The Swedish Chef

[floyd pepper]

Does The Swedish Chef have a name?
Is he really from Sweden?? It could just as well be a chef from another Scandinavian country....
How does he communicate with the other muppets?

 

[Drtooth]

Well, in the case of Swedish Chef's name, I don't think he really has one. He comes from a long line of characters that don't have a real name, just a generic term for what they are. Examples include, Cookie Monster, Big Bird (he technically doesn't have a real name, if you think about it), the Muppet Newscaster, or in the cartoon world The Pink Panther, or Road Runner. You can go around being called the man with no name, and still be popular, you know.

As for him being Swedish, maybe Swedish Chef flows better than Norwiegian Chef or Scandinavian Chef. But you can't really tell, cause he doesn't speak real Swedish, just pideon Swedish (like Speedy Gonzolas speaks broken Spanish). It just sound like that.

 

[Link Hogthrob]

His name, according to Danny Kaye

On the episode of TMS starring Danny Kaye, who played the Chef's uncle, it is revealed that his family calls him Tom as opposed to a very long and complicated Swedish name.

BUT, I'm sure that it's not official...just a one-time joke!

Jim

 

[fluffmuppet]

Yeerrr guuoorsh heeer, deeuuum, dedeeshka duu. Ieeebur deroor iehroom, Bork Bork Bork!

I couldn't resist! I love it when he sings that!!!! LOL!

~fluff~

 

[beaker]

Hey!

Well, I'm surprised no one brought this up, but in fact The Sweedish Chef does have a real name! Mentioned several times in places, most notably when he signs his recipes in the pages of Muppet magazine. In fact in 1998 on the old MC, I think I had a post with Phil about this. Ask Phil, he'll remember the Chef's real name. Also, if you go through Unpaved I believe Cookie has a real name. And lo and behold the Count has one too!(Count von Count)

 

[Foreignman]

I've been through Sesame Street Unpaved over and over (one of my favorite books right up there with "Of Mice and Men", "Othello", and "THe Great Gatsby") and nowhere in it does it say Cookie Monster has a name other than Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster is his name, first name Cookie, last name Monster, just like Kermit's first name is Kermit, his middle name is The, and his last name is Frog.

 

[beaker]

hey foreignman, apologies...what I meant is that
they had a name originally before Cookie Monster. Whether if this is the IBM computer eater predecessor or not Im not sure.
Characters like Swedish Chef and Snuffleupagus I know for sure have real/full names. The idea of Muppet last names is interesting. For instance virtually all of the Muppets on Sesame have relation to the 'monster' bloodline. Yet only a few actually use the 'monster' last name. (ie: cookie and harry, sometimes telly)

Any character who is a Frackle(ie: Boppity, Mo, etc) or Fraggle
(red, boober, wembley, gobo, etc) also uses what they are as a last name.

So youre right...for most 'what they are' is their real name...ie: Kermit Frog, Sam Eagle, Fozzie Bear(and his grandma Emily Bear)
etc.

 

[BorkBork]

On the episode of TMS starring Danny Kaye, who played the Chef's uncle, it is revealed that his family calls him Tom as opposed to a very long and complicated Swedish name.

LOL, we don't have long complicated names in sweden, haha.

I can tell you a little true story though. Many of you may already have heard it from me.

There was an actuall swedish chef that were to appear on a cooking show in the us (or uk don't remember).

Anyway, he had really bad english and was very nervous, so he just fooled around with the food as the chef does. Henson saw this and thought it was so funne, he asked him ef he could base a character on him. Of course that was ok.

/Anders

 

[Phillip]

Actually the story about the Chef's inspiration isn't true according to Jerry Juhl. He refuted that story on Muppet Central about a year ago when the release about the man claiming to be the Chef's inspiration was circulating the Internet.

 

[Luke]

It's not that it isn't true - it's that in Jerry Juhls opinion it isn't true. The only person who could ever totally refute it is Jim Henson and i think we'll be waiting a while for that !