Funny Gifts That Land With Norwegian Humour

A funny gift lands in Norway when the joke is dry, specific and a little self-deprecating, and when the gift is still useful or edible once the laugh is over. Jokes about the weather, NAV, hiking, the Swedes and Norwegians' own refusal to brag all work. Loud novelty gadgets, innuendo at the office and anything that makes the receiver perform in public do not. Most good joke gifts cost NOK 50 to 500.

How Norwegian humour works

If you come from a culture of big laughs and bigger stories, Norwegian humour can be easy to miss. It often arrives with a straight face. A colleague says "det var jo ikke akkurat ille" (well, that wasn't exactly terrible) about something that was excellent, and waits to see if you caught it. That understatement is the core of it.

Three other things shape it:

• Self-deprecation. Janteloven, the unwritten rule against thinking you are better than others, means the safest target for a joke is yourself. A Norwegian who wins something will make a joke about how it was luck.
• Shared absurdity. Everyone in Norway has filled in a form for NAV, queued for a Vinmonopolet before a holiday, and been told to put on wool in July. Jokes about the systems everyone lives inside are inclusive. Nobody is the butt of them.
• Specificity. The more precisely a joke points at a real Norwegian thing, a street, a dialect, a TV show, a brand of sausage, the harder it lands. Generic "funny" is not funny here.

This is why the gag-gift aisle that works in the US or UK often falls flat in Oslo. A whoopee cushion is not dry. A mug that says "World's Best Boss" can work, but only as irony, and only if the boss is in on it.

9 funny gifts that land in Norway

1. The wrong colour of julebrus

Norway is split between red and brown julebrus, the Christmas soda, and people feel strongly about it. Giving brown julebrus to a colleague from Østlandet, or red to someone from Trondheim, is a NOK 30 joke that will be retold at the Christmas party. Most brands, from Ringnes to Aass, are in every grocery store from October.

2. Kvikk Lunsj for the colleague who never hikes

Kvikk Lunsj is the chocolate wafer Norwegians eat on every ski and mountain trip, and the wrapper from Freia carries the fjellvettreglene, the Norwegian mountain safety code. Give a box to the person whose idea of friluftsliv is the walk from the car to the café, with a note about the mountain code. Under NOK 100.

3. An office comic album

Norway has a strong comics culture, and the strip Lunch by Børge Lund is a long-running, painfully accurate portrait of Norwegian office life. An album makes a good gift for any colleague, and if you are learning Norwegian it doubles as homework. Tronsmo in Oslo is known for its comics section, and Norli has branches nationwide. NOK 150–300.

4. A headlamp, presented seriously

Every Norwegian owns a hodelykt (headlamp) and wears it without irony from November to February. Giving one to a newly arrived foreigner, or to the colleague who still has not bought one, is both a joke and the most useful gift of the winter. From Clas Ohlson, XXL or Fjellsport, NOK 150–500. Deliver it with a straight face.

5. Olive oil with a name nobody expects

For friends rather than colleagues: the Extra Slutty Olive Oil from Byvoks (NOK 449) is 500 ml of extra virgin olive oil from Spain with a label that does the joke for you. It works because the oil is genuinely good, so the gift still gets used when the giggling stops. It does not belong in an office Secret Santa or with conservative in-laws. Full disclosure: Working with Norwegians and Byvoks are run by the same person, Sean Percival.

6. A NAV joke for the Christmas tree

NAV, the Norwegian welfare administration, is a national institution and a national punchline. Byvoks also makes the Feliz NAV-idad Christmas ornament (NOK 229), a parody decoration that requires "no forms, no attachments, no BankID" and is, its own description notes, not made, approved or sponsored by NAV. It is a cheap laugh for anyone who has ever filled in a meldekort, and a bad idea for someone who is currently waiting on one. Same disclosure as above.

7. A truly ugly Christmas sweater from Fretex

Every December, Redd Barna runs Julegenserdagen, the Christmas sweater day, and offices across Norway turn up in knitwear. A spectacularly ugly secondhand sweater from Fretex, the Salvation Army's charity shops, is cheap, sustainable and gives the receiver an excuse to take part. NOK 50–150.

8. A Swedish joke

Norwegians and Swedes have teased each other for generations. Anything that plays on the rivalry is safe: Swedish candy for the Norwegian who claims Norwegian candy is better, a "Swedish for beginners" book for the colleague who spends every weekend at the border shops in Strömstad or Charlottenberg. The joke is affectionate. Keep it that way.

9. Cheap Christmas tat, carefully chosen

For a nissevenn (Secret Santa) with a NOK 100 limit, Nille is where most Norwegian offices shop. The trick is to choose one absurd thing that fits the person exactly, not a bag of random items. One tiny nisse with a coffee cup for the colleague who guards the office coffee machine is funnier than ten things that say nothing.

What falls flat

• Innuendo at work. Norwegian workplaces are relaxed, not loose. Save the rude jokes for friends.
• Jokes about someone's body, age or money. Self-deprecation is welcome. Other-deprecation is not.
• Gifts that need a performance. Anything the receiver has to put on, read aloud or demonstrate in front of the whole office will make a Norwegian want to leave.
• Expensive jokes. A NOK 1,000 novelty item breaks two rules at once: it is showy, and it is useless.
• Explaining the joke. If you have to, it is not the right gift.

Funny gifts by occasion

• Office Secret Santa: cheap, clean and specific. NOK 100–200. Edible is best.
• A colleague leaving: a joke about the job they are escaping, not the people they are leaving. See farewell gifts for a Norwegian coworker.
• A friend's 40th or 50th: the place for gentle jokes about age, as long as they made the joke first.
• A housewarming: a joke about the price of the flat, the size of the loan or the estate agent's description always lands in Oslo.
• Your Norwegian partner's family: hold back until the second Christmas.

Reading the room

Humour at work in Norway sits inside a culture of equality and consensus. Teasing the boss is fine, often welcome, because the hierarchy is flat (more on that in corporate hierarchy in Norway). Teasing a new colleague who is still finding their feet is not. When in doubt, aim the joke at Norway, at the weather, or at yourself.

A good funny gift also has a quiet second layer: it shows you have been paying attention. The colleague who complains about the cantina coffee, the friend who still has not unpacked after the move, the neighbour who runs the dugnad like a military operation. The joke is the wrapping. The attention is the gift.

More gift guides

For the office, see gifts for Norwegian colleagues and Secret Santa at a Norwegian office. For a friend who is between jobs and can take a joke, read gifts for a new job or between jobs. For dinner invitations, see what to bring to a Norwegian dinner party.

For every other occasion, start with our overview ofgift-giving in Norway.