Saunavuoro
Encyclopedia
Saunavuoro is a Finnish
TV comedy show
, similar to The Fast Show
or Smack the Pony
in the UK
. It was shown on YLE TV1
in 2004.
Saunavuoro is themed to look like it was filmed in the 1960s. Its most famous character is Finnish president Urho Kekkonen
and his adjutant, but there are some other regular characters as well.
Some of the sketches include:
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
TV comedy show
Television comedy
Television comedy had a presence from the earliest days of broadcasting. Among the earliest BBC television programmes in the 1930s was Starlight, which offered a series of guests from the music hall era — singers and comedians amongst them...
, similar to The Fast Show
The Fast Show
The Fast Show, known as Brilliant in the US, was a BBC comedy sketch show programme that ran for three series from 1994 to 1997 with a special Last Fast Show Ever in 2000. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and...
or Smack the Pony
Smack the Pony
Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show that ran from 1999 until 2003 on Channel 4. Its title was intended to sound like a euphemism for female masturbation; the working title was Spot the Pony. The main performers and writers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips...
in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It was shown on YLE TV1
YLE TV1
YLE TV1 is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Finnish public broadcaster Yleisradio. It is the first and oldest Television channel in Finland. More than 70% of channel's programs are documentaries, news or educative programmes...
in 2004.
Saunavuoro is themed to look like it was filmed in the 1960s. Its most famous character is Finnish president Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...
and his adjutant, but there are some other regular characters as well.
Some of the sketches include:
- Kekkonen and his adjutant in the sauna. Kekkonen is naked (but still wears his eyeglasses), while his adjutant wears a full military dress uniform. They talk about everyday matters.
- Kekkonen preparing for an official televised announcement. He always begins by saying "Kansalaiset. Medbörjare." This means "citizens" in both FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
and SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
and refers how the real Kekkonen began his announcements. - Kekkonen and his adjutant out in the nature. Kekkonen asks his adjutant to do various things, such as make bird calls.
- A group of three women working in a sewing factory. They hold a "If were some kind of object, what would I be?" with the type of object varying. Two of them are then described as luxurious objects but the third as mundane.
- A female industrial worker coming to complain to her male boss about intolerably bad working conditions. The boss, completely ignoring her, breaks out a guitar and starts playing, as if the worker wasn't even there.
- A woman going out in the nature to hunt for ducks, when a man who has a crush on her appears. The woman has to fend him off.
- A man trying to buy clothes, either for himself or his wife. The salesman refuses, spinning wild theories on how buying the clothes will lead to drastic sexual crimes. He then phones the police to come arrest the man.
- Three rich country-side land-owners having a contest on how large and expensive things they've recently bought. The third man's acquisitions are always ridiculously overdone.
- Two ice hockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
players in the off-side box. While out on the ice, they are fierce players, but the moment they step into the off-side box, they start talking about philosophy, art, politics or technical things instead. When they go back to play, they become fierce again.