Langt Fra Las Vegas

Langt fra Las Vegas (Far Away from Las Vegas) is a Danish sitcom series running from 2001 to 2003, lasting 53 episodes. The series is about Casper Christensen, played by the real Danish comedian Casper Christensen who works at the fictional TV station Jump Start with his close friend, the Butt Monkey and sports journalist Kenny Nickelmann; their boss, the super perverted Niels Buckingham; the slightly retarded and childish cameraman Robert Dølhus; the impulsive and somewhat weird culture journalist Kim Dorowski; the Only Sane Woman secretary Lisa Bremer Harris, and later in the series, Casper's Tsundere girlfriend Liva Eberhart, who works as chief communications officer.

The series initially follows the quirky everyday life at Jump Start with Casper's attempts to score women when he is single or get along with his two girlfriends Anne (in season 1) and Liva (seasons 2-5) as a subplot. From season 2 onward, Casper's female relations are made the focal point, while the work at Jump Start mostly loses its importance to the plot and only provides the majority of the funny moments of the series.

Langt fra Las Vegas is noted for being the only successful traditional sitcom on Danish television. It also at times spoofs the genre with the quirky characters typical for the genre turned Up to Eleven and the name "far away from Las Vegas", implying that this is not your American sitcom.

The series includes examples of:
"Kenny: It's good that you got rid of that "so"... ("so" being a Danish derogatory term for a woman, like "bitch", literally meaning "sow")
 * Absurdly Bright Light: When Buckingham wants to make his colleagues more healthy, he buys a lamp with Absurdly Bright Light as a substitute for sunlight.
 * Accidental Art: At some point Robert draws Lisa's vagina. A gallery owner then passes by and declares it to be an exceptional artwork that he wants to exhibit in his art gallery.
 * Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: When Kenny has some painful exotic massage, his right arm gets stuck in a heil pose.
 * Acquired Situational Narcissism: Kenny, the few times he and Casper swap the Butt Monkey role.
 * Air Hugging: When Casper has to hug his father-in-law.
 * Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Casper's mother does puppet shows about how babies are made when Casper brings a girlfriend home, and Casper's father... Well, better not mention him.
 * Appliance Defenestration: Robert does this with a bean bag that disappointed him.
 * Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption
 * Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: When Casper's father tries to comfort him over the breakup with Liva.
 * Bad Humor Truck: In an episode, Robert gets a job as an ice cream truck driver. The first person he meets is a young girl. He sticks his head out the side window, drooling and with ice cream in his whole face, and offers her a Popsicle. The girl's mother screams and draws her away.
 * The Lost in Translation pun here is that a Popsicle is called "ispind" (ice cream stick) in Danish. Turning that around, it becomes "pindis" (stick ice cream) which sounds very similar to "penis".
 * Bad News in a Good Way: Buckingham tends to do this when he fires his employees.
 * Bad News, Irrelevant News: Also done by Buckingham at times.
 * Beach Bury: The former Jump Start employee Wulff has a Flash Back where his little brother buries his body in the sand and covers his body with a bucket. Wulff's little brother just doesn't care to dig Wulff up again, and as his parents are deaf, they can neither see nor hear Wulff.
 * Bedmate Reveal: When Casper wakes up with Liva's mother at his side. Nothing sexual happened though.
 * Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Lisa is beauty, Liva is brains and Kim is brawn - usually. Depending on the Writer they might switch positions.
 * The Blind Leading the Blind: The series makes regular use of this trope, especially with Kim or Buckingham or sometimes Kenny as the "leader".
 * Born Unlucky: Kenny.
 * Brainy Brunette: Anne.
 * Brutal Honesty: Niels Buckingham.
 * Career Versus Man: Liva is quite a career woman, but seems to have room for both things in her life. However, in an episode she is offered a big job in New York, and she doesn't know whether to thank no to the job and stay in Denmark with Casper, bring Casper with her or travel to New York on her own for a year.
 * Caught with Your Pants Down: Happens to Casper in the episode appropriately titled "Masturbation".
 * Celeb Crush: A few minor cases of this, since Casper is a Danish celebrity after all.
