During Melodifestivalen, the graph has had competition from something even thinner: Björn Gustafsson’s script.
Graphene conducts electricity faster than silicon, is 200 times stronger than steel and almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, the same does not apply to the golden-haired comedian’s material.
A self-righteous and self-referential jargon has been standard in Melodifestivalen for the last decade. You could call it “Mello-meta”, where the program ruminates on itself in a measured round. In this year’s edition, it has been painfully obvious.
It is easy to understand how SVT thought.
No one who saw Melodifestivalen’s interludes in 2008 could fail to fall in love with Björn Gustafsson. With humor and guitar, he had a monumental and well-deserved breakthrough with his love song for Carina Berg.
When, 16 years later, the public service once again picked up the comedian for the festival, the common thread is directly recycled from the success of 2008 – Björn Gustafsson’s made-up obsession with the presenter Carina Berg.
The idea held, at least in some show, even if the bums on my TV couch yawned boredly and wondered what was going on.
Due to the large underage audience, the stalking theme has received expected criticism. Björn can’t take no, Björn pursues Carina, Björn tries to outmaneuver Carina’s husband.
“Stalking is not innocent or ‘fun’. Even when it does not lead to major abuse or physical violence, it is still psychological terror of the victim that can lead to mental illness and PTSD.” wrote the debater Paula Dahlberg alias @vardagsrasismen on Instagram, and believed that the series in the programs left a bitter aftertaste.
But it is not the “signals it sends to the children” that are the biggest problem, but the chewing of already chewed jokes. The self-evident belief that audiences should settle for variations on an old hit.
I envy Björn Gustafsson. He is so obviously lovable and gets away with a lot. The genius is that his schtick is to be a lost loser. Like when he was going to perform a failed conjuring trick. The aim was never to succeed. You can’t fail to fail!
Or when the comedian performed a very long song for his grandmother, with made-up greetings from the dead grandfather from “the other side”. A funny idea, but a rare badly played song where the chords were missed so often that Björn had to ask the audience not to clap. But the point was never to sing perfectly!
Nice guy, good girl. It feels tired to even have to point out that Björn Gustafsson gets to be charmingly relaxed while Carina Berg shoulders the role of “straight guy”.
As a fan of “The Office”, it is easy to see where Björn Gustafsson found inspiration: Humor around situations where the watchwords are uncomfortable, embarrassing and cringe.
And of course he excels in the staring look into the camera, known as “The Jim look” after one of the main characters in the American edition.
Björn Gustafsson is so masterful at these empty eyes that I find myself hesitating on the TV sofa. Maybe the sketch was a little fun after all?
But a better script was needed to save the story of Björn and Carina. And above all: To give the audience something more than fond memories of a hit.
As a climate activist, I am of course in favor of recycling. But there is a limit.
