Ole and Lena are central characters in joke

Joke

A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...

s by Scandinavian Americans, particularly in the Upper Midwest

Upper Midwest

The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the midwest. Although there are no uniformly agreed-upon boundaries, the region is most commonly used to refer to the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and...

 region of the U.S., particularly in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

 and North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

 where Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n immigrant traditions are common.

Format

Ole and Lena jokes can be long and drawn-out stories, or as short as two or three sentences. Lena is typically portrayed as the smarter of the two, often explaining where Ole went wrong in his misadventures. Another common character is Sven, who usually shows up in jokes along with Ole, making Sven and Ole jokes, though all three may appear together. Sven isn't as bright as Ole and Lena, but he means well. Ole and Lena are typically Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, and Sven and his wife are Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

One would not find Ole and Lena jokes in Sweden or Norway. Rather they are an outgrowth of an immigrant experience. Language mistakes are a frequent source of Ole and Lena joke material. Turning the misunderstandings and mistakes into jokes enabled people to jest about their American immigrant experience. The popularity of the jokes was greatly enhanced by the numerous Ole and Lena joke books authored by Red Stangland

Red Stangland

Eider "Red" Stangland was an American radio broadcaster and humorist. He wrote numerous joke books focused on Upper Midwestern humor, most notably a series of titles about the fictional characters Ole and Lena.-Biography:...

.

One reason that the Ole and Lena jokes have endured and thrive is that they are quaint and well-meaning. Ole, Lena, Sven and others still speak with the marring accent and fractured English of the immigrant who just arrived. Humor of this sort may help us to maintain a sense of perspective. The core of this folk humor is probably the strongly egalitarian sense that permeates the cultural code in the Nordic countries.

Examples

• Ole and Sven are out deer hunting. Ole bags a buck. After they dress the deer and tag it, they grab it by its hind legs and start dragging through the woods back to the car. A game warden happens on the pair and, after checking their tags and admiring the buck tells them that they are dragging the deer out all wrong. By dragging it by the rear legs, the snow, leaves and dirt are getting caught by the animals fur, and the horns are getting all tangled in the brush. The warden suggests that they drag it by the front legs. They agree to try it and much to their surprise, it is much easier dragging the deer this way. After a half hour of this Sven turns to Ole and says, "Boy dat game warden was right, it sure is easier dragging de deer dis way, but ya know, we are getting further away from de car."

• Ole went to the Sons of Norway
  Sons of Norway
  Sons of Norway is a fraternal organization representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. It describes its mission as "to promote and to preserve the heritage and culture of Norway, to celebrate our relationship with other Nordic Countries, and provide quality...
  
   Hall one night and finally won the door prize, which was a toilet brush. He was so excited that he won he brought it home and used it often. Someone asked him during the next meeting what the prize was and if he liked it or not. Ole replied, "Yea I like the toilet brush, but I think I'm gonna go back to using paper."

• Ole goes out one day to use the outhouse
  Outhouse
  An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...
  
  , and he finds Sven there. Sven has his wallet out, and he's throwing money down into the hole of the outhouse. Ole asks, "Uff da
  Uff da
  Uff da is an expression of Norwegian origin adopted by Scandinavian-Americans in the 19th century...
  
  ! Sven, watcha doin' there, fella? You're throwing the five dollar
  Dollar
  The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
  
   bill and the ten dollar bill down into the hole of the outhouse! Whatcha doin' that for?" Sven answers, "Well, when I pulled up my trousers
  Trousers
  Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
  
   I dropped a nickel down there—and I'm not going down into that mess for just a nickel!"

• Sven and Ole are roofing a house. Ole picks a nail out of the pan, examines it, and with a "nope" tosses it over his shoulder, picks up another one does the same thing, picks up a third and after examining it uses it to nail in the shingle. Sven seeing all of this exclaims, "Ole! what the hell are you doing, wasting nails like that?" Ole replies, "Well you see, those nails they're pointing towards the house, I can use them. But these nails... they're pointing away from the house, they're useless." "Ole you IDIOT!!" Sven replies, "those nails aren't something you just throw 'way willy nilly... those nails are for the other side of the house."

• Ole is on his deathbed. The doctor has told him he has only a few hours to live. He catches the scent of his favorite bars
  Dessert bars
  Dessert bars, or simply bars or squares, are a type of American "bar cookie" that has the texture of a firm cake or softer than usual cookie. They are prepared in a pan and then baked in the oven. They are cut into squares or rectangles. They are staples of bake sales and are often made for...
  
  wafting through the air. With all the strength he can muster, he drags himself into the kitchen and sees a fresh pan cooling on the rack. He cuts one out and bites into the scrumptious cookie. Lena comes in, smacks his hand, and says, "Shame on you, Ole! Dese are for after de funeral!"

Many of the jokes are bawdy:

• Sven and Ole go to Fargo and visit a brothel. A woman says she will have sex with both of them for $20, but insists, "You have to use rubbers 'cause I don't want to get pregnant." They agree. Back on the farm, a week later, Sven says, "Hey,Ole, remember that girl we met in Fargo?" "You betcha, why?" Well, I been thinking I don't give a damn whether she gets pregnant or not." "Me neither." "Well, let's take dese damn tings off,then"

• Sven is late for work. The boss finds him in the bunkhouse, and Sven explains that he has an erection and can't get his overalls on. "OK, Sven, you need to go in the barn and get a shovel full of nice hot horse manure and pack it around there. That'll take down the swelling and you can come on and get to work." Sven goes to the barn and open his fly and gets the shovel full of manure ready. At that moment, the bosses' wife walks in. "What the hell are you doing, Sven?" Sven explains what he is doing. "Yumping Yeesus, Sven, don't do that, stick it in here!" (She pulls up her dress). "What?" says Sven. "The whole shovelful?"

Other sources

In addition to the Prairie Home Companion joke books, there are various collections in print under the name of editor Red Stangland.