 * The Chief's Daughter: Buckingham apparently had sex with the daughter of a chief in some African country once, and when an embassy of Africans move in next to Jump Start, Robert says "the black people are coming". Niels' reaction is panicking, hiding behind a potted plant and screaming: "Oh no! Please explain them I didn't know she was the chief's daughter".
 * Closet Shuffle: Uses this trope in one of the earlier episodes. A boy from the hospital where Casper's girlfriend Anne works, visits him without the hospital knowing it, so when Anne supposedly knocks on Casper's door, Casper has to hide the boy in his closet. The person knocking on the door appears to be a child-hating old man. Then the real Anne knocks on the door, and Casper doesn't want to let her know that he hangs out with a child-hater, so he also hides the man in the closet. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Wulff from season 1 has to be one of the greatest examples of the trope and probably the best example of Danish tv for so many reasons that they can't be bothered to be listed here. Every other character except for Lisa, Casper's girlfriends and some one-shot characters also has their moments.
 * Buckingham and Wulff are lampshaded as the show's weirdos in the first episode, where the former secretary at Jump Start writes that they are "like Laurel and Hardy with no idea of what's happening on Earth."
 * Comedic Sociopath: The couples therapist from the "hidden" episode.
 * "If you don't pay, I'll kill you."
 * Crazy Jealous Guy: Kenny embodies this trope when he finally gets a girlfriend.
 * Cringe Comedy: Kenny og Casper both have moments with this, though their actors Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen first really uses the trope in their later sitcom series Klovn.
 * Crossover Punchline: The series is quite fond of those. The episodes usually end with Casper and Kenny hanging out in Casper's apartment, discussing the recent events in a very funny way.
 * Cut Himself Shaving: Subverted in the episode where Casper meets Liva's parents.
 * Daddy's Girl: Liva most of the time, probably because of them sharing the same temperament.
 * Death as Comedy: The episode "Bedste det er bare mig" ("Granny, it's me") is essentially about this.
 * Did They or Didn't They?: When Casper sleeps in the same bed as his mother-in-law.
 * Digging Yourself Deeper: When Lisa says to Buckingham that there isn't any more mineral water (in the reservoir), Buckingham abruptly asks: "In your vagina?" When he realises his misunderstanding, he stutters: "Oh well, sorry... It was only to show care... Ehm... Why do you look at me accusingly?"
 * Don't Explain the Joke: Quite a common trope in the series when Casper tries to be funny. A good example is when Liva is moving in at Casper's, and Kenny asks how they are doing. Casper sarcastically replies: "Like Ike and Tina Turner". Kenny, apparently not getting the sarcasm or knowing about Ike and Tina Turner, merrily says "that's good to hear". Casper is quite annoyed of having to explain the joke.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Played with. When Casper finds a picture of a beautiful woman at Kenny's desk, he instantly falls in love. Then Kenny tells him it's actually a guy. Casper gets shocked, but later he gets to know that the guy is due for a gender change and the picture was a computer simulation on how he'd look after the change. Casper falls in love again.
 * Drunk with Power: The boss Niels Buckingham constantly tries to fire his employees for the weirdest reasons and he prohibits even more weird thing.
 * Easy Come, Easy Go: Robert's "magical" football shirt in the third episode.
 * Embarrassing Nickname: Kenny "Bøs Bøs" Nikkelmann, "bøs bøs" meaning "gay gay". Not quite a preferrable nickname for an extreme homophobe.
 * Embarrassing Old Photo: Casper and Liva try to outdo in each other in these in one of the first episodes after their breakup. Liva insists that Casper's official Jump Start photo will be a photo where he is 17 years old, fat and nerdy-looking. Casper shows a topless photo of Liva from the year before on national television.
 * Embarrassing Slide: In the second-last episode, Casper gets to take some erotic photos of Liva, promising her that he never did that with anybody before. However he actually did take the same photos of his ex-girlfriend Anne, and these photos were on the same camera. Then the whole episode is about Casper trying to prevent Liva from having the photos developed. He doesn't succeed, and Liva is not happy of seeing naked Anne.
 * The European Carry All: Kenny when he mentions the female period. It should be noted that Danish people generally are very straightforward about calling it "menstruation".
