and I wondered what the Swedes thought about them. The shows that I thought would be hard to understand if I was not from the US were:

King of the Hill (which I never watched before visiting Sweden, but kind of got hooked on while there)
David Letterman show.

Do Swedes really enjoy these shows, or are they just a kind of strange curiosity?

-Scott

[O-Jay]

Swedes are allmost fed US culture with the mother's milk. Music, TV, magazines etc to the point that some identify with it more than with Swedens own culture.

Yes, and after celebrating Halloween for some four years now, I am anxiously waiting for someone to introduce Thanksgiving here as well

(I never thought I would reply to a T2 hoax thread...)

[soma]

Jag saknar Sverige! Det har varit så långt. Ett år sent var jag på ishotelet, och har inte varit tillbaka til svea sen.
I actually found when I lived in sweden that many swedes knew more about american tv and music than I did (but I'm not a big tv guy). I hope they have Saturday night live there now as that seems to be the funniest show exported not found.
I never really noticed how the net is so full of swedes until I lived there. Now I notice their influence everywhere! Food, fashion, music, muvies,advertising, even politics. I think the one major seperation between yanks and swedes is that teh swedish havea much more open acceptance of the arts and it is not at all discuraged to become an artist in Sweden. Here however people laugh at you if you tell them you want to be an artist for a living.

[cellular]

O-Jay: This is not a T2 hoax thread!

Well, i saw the movie, and it was kind of good, although pretty depressing. Partially reminded me of the novel "The last answer" from Isaac Asimovs "Robot Dreams" book.

I sure hope Jules is not stuck in this kind of loop, coding the same feature each and every day. On the other hand though, if he ever emerged from the loop i guess he would have learnt a hell of a lot about programming, and we wouldn't have noticed anything anyway.

[O-Jay]

O-Jay: This is not a T2 hoax thread!

OK, maybe not - sorry - I just got caught by that Groundhog advertisment. But that also means I'm still not guilty of posting in one

[pethu]

Groundhogs are our friends, as long as they don't lie about what they see...

[bewing77]

Someone once said that (rough traslation) "Sweden is the most Americanized country in the world, including the US". Not entirely true, but we do get alot of input from American culture here. We have as many, if not more, american tv shows as swedish. Alot of american food culture is beeing imported to. The one area we don't follow trace in is in politics though. I watch this development with some anxiety. Not because I dislike american culture, but because I like our age old swedish culture and because no one culture is perfect. Influences should be picked up from all over. Another point is that most swedes take great interest in what goes on in the world, and have a good insight in what is going on in other countries. Because of this, shows like Leno and Letterman (and yeah, we even get Conan daily) is often appreciated.

About the movie Goundhog day. The swedish translation is "Måndag hela veckan" wich translates to "Monday the entire week"... and that's not the worst movie title translation around.. I just don't understand why there even is a need to translate titles: Most swedes understand english pretty good at an age of 8 or 9.

And yeah, we are pretty numerous on the web, aren't we? For a country with only 9 million citizens anyways. Almost everyone in Sweden owns a computer and has access to the web though, so it may not be that strange.

[valley]

We have as many, if not more, american tv shows as swedish.

That's fine. They've all got your furniture.