“This tiny cup of coffee is lovely. It even makes my calves look big.”

by Mallory Ortberg · October 7, 2015

If there is even the slightest chance you have missed this video of benign Norwegian bodybuilders visiting an extra-small village in order to feel bigger, please give yourself the gift of viewing it now. On my first viewing, I very much barked out a sob of joy, like a bereaved seal. I have been unable to stop watching, since I started.

Here is one of them – the only name we are given is Knut; I have decided to name this fellow Mit Sleeves Karl – delivering a tiny letter to a wee post office.

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Here he is again, enjoying a diminutive porch. He is very large, you see, and the porch, she is small. “Here we are really big. And that really boosts our self esteem.”

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Here they are, doing pushups on a pocket-sized lawn. Good morning, friends.

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Here they are, flexing into eternity on a minikin roller coaster.

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Every moment is to be savored without explanation. Do not look for context. I don’t ever want to know anything more about this video than I do right now. I don’t care if it’s a hoax, or a viral marketing ad for creatine, or anything else. I don’t care. All I know – all I need to know – is that Knut looks huge right now, they frame tiny stamps, and these gentle Vikings want to go to Hobbiton and play minigolf.

Mallory is an Editor of The Toast.


93 Comments

  1. RuncibleSpoon +93

    watching this was the last thing i did last night – and i swear my dreams were sweeter and brighter for watching these wonderful giant men enjoying this tiny town holiday.

  2. missellabell +156

    HOOOOOOOO- this is an approximation of the noise I made when the big men pretended to make tiny dinner in the tiny house. BIG MEN TINY HOUSE PRETEND TINY DINNER

    1. ScttrBrains +76

      This was a weird place to discover my long-suppressed maternal instincts, but there we go

      1. urspostrophe +49

        SAME, I kind of want to…throw a tailgate party? Just for them? I will prepare them all the meats.

        2. ScttrBrains +10

          Any sportsing that has their support and cheering must be good sportsing. I will make all the ridiculously tiny snackage.

  4. ppyajunebug +166

    excuse me, where can i submit my donations to fund the documentary about them going to hobbiton and living there for a while

    2. Sarah +104

      And I love that he says “Our dream.” THEIR COLLECTIVE DREAM is to go to Hobbiton, all of them, together. I died right there, I was charmed to death.

  5. ThatOtherWench +47

    Man I can USUALLY tell when a Mallory post is going to put tears in my eyes but this is just so. beautiful.

  6. kellycatchpole +114

    i’m 1/2 disappointed that they weren’t holding newborn kittens in the video, and 1/2 relieved because i don’t know what noises i would have started making, what joyful noises

    1. Ellen W. +41

      They would be ideal kitten-fosterers. What else is kitten fostering about than giving the babies protein shakes and making sure they get proper exercise so they bulk up big and strong?

        1. kellycatchpole +47

          delicately strokes soft tiny kitten head with massive brawny finger
          tickles kitten nose with little pinkie
          cups kitten in dinner-plate-sized palm
          plants giant kiss on kitten’s tiny ear

  7. ProducerTory +138

    I just want to hear the word “minigolf” repeated in Norwegian for the REST OF TIME.

  9. bighairnoheart +28

    I really need to get away from other humans so I can watch this in peace. I can tell this isn’t going to be a maintain a dignified facade video.

  10. irreverantontheinternet +91

    I want to have all these men over for tiny cucumber sandwiches and tea served from my tiny childhood tea set.

  11. littlehuntingcreek +47

    Norwegian Bodybuilder men: whatever you are doing, keep doing that.
    Never change

    3. EnchiladaTaco +27

      Damn, I just made a terrible strangly gaspy noise and scared one of my coworkers. TINY PONEH IS TINY

    6. poppy +35

      Oh, you just sent me down a Google rabbit hole of miniature breeds. Mini donkeys! Mini sheep! Now I really want one.

      One website had the disclaimer that you should not keep mini horse in your house, since they act exactly like large horses. Thanks for that bit of common sense.

      2. pretty_monster +53

        i have a *great* desire to own a Tiny House and have a tiny farm of wrong sized animals. tiny cows. tiny pigs. tiny horses. a tiny dog.

        also:

        shamo chicken

        flemish rabbit

      3. morganatic +11

        Soooooooo I know someone who owns a few mini-horses (and a few maxi-horses), and while they act very much like horses and should *not* be owned as household pets, they also act a bit like dogs? Sometimes when I visit the owner lets the mini horses out and they run like the wind and then come when he whistles.

      4. psinistra +2

        Ha! Was that the guide horses? I love that site. Whenever I feel sad, I just log on and gawp at tiny horses in trainers. And tiny horses on escalators.

