Turning the misunderstandings and mistakes into jokes enabled people to jest about their American immigrant experience.
Ole, Lena, Sven and others still speak with the marring accent and fractured English of the immigrant who just arrived.
The core of this folk humor is probably the strongly egalitarian sense that permeates the cultural code in the Nordic countries.
[2] Many of the jokes are bawdy: The Arvegods sculpture at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota is commonly referred to as Ole and Lena.
[3] In addition to the Prairie Home Companion joke books, there are various collections in print under the name of editor Red Stangland.