 * Everything's Better with Chickens: The "Beatles bird".
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: When the Jump Start employees are made draw each other as animals, everyone draws Kim as a monkey. Kim personally averts it in being very dissatisfied about that.
 * Failed Attempt At Drama: A quirk of several characters, though Kenny probably would be the token boy with Robert and Buckingham as minor examples.
 * Fairytale Wedding Dress: Kim wears one at her wedding with Casper. It becomes a Crowning Moment of Funny because Casper wasn't expecting them to dress up so he is just wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
 * "Faux To" Guide: Kenny and Robert regularly, Kenny being the incompetent and Robert being the ignorant.
 * Flashback Cut: Used many a time. A noteworthy example would be when Kim flashes back to the 16-year-old boy she met at a discoteque.
 * Gasshole: Robert, especially in the episode where he eats "onion bread". Also Casper's date Birla from episode 3.
 * Gilligan Cut
 * Girls Have Cooties: Robert apparently believes this in one of the earlier episodes.
 * Good Bad Girl: Kim. Not to mention her affair with a 16-year old boy, when she couldn't decide whether to travel to Ireland or Italy, she had sex with an Irishman and an Italian in order to see "which country suited her best in bed".
 * Got Volunteered: Buckingham volunteers Robert
 * Granola Girl: Kim has aspects of this, though most aspects of the trope are only implied or assumed.
 * Groin Attack: In season 1, Casper delivers a kick in the crotch to a man with steel testicles. The man doesn't feel anything, but Casper solves it by shocking the testicles with a cord instead.
 * Gross Up Close-Up: Kim's Flashback Cut about the young boy Martin who is shown to have zits in all of his face.
 * Guys Are Slobs: Robert. The other guys aren't especially messy, though, but most female characters seem quite tidy.
 * Hand Off: Casper refuses to shake the hand of a gallery owner in season 5. It is due to him having painting on Liva's painting so he doesn't want to reveal the paint on his hands.
 * Haven't You Seen X Before?: Too many examples to count.
 * Helium Speech: Wulff does this in order to impress the owner of Jump Start.
 * House Amnesia: Played with in an episode where Kenny pretends to be Casper and Casper pretends to be Kenny. Casper constantly shoves Kenny out of his apartment in order to score with Kenny's female cousin, however both the cousin lampshades that it is actually Casper's (who is played by Kenny) apartment.
 * Hurricane of Euphemisms: Kenny's earlier mentioned speech of the female period.
 * I Can't Hear You: Liva does this from time to time.
 * Idiot Hero: Casper has shades of this, though it is mostly because of him being quite Book Dumb. His street smarts are all fine.
 * I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You: Buckingham is the master of this. For example: "I'm not telling you who told me." "Alright, it's a person recently employed at this workplace. But that's what I'll tell you." "Alright, it's a female. NOW, my mouth is closed." "Okay, it was Liva who told me, but now I'm not revealing a single bit more." etc., etc.
 * Imagine Spot: When Robert imagines himself as a camel.
 * Immune to Drugs: It might be Casper exaggerating, but in the episode where Kim tries hash, she is said to have to dried out the whole of Amsterdam of hash, yet she's not acting like she is higher than she was after one hash cake.
 * Impersonation Paradox: When Kenny and Robert are casted for a role as John Travolta, the passionate Kenny does extremely bad. Robert impresses the casters big time, and he doesn't even know who John Travolta is. He just tried to compete with Kenny.
 * Implausible Deniability: One of Casper's major personality traits. When he tries to get it on with Anne, he constantly lies himself out of embarrassing situations. The last time he does it, Anne gets so furious that she decides to move. However, it appears that Casper wasn't lying at all, and they become a couple.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Kenny's song "Moster Oda-sonaten", a pun on "Måneskinssonaten", Danish for the Moonlight Sonata. "Moster" (Danish for an aunt on your mother's side) only slightly sounds like "Måne", and "Oda" (Danish girl's name) doesn't sound like "skin" at all.
 * Initiation Ceremony: In season 1, the guys at Jump Start discuss which male celebrity they would like to give a blowjob. They insist that Robert also participates in this discussion if he wants to hang out with them.
