New TV comedy show with Roma theme forces Finns to confront their own prejudices

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By Jyrki Räikkä
     
      The smell of tar is strong, as the drizzle comes down on the deck of the wooden vessel Marita. From inside the boat loud talk can be heard. A broad male voice praises the magnificent clock that he bought in Sodankylä: "Even its hands are made of logs."
      When one cautiously walks down the steps into the hold, one sees four men wearing hats and garish clothing. At the other end of the table sits the leader, who is referred to as the Emperor, to whom the others soon give money in brown envelopes.
      When the word "work" is mentioned, the men spit over their shoulders.
      "Cigarette break", announces someone in the camera crew.
      This is Roma humour, produced by members of the Roma or Gipsy community themselves.
      Manne-TV will replace Uutisvuoto (the Finnish localisation of Have I got News for You), bringing it to Finnish homes every Saturday evening in prime time.
     
The sketch, which was recorded on Wednesday, was called The Romanos - parodying the American Mafia drama The Sopranos - and the role of gang family head is played by Finnish rock legend Remu Aaltonen instead of James Gandolfini.
      Remu is in many of the sketches in the series, but the title of "Top Gipsy" of the series is with the creator of the show and the main actor, Santeri Ahlgren.
      Ahlgren and his team tackle Roma stereotypes with scathing humour. In many of the sketches, the Roma are portrayed as being pathlogically workshy, and as swindlers and thieves. The same image of the Roma is projected in worn-out jokes spread among the population at large.
     
While some might imagine that the sketches might actually inflame long-held prejudices, Ahlgren says that the idea is specifically to challenge them.
      "First, we'll show the whites what they really think about us dark people."
     
This kind of exaggeration was used over 15 years back in sketches by Aake Kalliala and Pirkka-Pekka Petelius in their portrayals of Roma men in two television series, Hymyhuulet and Pulttibois. Some felt that there were racist elements in the sketches by the white comedians. Ahlgren feels that Manne-TV is different.
      "The figures in Manne-TV are caricatures as well, but we have more style than Petelius and Kalliala."
      Manne-TV goes beyond simply repeating cliches. Its purpose is also to tell the population at large what kind of people the Roma really are, and what they have done. "It has been demonstrated that 1,000 Gipsy men served in the front lines during the war. Dozens never came back, and hundreds were injured. We weren't just taking care of horses in the rear", Ahlgren insists.
     
Even those sketches in which the Roma figures show a disdain for work have a serious backdrop: discrimination in employment.
      "We'll stop shunning tools and spitting on them as soon as the part of the Finnish Constitution according to which every Finnish citizen is said to have the right to work is fully implemented."
      However, Ahlgren points out that Manne-TV is primarily an entertainment programme. All the same, the purpose of the entertainment was to get the population at large to understand that the Roma are not riffraff.
     
"We will have succeeded if the girl at the labour exchange will smile when a Roma comes in, or if, instead of crossing the street when a Roma comes in the opposite direction, a white person might actually smile and possibly nod. I hope that the Roma would nod in return", Ahlgren says.
      "This is a little like entertainment. Everyone can interpret the matter in any way that he or she wants. The main thing is that it is fun and sincere", Remu Aaltonen comments.
     
It remains to be seen how humour that makes use of cliches will be understood among the Roma themselves. Already before the series has aired, there has been discussion on the Internet on whether or not the comedy employed in the series will help or hurt the Roma, and if Ahlgren is an appropriate representative of the community.
      "I hope that the Roma community would understand that we are in the 21st century and that it is time for us to laugh at ourselves a bit as well", Ahlgren says.
     
It is not easy for an outsider to understand where the limits to acceptable humour lie. When the siren of an emergency vehicle is heard outside, the actors laugh among themselves. "Who has a warrant out?" Soon after that, Ahlgren is back in character, making a similar joke about a police show, but then says that it should not be written into the show.
      Manne-TV has twelve episodes, and shooting of the series is scheduled to continue through the end of July. The production took a tragic turn in late April when the second main actor in the series, Eeki Mantere, unexpectedly died.
      It was a tough break for the whole production team, and especially for Ahlgren, who was Mantere's long-time friend.
      "The series was made for Eeki and me", Ahlgren says. "After the loss of a good brother we had to work harder than before. Let this also be a tribute to Eeki, who was a great comedian."
      There are many sketches in the show in which Mantere was involved, which were shot in the early spring.
      Manne-TV also has some amateur actors on board, and not all of them have a Roma background.
      "I've never had any great prejudices against the gipsies", says Rauno Lehmusvyöry. "People's points of view broaden the more they move around in the world."
      "When you have a good horse, the scenery changes", quips Remu Aaltonen from the corner.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.6.2007

More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: The sensitivities of ethnic humour

JYRKI RÄIKKÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
jyrki.raikka@hs.fi