[gratefulshrink]

Conan has been running a gag on Late Night for several months now about how he looks very much like Finland's President. He even got involved in her re-election campaign. It made the news around here.

I was just wondering what the take is on it over there.

 

[BodiesOfLight]

Whoa.

 

[gratefulshrink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BodiesOfLight Whoa.

Yeah -- pretty funny -- he's been riffing on that for weeks. I think he even appeared in Finnish TV spots for her campaign. (She won re-election, BTW.)

Gottta love Conan.

 

[Borat]

plainsong shared some thoughts in another thread here.

I love the video that the city of Turku sent Conan to try to entice him to come there instead of Helsinki. His reaction was hilarious.

 

[Dimitris]

Ha ha ha that was so funny!

 

[Kirosia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Borat I love the video that the city of Turku sent Conan to try to entice him to come there instead of Helsinki. His reaction was hilarious.

At first, I thought the video was staged by the show, and then when I found it was legit, holy crapola. I thought I was on an acid trip when I first saw it.

 

[plainsong]

Yeah, Turku people are strange.

Seriously, he should not go to Turku.

My husband is from outside Turku, and it was his life's dream to move away as soon as he was old enough... which he did.

Yeah, Conan has always been popular here. I never watched him when I lived back home in the US. But here? His time slot has migrated between 10:30pm and 11:30pm. He's always been popular, which is why I started watching him.

It was only when the modern art museum put out that metal sculpture of Halonen that I realized... "Is that Halonen or Conan?"

Subtv, the channel which shows Conan, had great fun with little promo spots before his shows, putting some funny graphic of Conan and Halonen, and of course everyone knew which shows would have the Finnish sketches. It even made some newspapers.

But deciding the election? Hardly. Halonen officially ignored it, and the big issue was the policy on Nato, as well as a few other small things. It was hardly a landslide though. The big cities tended to vote for Halonen, and the people in the country tended to vote for Niinistö. I'm glad he didn't win though.

Good ole Fox reported that this was the Prime Minister elections, and that would be 100% wrong.
One of the canidates is the prime minister, Matti Vanhanen. He came third in the first elections.

edit - just to add about his Finnish. My Finnish ain't the best in the world, but his was uhhh, worse. Now the first election commercial, that wasn't a half bad job. I could tell what he was saying at least. The other times though, wow. Were those words? Of course when I have a cold, I can't pronounce most Finnish words myself. At least in the end he pronounced her name right.

Not too long ago, a Swedish-speaking woman who has a talk show went to NYC to interview Conan after the show. He had said then that he was going to have to come to Finland, and that Turku offered to give him a summerhome.

 

[Onix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainsong Yeah, Turku people are strange. Seriously, he should not go to Turku. My husband is from outside Turku, and it was his life's dream to move away as soon as he was old enough... which he did. Yeah, Conan has always been popular here. I never watched him when I lived back home in the US. But here? His time slot has migrated between 10:30pm and 11:30pm. He's always been popular, which is why I started watching him.

Do they dub the show? I have to wonder how well his humor translates to Finnish. I used to watch his show when I lived in New York and sometimes watch it here. My friends just don't get it, and they speak English very well.

 

[luukas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onix Do they dub the show?

Nope. Only kids' shows are dubbed around here anyhow, rest is subs. Good stuff.

 

[Patu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luukas Nope. Only kids' shows are dubbed around here anyhow, rest is subs. Good stuff.

Fortunately. Dubbing ruins all the best jokes.

Conan O' Brien is indeed very popular here in Finland. It shows on every workday night and usually episodes are only a few days behind their original show date in the US.

I think this whole Finland theme got started when Finland was in 'Conan O'Brien Hates My Homeland' sketch and soon Conan received great deal of funny (and angry) feedback from Finnish audience. That episode was hilarious where he read that feedback.

Still my favourite Conan joke ever is the one where they show live feed of Pamela Anderson's and Tommy Lee's future child. When I saw that I dropped on the floor and laughed like 10 minutes straight.

 

[JiiEf]

While I have a view in this matter, I will refrain from commenting due to the "no politics" rule in this forum.

/JF

 

[Born2bwire]

And in other news, GERMANS LOVE DAVID HASSELHOFF.

 

[plainsong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2bwire And in other news, GERMANS LOVE DAVID HASSELHOFF.

I don't know what could be so controversial about Finnish politics, that it leads to cryptic forum comments... but

Hey, they may love Hasselpoffle, but at least Conan's funny!

Oh wait...

 

[Jahn]

there is a clip where conan gets a postcard from finland saying "you are not as cool as david hasselhoff." that's probably where it's from.

btw is there a link to the turku clip? i'd like to see it!

 

[shplorgh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BodiesOfLight Whoa.

........I can't breathe.....