 * Innocent Innuendo: After Casper's breakup with Liva:

Casper: Listen Kenny, I've decided that we are to part ways as friends.

Kenny: Oh, of course I meant "that solid and nice woman"."


 * Insane Troll Logic: Robert's "does the bear crap in the forest" reply when someone asks him a rhetorical question. Probably should be seen by someone understanding Danish to get the joke.
 * I See London: An episode had Casper pull down his pants and sing "Cherish the Love" when he tried to charm a girl.
 * It's the Best Whatever Ever!: After Jump Start's ski holiday, Buckingham exclaims: "It was the best skiing vacation ever! Actually the best vacation ever!"
 * I Was Just Joking: Oh, so much between Casper and the touchy jew Samuel Goldstein.
 * I Will Tear Your Arms Off: When Casper is asked to tell what he would do if he met Liva again after their breakup, this is the most family-friendly thing he comes up with.
 * Jail Bait: Kim's niece Trille, mentioned in the next trope, is 14 years old, but the actress portraying her, Laura Christensen, was 17 years old at that time and today is considered one of Denmark's sexiest women. So if any of you felt wrong about getting the hots on this 14-years-old character, you are now excused. (the age of consent is, like stated below, 15 years in Denmark)
 * The Jailbait Wait: Episode 2 is essentially about this. Casper meets Kim's niece who is 14 years old but turns 15 years old the next Friday. His flirting with her is so obvious that it is like being hit by a hammer. However, he waits to she turns 15 before he wants to have sex with her. He doesn't succeed.
 * Jewish Complaining: The before-mentioned Samuel Goldstein.
 * Just Like Making Love: Robert makes a comparison with masturbation and archery. "First you grab your arrow firmly, then you pull it back, and then you shoot".
 * Kent Brockman News: Though it isn't a show within a show, but a part of the show, Niels Buckingham isn't always the most competent news reader.
 * Lame Excuse: Behold Casper who has spent his entire life on mastering this to perfection.
 * Laugh Track: Langt fra Las Vegas is actually close to the only Danish television series who uses this.
 * Layman's Terms: After giving a long speech about why uniforms are useful, Niels asks the other employees to explain it in simple words to Robert.
 * Lesbian Jock: In an episode, Kenny gets an interview with Mia Hundvin - a (former, it would seem) lesbian handball player who also exists in real life. Hilarity Ensues when Kenny, being the homophobe he is, denies that a good-looking sports woman can be a lesbian. In Denmark, handball is the most popular woman's sport, but it is also considered to be, albeit jokingly, one of the more lesbian ones due to the big amounts of physical contact that often happen during a game and the fact that several handball players have been lesbian.
 * Lipstick Lesbian: Mia Hundvin, at least in the portrayal of her in the series, but to varying degrees in Real Life. In real life, she isn't a declared lesbian anymore though, having married a man and had a child.
 * Literal Ass-Kicking: When Kenny tries to train Robert to a pole sitting contest, he repeatedly hits Robert's buttocks to "harden" them. At some point he hits Kim by accident with "interesting" results.
 * Living in a Furniture Store: Casper's apartment.
 * Mafia Princess: Anne in the episode where she gets a biker boyfriend. Anne keeps the "gifts" in Casper's apartment, essentially making it a stolen goods central.
 * Men Are Uncultured: Most male characters to some degree, with a possible exception of Buckingham who at least appears cultured.
 * The Loins Sleep Tonight: Casper in the last episode of the series.
 * Metaphorgotten: "Does the bear crap in the forest" again.
 * Mutilation Conga: Liva's mom during her introduction episode.
 * My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Kim, oh so much. She is especially desperate because she is only 30. At some point the clock is ticking so loudly that she has sex with a 16-year-old boy and gets pregnant afterwards.
 * My Friends and Zoidberg: Robert is often the target of this.
 * Naughty by Night: Kim likes to believe she is this, especially in season 1, where she is the boss and dresses more formally.
 * Nonverbal Miscommunication: Robert at times. For example, when Buckingham says to Kenny "if you do not pull yourself together..." and makes a throat slash gesture at him. Robert then exclaims: "Does Kenny get a scarf if he doesn't pull himself together? That's unfair!"