  14. deleted3357073 +48

    Finally, definitive proof that Norwegians are funnier than Germans will ever be.

    2. Ellen W. +14

      Poor, poor Germans. I think it’s because puns are tough in German so you don’t get to start with the easy jokes and work your way up. All you have are sausage jokes. Although Germans I’ve met get and love absurdist humor really quickly.

      1. builtahouse +18

        haha AWW poor Germans. The ones I’ve met have a *fabulous* sense of dark humor though. i.e.: The funny side of the sturm-und-drang.

        You can’t tell me the people who invented words like “schadenfreude” don’t understand humor on some level. 😉

        1. Ellen W. +3

          They get humor great – it’s why The Simpsons is so incredibly popular there (or was I’m not keeping up on German TV trends). But they seem to have a harder time doing humor. I just think it’s harder for Germans to become comedians than it is for some other cultures. But when they do they are able to be very successful. Everyone loves Brecht.

          (I also think that stereotyping people by language is iffy and should only ever be done in fun.)

  16. sausagedog +32

    I want to change my intensedebate name to Mit Sleeves Karl. That was my turn to let out a bark of laughter.

  17. thebellewitch +81

    Mallory, you need to come visit Denver in the summer. You can go up to Red Rocks and live among the bros who gather shirtless to lift weights and take selfies each morning. Never have you seen a group of people so supportive of each other’s selfies.

  19. phoebeblue +10

    I didn’t have time last night to watch this, but pulled it up just now at work and ended up with both hands clamped over my face to stifle the giggles.

  20. champagneghost +88

    Mit Sleeves Karl says they come to Lilliputhammer to feel big, I like to think the choice in verb tense means they do this on at least a semi-regular basis

    1. Sporkening +17

      The original Norwegian confirms this! Source: actual Norwegian here.

      (also it’s a comedy sketch but like Mallory said WHO CARES)

  21. oneclockworklemon +25

    I have watched this video five times in a row thusfar, and I have also bookmarked it for when I am feeling sad. This is the most important video in the world.

  22. bighairnoheart +20

    Dear sweet Jesus. I’ve finally watched it and it’s even better than I could have possibly imagined. What have we done to deserve this blessing?

  23. onehundredthjen +25

    It is my birthday and this is the greatest gift, greater than an email full of Hayley Atwell gifs.

  24. Yarnybarny +31

    This is the greatest thing. You know there had to be outtakes or footage they didn’t use for some reason and I need it. Who can I appeal to get the “directors cut” and various extras? A making of video! A behind the scenes video! I would like all of those, please.

    2. Odda +69

      Hi!

      So happy you enjoyed it. We allso had a short person as a cop, but he disappeared in The final cut 🙁

      Send a message to [email protected] , and u might get lucky

      Best
      Odd-Magnus Williamson

  27. GruntledDave +45

    There’s a gym in Kristiansand, Norway called Bear Cave. It is built into an actual cave, presumably previously occupied by bears. One day I will go there.

  29. mabissam +3

    I had to hold myself back from doing a “well, actually” about the guys with sleeves on, because this is just too adorable.

    1. Odda +147

      It shall be guarded well

      Best regards
      Odd-Magnus W
      (The gray hoodied one who says “yep”)

      3. msredshoes +4

        OH MY GOD – the fact that you exist in this world and are replying to comments on the-toast.net is a Christmas miracle.

  35. MsNormaDesmond +10

    I HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THAT SHOT OF THE GUY ON THE PINK GLITTERY RASCAL PLEASE HELP.

  36. bethanykj +31

    I showed this video to some of my college classes yesterday because I couldn’t help it. I didn’t even attempt to connect it to the learning outcomes, I was just like, “you need to see this.”

  37. sednarea51 +9

    I finally watched this and my soul is a parade of joys. Oh my goodness. Oh my GOODNESS. These flexing gentlemen are all that is good and correct in the world. May they post wee letters into eternity and may their coffee cups be ever tinier.

  38. Helena +6

    My twin sister and I are planning a trip to Hobbiton and the only thing that would make it better is for these guys to come with us and drink tiny beer in the tiny pub.

  39. mavis +5

    this is the best best best little parade of joy that I have watched in a long time…….I was dumbfounded, and then laughing so hard I had to to put my tea down for fear of spilling hot tea all over me. The toast rocks…..

  42. Ticklemysax +3

    I live an hour from Hobbiton in New Zealand and I will go there now and greet them with pikelets (mini NZ pancakes)

  43. miafarradaily +8

    I read a tweet once about how the best bro dude friendship of all time was the Backstreet Boys because when one of them asked “Am I sexual?” the rest of them kindly sang “Yeeaaah” and at the time, I thought nothing could be more true. However I would now like to propose this ENTIRE VIDEO as a rival to that.