Minnesota humor is all in good fun

Once people find out you're from Minnesota, you're fair game for the good-natured ribbing that comes with hailing from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Our Scandinavian brogue, our passion for lutefisk and lefse, our mosquitoes, our cold winters and even our Lutheran heritage are often fodder for jokes.

Every so often Minnesota humor arrives via e-mail. It also mysteriously shows up on my desk from time to time.

I got a laugh out of the last joke that someone slipped under my computer keyboard. Some of you have no doubt heard it, as these types of things seem to circulate relentlessly in cyberspace.

I won't relate the whole story, but it's about a new "no frills" airline called Lutran (Lutheran) Air:

"Dere is no first class on any Lutran Air flight. Meals are potluck. Rows 1-6, bring rolls; 7-15, bring a salad; 16-21, a main dish, and 22-30, a dessert … Everyone is responsible for his or her own baggage. All fares are by freewill offering and da plane will not land 'til da budget is met … Okay den, listen up. In de event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, I am frankly going to be real surprised and so will Capt. Olson, because we fly right around two tousand feet, so loss of cabin pressure would probably indicate da Second Coming or someting of dat nature…"

You get the idea. Those of you who want a complete copy of this gem, see me after church.

And speaking of church, someone recently sent me the Ten Commandments, Minnesota style. They're too funny not to share:

1. Der's only one God, ya know!

2. Don't make that fish on your mantle an idol.

3. Cussing ain't Minnesota nice.

4. Go to church even when you're up North.

5. Honor your folks.

6. Don't kill. Catch and release.

7. There is only one Lena for every Ole. No cheatin'

8. If it ain't your lutefisk, don't take it.

9. Don't be braggin' about how much snow you shoveled.

10. Keep your mind off your neighbor's hot dish.

If these tidbits haven't satisfied your yearning for Minnesota humor, search out the books written by Minnesota humorists Janet Martin and Allen Todnem. I have a copy of their first book, "Cream and Bread." Since then they've written "Second Helping of Cream and Bread" and "Lutheran Church Basement Women."

I couldn't find my copy of "Cream and Bread," because, as you may remember from an earlier column, I'm a pack rat and have it stashed away in a box somewhere. But as I recall, it's a hilarious account of growing up in Minnesota during the 1940s and 1950s, when life in rural Minnesota truly did revolve around church and home. It goes into great detail about church potlucks and the many varied forms of hotdish and Jell-O salad that turn up at such events.

Incidentally, cream and bread was once a staple of Scandinavian Americans, who indulged in slathering fresh cream over a slice of homemade bread and topping it with brown sugar. While my family didn't partake of this delicacy, I remember it being a favorite dish of our closest neighbor, Hilmar Heiberg.

Martin and Todnem's books are filled with the idiosyncrasies of life in Minnesota that so closely describe my own upbringing that I feel they must have had surveillance equipment in my childhood farmhouse.

It's a good thing Minnesotans don't take all this teasing too seriously - at least I don't. So bring it on, send me your Minnesota humor, your Ole and Lena jokes, your lutefisk quips. I can take it like a good Norwegian.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com