 * Noodle Incident: All of Buckingham's anecdotes that he doesn't go in Squicky details with, can be said to be noodle incidents.
 * No Sense of Humor: Liva's parents.
 * Not So Above It All: Lisa in the episode where she and Kim make up tons of weird slang words for "penis".
 * Not Wearing Pants: In one episode, Robert mentions that he had such a dream. However it was not merely a dream.
 * Obvious Object Could Be Anything: Casper invokes the trope when Liva gives him a toothbrush wrapped into nothing but a curling ribbon. Casper jokingly asks: "Is it a stereo?"
 * Obvious Pregnancy: Kim suffers a miscarriage before she gets big, however the trope is played straight in the sense that she has mood swings, lactates and has morning sickness turned Up to Eleven.
 * On Three: Casper and Kenny do it when they need to step out of Casper's apartment at the same time.
 * Once Per Episode: The little animation at the end with the figure with a penis-shaped nose who says "it's not a dick" in English.
 * Only Sane Woman: Lisa. Kind of ironic taking into consideration that the actress portraying her, Katja K, is the cast member with the least normal past, being a former porn actress.
 * Opera Gloves: Kim wears some at the last scene in the series.
 * Overused Running Gag: Robert's love of boobs - to some viewers, at least. The rest of the viewers just seem to favor him even more for every time he makes a stupid comment about breasts.
 * Percussive Prevention: When Robert needs to prevent Lisa from drinking infected water.
 * Picture Day: Episode 13 has a Picture Week where the Jump Start try to lose weight before having photo taken. The contest is stressful because Kim offers the one who has lost most weight, a travel gift token.
 * Porky Pig Pronunciation: Robert often fails Danish grammar, resulting in this.
 * Potty Failure: Robert from time to time.
 * Priceless Ming Vase: Kim's vase in episode 5. Though it isn't that expensive after all, unless you miss your right hand...
 * Produce Pelting: Against Casper when he speaks against children.
 * Proportional Article Importance: Happens in episode 11 when Anne makes Casper read a newspaper article about elderly people hating children..
 * Refuge in Vulgarity: In some episodes.
 * Running Gag: Lots and lots of them. Kenny's homophobia would probably be the best example outside of Robert's and Buckingham's quirks.
 * Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Casper just loves Ferris Buellers Day Off and watches it four times in the episode "DVD Nights".
 * Sexy Secretary: Lisa is this with shades of Sassy Secretary.
 * Signed Up for the Dental: Robert joins the Home Guard in order to eat field rations. When some of the girls of his team are forced to change clothes in the open, he decides to stay in order to look at breasts. However, he leaves after being ordered to do nothing but digging in the forest all day. Then he joins a Neo-Nazi organization in order to relax and eat cake all day...
 * Soapbox Sadie: Lisa. Mostly quite subtle, but from time to time she comes with statements like: "Why do you want to have a hunting license? Why do you believe you have more right be alive than, say, a hare?" or "You used the term left-hand work to describe bad work. That's so discriminating to left-handed people. Man, woman, black, white, left-handed, right-handed - all people are equal".
 * Sophisticated As Hell: Buckingham at times.
 * Stage Whisper: Done very much in season 1 when Casper tries to hide an unpopular visitor in his apartment from Anne. Usually Casper will freak out and shout to the visitor "hide in the closet/bedroom", and Anne will just ask "are you alone" to which Casper will reply "yes" and Anne will believe him. Otherwise it's rarely seen in the series.
 * Straight Man and Wise Guy: Lisa often acts as the Straight Man and Kim as the Wise Guy.
 * Stuck on a Ski Lift: Mentioned, not seen in season 1. The Jump Start employees were on ski holiday, and Kenny and Lisa experiences this for an hour. It doubles as one of the very, very few times Kenny actually gets laid - because they had to spend the time in some way...
 * Stupid Crooks: Robert is not a criminal, so he can't be expected to have experience, but when Casper asks Robert to steal Liva's handbag, Robert starts with forgetting it and being 20 minutes too late on acting. Then he drives down to the shop where Liva is, wearing a knitted tassel hat, on a moped which can only back - and misses the shop.
