The Swedish Chef is the incomprehensible preparer of foodstuffs from The Muppet Show. A rather literal variation of the live-hand Muppet concept, the Swedish Chef is a humanoid character, with human hands rather than gloves.
The Swedish Chef was a regular among the Muppets in The Muppet Show. His sketches in it began with him singing his signature song in a trademark mock Swedish, a semi-comprehensible gibberish which parodies the characteristic vowel sounds of Swedish. After this introduction, the Chef continues to speak gibberish while preparing a particular recipe. His commentary is spiced with the occasional English word to clue the viewer into what he is attempting.
In episode 316, Danny Kaye, portraying the chef's uncle in a sketch, claims that the Swedish Chef's first name is Tom. However, since Kaye was not a blood relative, in reality, this information may be considered apocryphal. Many years later on The Muppets, Christina Applegate misinterprets his name as Megan in "Bear Left Then Bear Write", when he was actually just saying, "me, me."[1]
The Swedish Chef has appeared in every Muppet movie to date and is one of only a handful of characters to have a speaking role in every film. In The Muppet Movie, he operates the projector for the film. In Muppet Treasure Island, he appears as the chef for the boars on the island, wearing a pig snout. The vegetables break the fourth wall regarding his appearance, commenting "well, how else did you think we were going to get him into this movie?"
Development[]
According to Brian Henson in one of his introductions for The Muppet Show, Jim Henson had this tape that he used to play which was 'How to Speak Mock Swedish':
"He used to drive to work and I used to ride with him a lot. And he would drive to work trying to make a chicken sandwich in Mock Swedish or make a turkey casserole in Mock Swedish. It was the most ridiculous thing you had ever seen. And people at traffic lights used to stop and sort of look at him a little crazy. But that was the roots of the character that would eventually become the Swedish Chef."
Jim Henson had previously explored the idea of a funny foreign chef at the US Food Fair that took place in Hamburg, Germany in 1961, where Sam and Friends character Omar prepared a flaming salad while speaking in some quite comprehensible mock German that Henson and Jerry Juhl had previously scribbled down in phonetics.[2]
The Chef's gibberish gained a life of its own with the creation of a Unix filter capable of converting standard English to Chefspeak in 1992. The filter quickly became a staple of hacker culture and eventually spread to the mainstream with Swedish Chef translators on several Web sites such as Google. In 2003, Opera Software published a special Bork version of its internet browser that turned the MSN Web site into mock Swedish. Mozilla Firefox also contains a popular add-on called Bork Bork Bork! that allows the selective translation of text from Web pages of the user's choice.
While The Swedish Chef normally has live human hands, he also occasionally has Muppet hands.
It is implied that the Swedish Chef is, or has at least, married. A wedding ring has appeared on the Swedish Chef's left hand as early as 2006. In 2014, a plush version of the character donning his ring was released to coincide with the release of Muppets Most Wanted.
The Chef is one of the few regular characters from The Muppet Show, whose original dialogue from the English version remains the same in most Non-English speaking countries.
According to the inside gatefold cover for The Muppet Revue, The Swedish Chef was actually born in Denmark and moved to Sweden when he was a baby.
The Swedish Chef has appeared, at least briefly, in every Muppet film to date. He is one of less than a dozen Muppets to have at least one line in every Muppet movie, the others being Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Animal, Bunsen, Beaker, Sam Eagle, Statler, and Waldorf.
↑Jim Henson's Red Book, 11/1961 - "Jerry and I did show in Hamburg, Germany – Dept. of Agriculture."
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