Because holy sh**, that is a really European sounding accent. Listen to a Norwegian or Swedish person speak English on youtube and you will hear vast similarities. Incredible.
shareIn Minneapolis, no. Once you start to go north you hear a bit of what I would call Canadian twang. But not as strong as in the movie.
shareI'd been watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 for several years when Fargo arrived... MST3K was made in Minnesota by born and bred natives, but I wasn't really aware of that back then. They often did weird little skits using odd accents, and coming from LA California they always just sounded bizarre and random to me. I thought they were just doing made-up goofy voices for the hell of it. Anyway I remember the first time I saw Fargo in a theater and thinking, "These people sound just like the MST3K guys! Those guys must be from Fargo!"
shareI've lived in Wisconsin. The accent is similar, a strong Scandinavian influence with the stressing of the vowels, especially o's.
I actually think they didn't really exaggerate much, if at all. Regional accents have been fading over the years, I think. Also, if you went back to the 70s and 80s, the accent would be stronger. Also, it tends to get stronger the further north you go. Years ago, I met a middle aged guy from that part of the country, and he did sound something like this.