 * Suicide as Comedy: In an episode, Robert is taking his hunting license and brings a rifle with him to Jump Start. When Buckingham immediately takes it as Robert wants to commit suicide because that he stole Robert's desk. In the whole episode, Buckingham tries to cheer Robert up but ironically refuses to give Robert his desk back. When he finds out Robert is not depressed, Niels is NOT pleased.
 * Super Zeroes: The super hero "Sonny Boy" in one of the earlier episodes. As your everyday life superhero, he actually does pretty well, but it is later revealed that he is actually Cloudcuckoolander Wulff who is allergic to perming liquid, so every time he is about to have his hair permed, he gets high, wears a hair net and acts heroic without knowing it.
 * Surreal Humor: Some of the guests Casper are interviewing in season 1. The best example is probably Stig Lise Rittenhouse (for a start it's a guy, but his middle name is a girl's name for no reason) who is a sobbing nerd who just lost all of his 50 pets in one night. They all died of each their natural cause, and he couldn't save any of them because each of them had a separate vet. There's also Zindy Krads who won a running marathon by being the passenger of a rickshaw.
 * The Swear Jar: Lisa makes one for every time someone says "neger" (a Danish term for a black person. It's still a word where Danes can't really agree whether it's derogatory or not, though it's not carrying the same undertones as "nigger"
 * Tabloid Melodrama: Casper's "penis rumor".
 * Team Mom: Lisa.
 * That Came Out Wrong
 * That's an Order: When Robert believes he can make the girls amongst the editorial team show him their breasts, he shouts, "Show me your boobs, bitches! That's an order!"
 * Throw It In: In a sports advertisement in the series where Kenny stars, he is wearing very short shorts, and when he lifts his right leg, you can just make out his right testicle. It was apparently an accident, but as it fitted to awkward Kenny who has no taste in clothing, it was left in.
 * Toilet Humor: Robert is the series' main source of this, though it also happens at other times. For example, episode 3 was about Casper dating a Gasshole named Birla who misinterprets "let's do it in the nature" as "let's poop together in the nature" and whose most intimate experience with a guy was lighting her Farts on Fire. The episode is appropriately titled "Danish Dynamite".
 * Tomboyish Name: Kim. In Denmark, it technically is a multi-gender name like in English-speaking countries, but practically it is a boy's name, with very few females having the name. It's not mentioned, though, except for in the episode where Casper meets a girl named Kimmie. Kim asks for the name again, and Kenny jokes "it's the feminine version of Kim".
 * Too Fast to Stop: Robert's backing moped.
 * Too Much Information: When Buckingham gives off Too Much Information (and he does that quite often), he always realizes it immediately and says "take it as research".
 * Tough Room: Kenny at times, especially in the first season. At other times he just is an annoying loser and is scorned no more in the series than he would probably be in Real Life.
 * Trick Dialogue: Casper when it seemed like he was telling Liva that he got gonorrhoea. Actually he was talking the door, preparing himself on telling it to Liva.
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Casper. Watch the series, and you will quickly realize why.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Kim and Lisa's euphemisms for the penis in episode 9.
 * Verbal Backpedaling: Casper.
 * We Should Get Another Tape: Spoofed in the episode where Robert tries to start his own quiz show. He wants the reward to be two video tapes, and people have to pay 25 kr. (about 5 dollars) in order to call him and participate in the quiz. Kim asks "why would anyone want to pay 25 kr. to win two video tapes", to which Robert indignantly replies "but I only recorded on them once!"
 * What Did I Do Last Night?: When Liva has sex with Casper when he sleeps, Casper wakes up next morning, wondering why he is naked (it should be noted that Casper went to sleep in order to deliberately avoid sex, as he had an STD at that time).
 * Witness Protection: In an episode, Robert is tired of being treated like the imbecile he is, so he decides to have a witness protection so he can get a new identity as a wildly popular DJ named John. The police offers tell him that he cannot change identity unless he witnesses some crime, so Robert spends the rest of the episode trying to find criminality at Jump Start. Of course, that turns out quite funny.