Olsenbanden of Oslo: Essential for Norway

Olsenbanden is a trio of Egon, Benny, and Kjell who literally are criminals doing theft. It is a comedy and we are always cheering for the well being of the protagonists who are actually doing something dishonest against others. This gang is essential info for a learner of Norwegian culture and also an introduction to the capital Oslo.

An older Norwegian tale is the one of Askeladden.

There are 14 movies about these guys and their ventures throughout the capital of Norway called Oslo. We are cheering for them because they are stealing from corrupt rich people or somebody who somehow deserves to lose what they own. The idea is that a rich person is wealthy because he mistreated others and therefore it is justly legitimate to steal from him.

Here is the Olsenbanden title music

Here is a more modern version of the title music which shows what Norwegians does to things

Fun fact: The show is filled with tons of catchphrases and Norwegian east-side working-class jargons.

What this show is about

The story habitually starts with the leader Egon who is just freed from the Oslo prison with a genius plan of how the next coup will be. The prison is very beautiful and is acknowledged by Norwegians because they watched Olsenbanden in their life.

Where they hang out

These chaps are stationed in Oslo, their base is at Kjells residence at Ullensakergata 1 A. This house is very close to the prison which the leader Egon is released from.

Olsenbanden house

Ullensakergata 1, 0655 Oslo, Norge

Oslo prison

Oslo fengsel, Oslo, Norge

The roles

Egon

This is the mastermind who always have a solution for how to succeed. When they don't succeed, he perpetually blames his companions for, being them incompetent, worthless, and all other negative words from the east-side of Oslo's dictionary. The mates are portrayed as guys who are in ''the pocket of the woman'', which means they almost expect to be stepped on. On the contrary, Egon doesn't give a rat's ass about ladies and hence don't have anything to lose. Egon is the typical CEO visionary. He would be an ENTJ - the commander, according to the Myers Briggs personality testing if you happen to be familiar with that.

Benny

He is the ladies man who is continuously cheering Egon for whatever plan he has.

Kjell

He is the frightened character who doesn't really want to take part in the coups that they do. He still follows beside the others because following is in his nature. He has similarities with Shaggy and Scooby from Scooby Doo.

Here is Egon with common words and phrases towards the other guys

Where the idea originated

The idea of Olsenbanden rose in Denmark. After this, Norway created their own variant in 1968. Sweden also had a variant of their own but it's not worth discussing. Norway even created ''Olsenbanden kids'' to show how the young life of the gang was and also to correlate that to their future existence.