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This article deals with the Swedish denomination for a market town. For the city, see Köping, Sweden. For the municipality, see Köping Municipality.

Köping (cognate to the English toponymical name Chipping) was a Swedish denomination for a market town. This term was abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Municipalities of Sweden (currently amounting to 290).

In medieval times it was the designation of an official market place/market town. As present-day Finland was then a part of Sweden, the Finnish word kauppala has the same meaning. The Finnish word kaupunki, borrowed from the Old Norse word for köping, is today the main word for town in Finnish.

In 1863 the first local government acts were implemented in Sweden. There were two acts, one for towns and one for rural areas. Of the around 2,500 municipalities, 89 had town privileges and thus had the right to call themselves stad (town). Under the "rural" act there were also eight localities given the status of köping, which positioned them between a rural municipality and a town. The number of localities designated as köping rose dramatically during the 20th century and reached its peak in 1959, when they were 95. Many new settlements during the industrialization of Sweden, as well as some of the suburbs in the metropolitan areas, first received the title of köping and it was also made part of their name. They later grew further and received town privileges, but kept the köping ending of their names. See the list below.

A large-scale merger of Swedish municipalities in 1971 removed the distinctions between towns, market towns and rural municipalities. Many of the former market towns are now seats of municipalities. In contrast to the term stad, köping is seldom used in everyday speech today.

[edit] Toponyms containing the word köping

Köping titles issued 1863–1959[link]

See also[link]

• Municipalities of Sweden
• List of cities in Sweden
• Stad (Sweden)
• Urban areas of Sweden

Magnus Betnér
Birth name	Magnus Lennarth Betnér
Born	(1974-08-16) 16 August 1974 (age 37) Stockholm, Sweden
Medium	Stand-up
Nationality	Swedish
Years active	1998–present
Subject(s)	Religion, politics, current events, pop culture, human sexuality, libertarianism
Influences	Doug Stanhope, Bill Hicks
Website	MagnusBetner.com

Magnus Lennarth Betnér (born August 16, 1974 in Stockholm) is a Swedish stand-up comedian, social critic and television host. His material largely consist of discussing society, religion and politics such as feminism and liberalism.

He has been acting in Swedish comedy shows such as Parlamentet, 100%, Veckans nyheter, Extra! Extra!, Stockholm live and in 2008 he made his own show called I ditt ansikte (In your Face). He has focused on his own 90-minute stand-up shows since then, with his 4th big tour playing over the winter 2011/2012. He is the only swedish comedian to be awarded with the "Swedish comedian of the year" award twice, in 2005 and 2010. With the 2010 award he was recognized to be "on the right road to be great in the United Kingdom".^[1]

Betnér has been performing increasingly in English, in the US, UK and Ireland. In August 2010 Betnér performed a complete run of hour-length shows in English at The Stand Comedy Club during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, receiving praise in mostly four star reviews.^[2][3][4]

In 2012, Betnér now hosts his own show on Kanal 5 called Betnér direkt, which is inspired by shows like Real Time with Bill Maher and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where Betnér discuss current events with a panel and a guest.

Early life[link]

Betnér was born in Stockholm, son of Lennarth Betnér, then pastor in the Swedish Mission Church and mother, name unknown, then a housewife, now works at HSB. Because of his fathers work Betnér moved around lot when he grew up. He lived in Idre, Sala and Vingåker before they moved back to Stockholm at age 14.

Comic style[link]

Betnér uses dark comedy, often offensively, against Swedish celebrities such as Linda Rosing, Ebba von Sydow, Mikael Persbrandt, Per Gessle and many more. His stand-up comedy has garnered him much criticism and even death threats from Swedish neo-Nazis and rappers, but he finds it humorous that people can get so angry about jokes.

Betnér often has to answer questions on why he is so offensive. He often replies that people should accept the jokes, since they are only jokes.

Betnér was awarded the "Swedish comedian of the year" award in 2005 and again in 2010 in connection with the Swedish stand-up gala. Betnér's characteristic humour is often political and provocative; for example, in one show, he ironically proposed to give his daughter a "pussy piercing" as a present for her second birthday, but ultimately opted against it, citing "why would you buy a pussy piercing for your two-year-old daughter? It would grow shut in a couple of weeks!" as the reason.

Betnér has also released four DVD movies: Live från Norra Brunn (Live from Norra Brunn), Magnus Betnér UnCut, Inget är heligt (Nothing is sacred) and Tal till nationen (Speech to the nation). He later chose to discontinue appearing in the program Extra! Extra!, as he considered himself censored when they would not allow him to joke about Runar Søgaard.^[5] He has been visiting the TV programs Robins, Förkväll and Belinda. In the autumn of 2008, Betnér's own TV program I ditt ansikte (In your face) was broadcast on Channel 5 in Sweden.^[6] After that Betnér went on to make a permanent contribution to SVT's Debatt (Debate).

Personal life[link]

Betnér is living together with Helena Sandklef and has a daughter, Lina (born in 2006) from a previous marriage. Because of Betnér's dislike for tabloid newspapers, he almost never exposes himself in the media, but in some of his old acts he talked about his daughter. Sometimes when it comes to Christianity he refers to his father who is a pastor. Betnér however is an outspoken atheist and considers the world to be better off without religion. He believes that everybody is bisexual.^[2][7][8]

Discography[link]

• Live från Norra Brunn (Live from Norra Brunn) (2006) (DVD)
• Magnus Betnér Uncut (2007) (DVD)
• Inget är heligt (Nothing is sacred) (2007) (DVD)
• Tal till Nationen (Speech to the nation) (2009) (DVD)
• Livets ord (Words of life) (2010) (DVD)
• Magnus Betnér IV (2012) (Digital Download)

Television[link]

• I ditt ansikte (2008)
• Betnér direkt (2012)

Appearances in other shows[link]

• Parlamentet (1999–present)
• Stockholm live (2005–2007, 2 episodes)
• Extra! Extra! (2006)
• 100% (2006)
• Veckans nyheter (2006)
• Sverige dansar och ler (2007, 3 episodes)
• Debatt (2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Magnus Betnér

• Official website
• Magnus Betnér's channel on YouTube (channel for videos in English)
• Magnus Betnér on Myspace
• Magnus Betnér at the Internet Movie Database