In this short excerpt from my play, Better Off Dead, Ulla and her friends, Lars and Lone, are trying to teach Rex, your average Texan cowboy, how to be Danish.
ACT I,
SCENE III, ULLA’S LIVING ROOM
(Lars and Lone
are just entering)
ULLA
These are my dearest friends, Lars
and Lone Lonelarsen. Lars and Lone, this is my new
boyfriend, Rex from Texas.
LARS AND LONE
Oh, an American.
REX
What’s a matter, don’t you like
Americans?
LARS
Yes, of course. We are Danish.
We are very tolerant and extremely
non-judgemental.
LARS
But we believe that all Americans
are narcissistic, dogmatic hypocrites.
Why I might take offense with that
if I knew what any of those words meant.
Now we shall have Danish hygge.
LARS
Yes, now we shall have Danish hygge.
LONE
Yes, we shall have Danish hygge now.
ULLA
We shall explain.
LARS, LONE AND ULLA
(Lars, Lone and Ulla light
candles frantically as they
sing this song)
THE DANISH HYGGE SONG
DANISH HYGGE IS SO DANISH
IT’S AS DANISH AS CAN BE
DANISH HYGGE IS SO SPECIAL
BECAUSE IT IS SO HYGGELIG
DANISH HYGGE IS SO SIMPLE
AND YET IT IS COMPLEX
ALL YOU NEED ARE 500 CANDLES
AND SOME PEOPLE AT LEAST THREE
THEN YOU NEED SOME DANISH HUMOR
WE ARE VERY FUNNY
WE GAVE THE WORLD BLACK HUMOR
WE INVENTED IRONY
DANISH HYGGE IS SO DANISH
IT IS AS DANISH AS CAN BE
DANISH HYGGE IS SO CHARMING
BECAUSE IT IS SO HYGGELIG
ALL YOU NEED ARE 500 BEERS
AND SOME PEOPLE, AT LEAST THREE
REX
Oh, that’s Danish hygge. It’s kinda like...
