The Dudesons
Extreme Duudsonit are a group of men with a Finnish television show, now shown on Spike TV in the United States. The group, also known as The Dudesons, are from Seinäjoki, Finland. They perform stunts on their show, much like the American show Jackass on MTV. However, they were not inspired by the American show, because it had not yet been aired when the first set of Extreme Duudsonit episodes were recorded in 2000. The name Extreme Duudsonit is in Finglish, a correct English version would be "Extreme Dudesons".
On July 12th, a banner was listed on the popular Habbo website stating that The Dudesons were invading Habbo. However, this invasion was infact massive amounts 4channers and fans of ebaumsworld invading the virtual Habbo environment. Moderaters then enforced bans and have decided to cancel The Dudesons appearance on Habbo at this time.
The group consists childhood friends Jukka Hildén (born in 1980), Jarno "Jarppi"/"Jarno2" Leppälä (born in 1979), H-P Parviainen (born in 1981) and Jarno "Jarno1" Laasala (born in 1979). Laasala bought a video camera in 1993 and started shooting partying, extreme snowboarding and extreme downhill cycling videos. In 1999 he moved to Helsinki to study at the University of Helsinki where he stayed for a half year, then started working at the tv station MoonTV as a cameraman and editor. When working at MoonTV he got the idea to make his own TV show, he thought since people had always enjoyed his home made videos why wouldn't they work on TV?
The groups stunts are often amazing or ridiculous, including human dartboards, waking each other up by hitting each other with baseball bats, indoor bonfires, driving while blindfolded, and snowboarding down stairwells. They have broken numerous bones and been injured severely numerous times.
The first episode of Extreme Duudsonit was aired on MoonTV on January 25, 2001. The episodes were presented as world tours where they made different stunts at famous places around the world such as Las Vegas and Mount Everest. However, one of the show's jokes was that it was obvious the stunts were actually filmed at places in and around Seinäjoki. The show quickly became the most popular show on MoonTV. The first season was rerun on the larger TV channel Nelonen in the summer of 2001. In 2002 the second season (second world tour) of the show was shown on Nelonen.
In the summer of 2002 the groups toured and performed a live show together with the band The Odorants. In 2002 they were also elected as the media persons of the year by the readers of a popular magazine for Finnish young people, Suosikki.
Next winter Leppälä, Hildén, and Laasala went on a tour performing at bars, while Parviainen could not go with them because of an injured leg. In the spring of 2003, world tour 3 was aired. The groups performed on stage together with Sleepy Sleepers at the summer festivals Ruisrock and Ankkarock.
On September 9, 2004 the first episode of their new TV show called Duudsoni elämää (Duudson life) was aired, again at Nelonen. Duudsoni elämää consists of a total of 17 episodes. The show has been released on DVD.
In 2005, "The Dudesons" began airing in Australia, on the pay TV channel Channel V, showing all of series one.
The Dudesons Movie premiered in Finland on March 31, 2006. In the USA, "The Dudesons Movie" was released on DVD on July 11th by Warner Rhino. Spike TV introduced "The Dudesons TV Show" (8 30 minute episodes) starting July 6th. "The Dudesons TV Show" will also be aired in more than ten countries.
World Tour 1, 2 and 3 have also been released on DVD.
Jukka and Jarppi are good friends with Bam Margera, and have made 3 appearances on Viva La Bam, an MTV spin-off of Jackass.