# swedes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 9, 2001, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160 "2001-06-09T06:36:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sdarr2002](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdarr2002)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/1 "2001-06-09T06:36:12Z")
having recently had the occasion to insult a swede, i have just realized i don’t know a derogatory term for swedes. (you know, like calling a german a kraut)
i have asked several very educated people and a lot of not so educated people and none could think of one.
of course, now the need to insult this guy has passed. but now i am curious.
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/2 "2001-06-09T08:14:12Z")
I don’t know of one, but I’ll tell you one thing…
Don’t let **Montfort** see this thread. 😉
Or maybe **Anniz** will be along to get you. Even better.
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### Author:  [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/3 "2001-06-09T08:23:21Z")
Swedish Meatball?
In Iceland it’s enough to just call someone a Swede, that’s pretty derogatory in itself 😃
— G. Raven
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### Author:  [@Anniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniz)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/4 "2001-06-09T08:27:01Z")
The reson is of course,
we’re so goooooooooood.😃
So therfor no derogatory term for swedes.
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### Author:  [@Anniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniz)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/5 "2001-06-09T08:28:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Morrison’s Lament \*
> \*\*
>
> In Iceland it’s enough to just call someone a Swede, that’s pretty derogatory in itself 😃
> \*\*
Now I’m never going to wisit Iceland.😉
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### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/6 "2001-06-09T09:08:20Z")
My father (and, therefore, I) am both Nowegian and Swedish. If a Swede was bragging up his/her ancestory my father would say ‘A Swede is nothing more than a Norwegian with his head kicked in’. Vice versa for the Norwegian, of course.
My father’s a pretty big guy, though; I don’t recommend this course of action for everyone 😉
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/7 "2001-06-09T09:10:59Z")
Norwegians are with the Icelanders on this one. Nordic solidarity, you know. (“Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds…” :D)
Outsiders who want to insult Swedes will have to rely on general insults for Scandinavians. “Herring choker” and “mackrell snapper” are two of the classics, as is “Scandihoovian”.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/8 "2001-06-09T15:34:00Z")
I seem to recall that when Minnesota was being settled by Norwegians and Swedes, they had some pretty choice names for each other. But I can’t remember them. (No, I’m not thinking of “dumb Swede” and “dumb Norwegian”, but they’re always good in a pinch).
Norwegians are sometimes called “square heads”, but I’m not sure why.
Maybe we could call them rutabagas. I read my great-grandfather’s diary, and I got a little confused when he wrote of “planting Swedes in the garden” every spring. I began to think he was a serial murderer, especially with all his talk of the “fine slaying” every winter. Turns out he was planting rutabagas and thankful for the good sleighing conditions. 😃
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### Author:  [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/9 "2001-06-09T15:48:00Z")
My dad was raised in the back woods of Minnesota and is occasionally called “Swede” to this day. Two of his jokes:
Did you hear about the Norwegian that threw dynamite at a Swede? The Swede lit it and threw it back.
The Norwegians invented the toilet seat. It was a great invention but the Swedes cut a hole in it and made it better.
BTW, he frequently uses the term “Scandahoovian” but not with derogation. Maybe it’s an insider/outsider thing.
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### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/10 "2001-06-09T16:09:11Z")
I remember my father mentioning “squarehead” as an epithet for a Swede. The [Racial Slur Database](http://www.phix.com/~ryan/rsdb/) confirms the applicability of this term for both Swedes and Germans.
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### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/11 "2001-06-09T16:35:38Z")
Upon further reading of that link I discover that **Ukulele Ike** is onto something:
“Slur: Rutabaga. Represents: Swedes. Reasons/Origins: Swedes cherish this thick bulbous edible yellow root; used as food and animal feed, which is even called the Swede or Swedish turnip”.
Mmmmm. Thick bulbous root… 🙂
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### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/12 "2001-06-09T16:36:45Z")
Sorry. I had meant **bibliophage**. Now why had I confused him with **Ike**?
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### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/13 "2001-06-09T18:38:55Z")
Fy fan, ni jävlar! De som vill skymfa svenskar suger döda getpungarna. Vi är Skandinaviens bästa och ni skulle inte glömma det. Vi kan knulla som själva gudarna och gudinnarna och norskar, danskar, och isländskar önskar att de kunde ha så mycket samlag som vi har.
“Kålrot”. Verkligen! Det ska ni få igen…
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### Author:  [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/14 "2001-06-09T19:20:42Z")
Come to think of it, I don’t know any derogatory names for Swedes (“Skide svenskere” generally speaking does it), but there’s a couple of interesting constructions in Danish slang:
“Svenskerhaar”, i.e. “Swedish hair”: A bad, long hairstyle on men. May or may not be a mullet. (I’ve heard “fits like the hair on a Swede” used to describe lack of precision.)
“Svenskerfuld”, adj., i.e. “drunk like a Swede”. Covers the stages between “being a loud nuisance” and “passed out in the gutter”.
OTOH, if a Swedish or Norwegian team does good in a sports tournament or the like, we Danes will become Scandinavians through-and-through, cheering them on and enjoying a bit of reflected glory.
S. Norman
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/15 "2001-06-09T22:44:01Z")
try “lutefisk eater.”
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### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2001, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/16 "2001-06-10T09:55:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Spiny Norman \*
> **OTOH, if a Swedish or Norwegian team does good in a sports tournament or the like, we Danes will become Scandinavians through-and-through, cheering them on and enjoying a bit of reflected glory.**
Fair-weather Scandies. This is what comes from living too close to Germany. 😉
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### Author:  [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2001, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/17 "2001-06-10T13:12:51Z")
This reminds me of that Monty Python routine where they’re trying to make sure every nationality has a derogatory term assigned them, and they realise the Belgians have been left out:
“How about _Those Belgian bastards_?”
[in a disgusted, venom-laden voice] “Or just _Belgians_.”
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### Author:  [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2001, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes/68160/18 "2001-06-10T16:40:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Olentzero \*
> \*\*Fy fan, ni jävlar! De som vill skymfa svenskar suger döda getpungarna. Vi är Skandinaviens bästa och ni skulle inte glömma det. Vi kan knulla som själva gudarna och gudinnarna och norskar, danskar, och isländskar önskar att de kunde ha så mycket samlag som vi har.
>
> “Kålrot”. Verkligen! Det ska ni få igen… \*\*
No, we wish we had Ikea, that’s about it! 😉
— G. Raven