The Simpsons and Immigration

Last night I clapped on the console TV (I use The Clapper to turn the TV on since it doesn't have a remote control.) The Simpsons cartoon was a few minutes into the episode. As the screen warmed up, I thought I heard a group of people with heavy Minnesotan accents speaking. Minnesotans on the Simpsons? Cool!
The TV warmed up slowly. I discovered the episode was about a group of Norweigan immigrants, wearing thick sweaters and Minnesota Vikings team apparel, moving to Springfield. After hiring a Scandanavian nanny, Marge was irate when her baby Maggie's first words were "Ja, ja." Ja or ya is a common Minnesotan phrase, as in "Ya sure, you betcha." The whole episode was entertaining and easy on the ears.
Then the following program was an episode of King of the Hill where the Hill family gets in a tiff with their new Canadian neighbors. With one grandma who's Canadian and another that's Swedish, it was like a cartoon tour of my cultural heritage. Many of the cultural bits my husband finds bizarre about me, my love of spiced cookies, lingonberries, wool sweaters and the metric system were all on display in these two cartoon episodes. (Since it's going to be 80 degrees out today, I'm wearing a short sleeved wool sweater right now.) How refreshing to see my cultural heritage celebrated with some good natured animated lampooning. I think I'll head over to IKEA to have a herring on rye sandwich for lunch chased with a lingonberry soda.