Netflix
Puncturing his country’s national stereotypes stays just the right side of charming in Eldjárn’s twinkly routine
‘First Icelandic standup on Netflix” may be as hollow a claim as “the most Nobel prize-winners in the world per capita” – a compatriots’ boast that Ari Eldjárn cheerfully punctures in this hour-long set, filmed three years ago at the National Theatre of Iceland. Eldjárn doesn’t miss his breakout moment: Pardon My Icelandic is a confident and engaging hour, if not – in its combination of observational humour and Nordic identity comedy – a provocative one. He does not so much plant his flag in the territory of national stereotypes as disembark his longboat at those stereotypes, pillage them, and sail off back to Reykjavik with their abducted wives.
Fair enough: being Icelandic is a unique selling point, and Eldjárn is sell-sell-selling. There are jokes about the Icelandic national anthem, Iceland beating England at football, Icelandic crime shows on BBC Four and about Iceland’s rivalry with Denmark. The latter routine smooths the show’s passage towards Scandi humour more widely, as Eldjárn jokes about the Faroes, the Finns, and the insufficiently Nordic character of Marvel’s Thor movies.