Selling the Dudesons

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By Marko Hämäläinen
     
     
Head of communications Jukka Hildén, 28:
     
      “When we first went with Jarno Laasala to the world’s largest TV fair in Cannes in 2004 we had our caps on sideways and walked from one stand to another with a laptop under an arm. We would always halfway force someone to watch the trailer. Then someone liked it and laughed, and when the video showed testicles caught in a mousetrap, the guy laughed more. Gradually we found the people who enjoyed the programme.
      Now our programme has been sold to 50 countries.
     
When the Dudesons caught our fancy after high school, we didn’t even have the chance to think about what we might do when we grow up. I did take the entrance exam for the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, but I left laughing, after I didn’t know anything about it.
      We’ve always depicted the life that we have actually lived. When we were younger, some went to play footie. We would video each other. We climbed on roofs and shot fireworks at each other.
      That’s the starting point that we still have for doing the Dudesons: enjoying every minute. You couldn’t do something like this just for money. There would be better ways of doing that than putting your own body on the line, and learning about the rocky road all by yourself as a businessman.
      In Finland we’ve asked for help from people who know about international stuff. Be it [video director] Antti Jokinen, [producer] Markus Selin, or [manager] Seppo Vesterinen. By combining scraps of information, we’ve learned something ourselves.
     
It is important that we should meet everyone that we work with face to face. You grab him by the bags, look him in the eye, and ask in a brotherly manner, do you really want to work with me. If he says yes, you will know that he’s serious.
      Our lawyer also represents Donald Trump. When he wakes up in the morning and remembers that Jukka was here and played on the Play Station with the kids, he is happy to work with us, even though we aren’t exactly big business for him.
      In the States, men in suits always ask three questions: ‘What do you do?’ ‘Who do you know?’, and ‘How much do you earn?’ I say ‘F*ck you, I’m a rock ‘n’ roll star from the moon’.
      They are confused when someone doesn’t behave like everyone else and try to suck up. The most important thing is to confront people honestly as one’s own self, but not to mouth off too much.
     
Before the Dudesons no TV programmes from Finland were ever sold abroad on such a large scale. Finland needs a top project. In TV it is the Dudesons, just like Abba was for Sweden in the music business.
      Now that we’ve made contacts around the world, we are able to take new programmes under our wings and offer them the same path.
      Last year we took a loss when we invested in producing the programmes. It was not cheap to go out into the world when we had to fly around and take people out to eat in expensive restaurants.
      This year money is coming back, and turnover is rising to a million and a half. We are making a few hundred thousand euros in profit. Ostrobothnians are not in the habit of flaunting their money, but we’ve all been living here for a long time.”
     
     
     
Creative artist Jarppi Leppälä, 29:
     
      “The thumb of my right hand came off while I was wrestling with a bear. It was barely hanging there, but was reattached. Later it went dead and had to be amputated.
      My ankle has been broken several times, the ligament on my knee has been torn, nearly all of my fingers have been broken, and now my back is giving up on me.
      The doctor says that I am 20 per cent disabled, but that’s not affecting my life in any way. Physical damage can always be fixed, but psychologically this has been downhill ever since the Dudesons first met in primary school.
     
There have been many close calls. We’ve had an invigorating effect on private hospitals in Seinäjoki. When HP broke his leg in three places, the surgeon said that there would be no pain killers until we get him Dudeson shirts, and nurses ask when the programme will come on TV.
      We are insured through our company Rabbit Films, but when something happens, they tend to get cancelled. It’s been difficult to get personal insurance for a long time.
      People say that I’m the craziest of the Dudesons, but I’m just easily goaded into doing things. There’s no use feeling sorry later. Tears make things easier, and mother’s apron strings.
      Looking at this through my mother’s eyes, it has made me think about what the boy is doing this time. But my parents are proud of me, and they’ve always been supportive.
     
Sometimes I thought that I would be a farmer. After high school I went to study construction engineering, but when the Dudesons started interesting me, I quit my studies a year before I would have had an engineer’s degree.
      The Dudesons started developing out of my own hobby. If you get to fool around with your own friends and even manage to pay the rent with it, then why not? It would be ridiculous to wake up at seven every morning and go to a job I hate.
      In a way, success has changed my life. Otherwise I would never have been able to visit different countries and different places. We even popped into a party given by Hugh Hefner, and it was very nice place.
     
As long as the core of the work of the Dudesons is in having fun ourselves, the whole thing won’t get too commercial. But if we start hovering in castles in the sky, it would ruin everything.
      If we ever get to the point that we can’t do this any more, then we have the rest of our lives to think of something else. Something will always be found for someone who wants to do it."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 11.12.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish gross-out TV show The Dudesons to have US version in summer (5.4.2006)

Links:
  The Dudesons website

MARKO HÄMÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
marko.hamalainen@hs.fi