June 13, 2016 (Oslo, Norway) – Earlier this year, Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company NRK put together a spoof video depicting Norwegian and Swedish skiers competing in a quasi-XCski-Biathlon event inside an IKEA store as customers gape at the action.

The two skiers – adorned in tight-fitting Lycra festooned with their national team colours – start by skiing across a parking lot (without snow) and then getting stumped trying to enter the store’s revolving door.

As the video progresses, the two skiers jump into the “ball room” designed for kids and going up-and-down stairs – all with skis on with customer’s looking on. Among the balls, they find and pick up air guns. Next, from a standing position, they start shooting at a store display champagne glasses, then from a prone position, taking pot shots at random consumers.

The video picked up some 3.8 million viewers in the first week after its release in March, but not all versions have English subtitles. The soundtrack contains the odd word of English but otherwise is all in Norwegian (we think).

One online comment about the video by an American in Stockholm, Josh Lenn, suggests the video is loaded with cultural jokes that foreigners might have trouble understanding . Apparently, even Swedes can have trouble fully comprehend the Norwegian innuendos.