The Dudesons is a
FinnishFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
television series, which originally started in January 2001 under the Finnish name
Extreme Duudsonit. A combination of extreme stunts, comedy and reality, the show has become the most wide-spread Finnish TV-series of all time. The show follows the every day life of four best friends, who have a tendency for chaos and perilous situations.
The Dudesons consists of four members: Jukka Hilden (b.
The Dudesons is a
FinnishFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
television series, which originally started in January 2001 under the Finnish name
Extreme Duudsonit. A combination of extreme stunts, comedy and reality, the show has become the most wide-spread Finnish TV-series of all time. The show follows the every day life of four best friends, who have a tendency for chaos and perilous situations.
History
The Dudesons consists of four members: Jukka Hilden (b. 1980), Jarno "Jarppi" Leppälä (b. 1979), Jarno Laasala (b. 1979) and Hannu-Pekka "HP" Parviainen (b. 1981). They were all born in the small city of
SeinäjokiSeinäjoki is a city located in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra bruk iron and gunpowder factories founded in 1798. Seinäjoki became a municipality in 1868, market town in 1931 and town in 1960...
, Finland, and Jukka, Jarppi and Jarno became good friends since attending elementary school together.
The teenage Dudesons were heavy practitioners of snowboarding, skateboarding and downhill mountain biking. In the early 1990s, when Jarno got his first video camera, the group started shooting videos of their hobbies which eventually led to filming a variety of pranks and extreme stunts. They created VHS tapes which were filmed and edited by Jarno and subsequently sold them around until their reputation started to grow in Seinäjoki.
The Original Finnish TV-series
In January 2000, Jarno found work as an editor for a small cable TV-channel
MoonTVMoonTV was a free Finnish cable network channel. It started off as a channel for programmes about computer and video games but later grew into a channel covering several areas of youth culture. In its prime it was the first interactive TV channel in the world. At its best MoonTV could reach 1.3...
. He saw a possibility to make his own show out of all the stunts the Dudesons had filmed. After finishing high school, the Dudesons set up their own production company called Rabbit Films. The group immediately began shooting a self-financed pilot episode for their own show.
This pilot was finished in August 2000, and the channel immediately green lighted the first season, titled as "Extreme Duudsonit". The episodes started showing in January 2001, and the series became the most popular show on MoonTV. In September 2001, the Dudesons moved from MoonTV to
NelonenNelonen is a Finnish commercial TV channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1989 on the HTV cable network, which name was changed first to PTV4 and then to Nelonen. It started on June 1 1997. Nelonen, in Finnish, means the glyph of the number four...
, the 2nd biggest commercial network in Finland.
2002 saw the coming of the 2nd season of the Extreme Duudsonit, and the same year The Dudesons were also elected as The Media Persons Of The Year by the readers of Finland’s most popular youth magazine Suosikki.
The 3rd and 4th seasons of Extreme Duudsonit ran respectively in 2003 and 2004. The 4th season saw the introduction of the 5th member of the Dudesons, a male pet pig named Britney (he was originally called Satan but they thought he was a she so changed his name to Britney, only to find out later that he was in fact a male pig), who has since then remained as an important character in The Dudesons TV-series. As the series progressed, it moved away from just being a stunt-based show and evolved into more of a varied reality comedy show.
Recurring stunts and segments on the English spoken version of the Dudesons includes: the "Human Dartboard", playing pranks on "Mr Hitler" and a vast array of other stunts
"that absolute disregard for [their] own safety."
The International Career
In 2003, The Dudesons made a decision to start making English-language material in order to find international distribution. Their following series, Duudsoni Elämää, was shot both in Finnish and English. The material was then edited both into Finnish-language series, and English language series. The Finnish series ran in 2004, while the English series had its international debut at Australian
Channel VChannel [V] is the brand name for multiple international music television networks owned by STAR TV.-Channel [V] International:Channel [V] International is flagship of the Channel [V] network. It was founded after MTV Asia parted ways with the STAR TV Network and the latter network needed a music...
in February 2006. The American debut was on SpikeTV on July 6, 2006.
By September 2007, The Dudesons Season 1 had been shown in 22 countries around the world, making it the most wide spread Finnish TV-series of all time.
The second season began in Australia on May 20, 2008 on Channel V. Subsequent episodes will air every Tuesday.
Season 1: 2006
Season 2: 2008
Season 3: 2009
The Dudesons Movie
The international launch of The Dudesons TV-series was supported by the full length feature film The Dudesons Movie, which was released theatrically in Finland on March 31, 2005, and straight to DVD in a dozen other countries. The movie was released in the USA on July 11, 2006, by Warner Rhino. Despite mixed reviews from Finnish mainstream critics, the movie won the "Audience's Favourite Movie" at Jussi Awards, the Finnish equivalent of Oscars, with 47% of votes.
Other appearances
The Dudesons are good friends with American extreme stars
Bam MargeraBrandon Cole "Bam" Margera is a professional skateboarder, television and radio personality, and daredevil. He released a series of videos under the CKY banner and came to prominence after being drafted into MTV's Jackass crew...
and
Steve-OStephen "Steve-O" Gilchrist Glover is an English-American stunt performer and television personality. He is best known as one of the performers on the TV series Jackass and Wildboyz.-Early life:...
and have made three appearances in the popular MTV series
Viva La BamViva La Bam was a reality television series that starred Bam Margera and his friends. The show was a spin-off from MTV's Jackass, in which Margera and most of the main cast had appeared. Each episode would have a specific theme, mission, or challenge which would normally be accomplished by...
. They also play supporting roles in Margera’s feature film Minghags and 'Where the Fuck Is Santa?'. Margera and Steve-O on the other hand make numerous appearances on The Dudesons TV-series.
The British extreme stunts TV-series
World of StupidWorld of Stupid is a television series currently airing on the Fox Reality network in the United States, and on the Razer network in Canada. The show is seemingly inspired by the American television series Jackass...
also did a half hour special on The Dudesons.
Jukka Hilden made an appearance in the Season 2 opener of MTV's Nitro Circus.
External links