Norwegian comedian searches to see if he’s related to Jimmy Carter
Two years ago, director Magnus Skatvold saw potential in Ole Henry Snildalsli, a comedic rising star in Norway who had cut his teeth on social media.
Skatvold asked the young man with a signature bowl cut if he had ideas that could be mined into a TV series.
“I think,” Ole Henry told Skatvold, “I might be related to Jimmy Carter.”
The Norwegian documentarian parlayed that single sentence into an eight-episode docuseries dubbed “My Cousin Jimmy.” It’s scheduled to air next year on NRK, Norway’s federally funded public broadcaster, similar to the BBC in the United Kingdom.
The concept: Ole Henry embarks on a monthlong road trip in the United States, riding in a 1964 Lincoln Continental similar to the vehicle Carter used while president, from 1977 to 1981.
The mythical Carter connection came from Ole Henry’s grandmother, who loved genealogy.
She often said their family might be related to Jimmy Carter because a relative in the early 1900s emigrated to the United States and married a man whose last name was Carter.
“I remember her telling us the story when I was a young child,” Ole Henry told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution between bites of cheese nachos during a recent visit to Manuel’s Tavern, a bar the former president used to visit frequently less than a mile from the Carter Center.
In 1978, she wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter while he was president and received a signed photo from the White House, which she framed and hung on a wall in her home.
“My Cousin Jimmy” uses Ole Henry’s hunt for his family roots as a framing device.
“I’m trying to finish what my grandmother started,” he said.
When Ole Henry arrived at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, he was bowled over by what supervisory archivist Billy R. Glasco Jr. had dug up: the original letter his grandmother wrote to Carter in Norwegian.
“I held it,” he said. “My grandmother passed away in 2011. She would have loved this.”
Ole Henry, 28, is a classic Gen Z entertainer.
He built comedic bits as a teen on the now-defunct Vine social media site, followed by prank videos on YouTube. He landed more mainstream fame thanks to appearances on two popular Norwegian reality competition shows. His live shows feature a blend of stand-up, musical performances, characters and crowd work.
“I’m pretty well known in Norway,” Ole Henry said.
Greg Mallozzi, the American producer who joined Skatvold in the production, agreed: “He can’t walk around and go to dinner with his girlfriend in Norway without people swarming around him for pictures. We even encountered fans who recognized him in New York City and D.C. who knew him from TikTok.”
Skatvold hired Mallozzi to help produce “My Cousin Jimmy” because he needed someone in America who could line up interviews and open doors.
The pair, friends for more than 16 years, since Skatvold attended school in New York City, produced the critically acclaimed 2020 documentary “Blue Code of Silence” about Bob Leuci, a former member of the New York Police Department and whistleblower who helped take down a corrupt police unit in the 1970s. (It’s now available on Tubi.)
This series, Mallozzi said, was an entirely different animal, necessitating a tight schedule that constantly provided Ole Henry new experiences.
“It was pretty hectic every single day,” he said. “We felt like a band on tour.”
Part of Ole Henry’s appeal, Skatvold said, is his cheerful naivete about the United States.
“People hear the premise and think of ‘Borat,’” Mallozzi said, referencing the 2006 satirical film where Sacha Baron Cohen played a fictional Kazakh journalist spouting sexist and bigoted views to unsuspecting Americans. “But this isn’t a joke like ‘Borat.’ Ole Henry was very sincere, very curious and excited to explore the U.S.”
Ole Henry visited Ellis Island, the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, a Nationals baseball game (“I never understood the rules”) and a dive bar in Nashville. There, HE learned to line dance, use a harmonica and sing the Jimmy Carter 1976 official campaign song “Why Not the Best?”
“I’m not a singer at all,” he said, but he is willing to do whatever it takes to get a laugh.
Ole Henry embraced an array of American tropes. He won a bacon-eating contest, which the producers found on the fly. He fired both an AK-47 and a handgun at a shooting range. He visited a dude ranch and milked a cow.
He did many of his interviews in the limousine. “The limo started almost like a joke or gimmick,” Skatvold said, “but it became such an important part of the story. He had an American driver who became his sidekick, almost his caretaker, comforting him when he was down and helping him put the pieces together on the way.”
In Atlanta, Ole Henry left the limo and rode a Waymo. “It was a little bit scary,” he said.
“For a Scandinavian audience,” Skatvold added, “Waymos are like science fiction.”
The show’s climax is Ole Henry’s visit to the annual Plains Peanut Festival in late September, where he met with Carter’s personal pastor Tony Lowden and Carter’s niece Kim Fuller, who recently retired as executive director of the Friends of Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.
“I thought he was a young man whom I would be pleased and proud to have in our family,” Fuller said.
Mallozzi noted how small Plains is and “everyone seemed to know Jimmy Carter personally. It was surreal. They allowed Ole Henry to take part in the parade in his limo.”
Ole Henry also spoke outside the festival on the street, explaining why he was there, and the Southern hospitality was real.
“They told me I should run for office,” he said.
Although Ole Henry won’t reveal what he learned regarding his possible lineage, he said, “I really respect him now after not knowing much going into this.”
Skatvold said Norwegian views of America have taken a hit over the past two years “because of politics. A lot of people don’t want to travel to the U.S. They think it’s dangerous. Hopefully, we can balance that. This show is not going to be political. It wouldn’t be fair to Ole. He is not political at all.”