Kjell Aronsen, known as "Oslolosen", is a fictional character on the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 sketch comedy

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

 television show

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 Uti vår hage 2, a show that ran on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in the spring of 2008. The character, portrayed by Harald Eia

Harald Eia

Harald Meldal Eia is a Norwegian comedian.-Career:Together with Bård Tufte Johansen, he has been author of, and participated in, several successful Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation comedy TV series, such as Lille Lørdag , Åpen Post , Uti vår hage , Team Antonsen , Tre brødre som ikke er brødre ,...

, premiered in episode two of the show, and has also appeared in several shorter segments released directly onto the NRK website and on YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

. As of 1 September 2011, some of the YouTube episodes have received as many as 600,000 views.

Character biography

The character is a certified guide for the city of Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, though his title – "oslolosen" – uses a Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 word corresponding to the English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 "maritime pilot

Maritime pilot

A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths. With the exception of the Panama Canal, the pilot is only an advisor, as the captain remains in legal, overriding command of the vessel....

". The meaning of this becomes clear from his first appearance, where his job is to lead a group of men from Northern Norway

Nord-Norge

North Norway or Nord-Noreg , North Sámi: Davvi-Norga) is the geographical region of northern Norway, consisting of the three counties Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the largest towns in North Norway are Mo i Rana, Bodø, Narvik, Harstad, Tromsø...

 – who have managed to get stuck in a roundabout

Roundabout

A roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...

 – onto the right exit. He is consequently obliged by law to give the three men a guided tour of the capital. It later becomes clear that he also has a secondary task: to shoot with tranquilizer darts artists and performers who have arrived in Oslo from the countryside to realise their creative potential, so that they can be released back into their natural habitat. Little is known about Aronsen's own background, but according to himself a certified oslolos must be "conceived, born, brought up and molested" in central Oslo.

Aronsen's version of Oslo's culture and history often diverges dramatically from what is the conventionally accepted truth, and he is also passionate in his insistence that the official version of the city, presented to tourists, is a distortion of reality. Elements that frequently occur in his narratives are Labour

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

 history, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 and Jewish

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 businesspeople. His comportment can be aggressive, and his language is often obscene

Obscenity

An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...

 and scatological

Scatology

In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of feces.Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet , healthiness, and diseases such as tapeworms. The word derives from the Greek σκώρ In medicine and biology,...

.

In real life

In March 2008 a competition was held where fans of the show could win an actual guided tour with a real, certified Oslo-guide and the oslolosen-character. On 1 April 2008, 25 winners were led on a tour of the city where Eia would interrupt the official guide with contradictory, largely improvised comments. The popularity of the character was shown by fans coming – by plane – from as far away as Stjørdal

Stjørdal

is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen...

.

According to online newspaper Nettavisen

Nettavisen

Nettavisen was the first Norwegian online newspaper that was not established in relation to a pre-existing real-life newspaper. It started up on 1 November 1996...

, a man from Tønsberg

Tønsberg

is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, southern Norway, located around north-east of Sandefjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg....

was in March selling t-shirts with images and catch-phrases clearly taken from "oslolosen" printed on them. Harald Eia himself had no problems with the venture, and thought NRK had been acting too slowly with their own t-shirt production to capitalise on the popular attention. NRK on the other hand considered the t-shirt an infringement of copyright, and would take steps to stop the unauthorised sales.