The Dudesons

History

The Dudesons consists of "four dudes from the Arctic Circle": Jukka Hildén (b. 1980), Jarno "Jarppi" Leppälä (b. 1979), Jarno Laasala (b. 1979) and Hannu-Pekka "HP" Parviainen (b. 1981). All were born in the town of Seinäjoki, Finland, where Hildén, Leppälä, and Laasala became close friends while attending elementary school together, where they later met Parviainen and George Hutton who makes brief cameos in the videos

As teenagers, the four became quite interested in snowboarding, skateboarding and downhill mountain biking. In the early 1990s, when Laasala got his first video camera, the group began filming their activities which eventually led to further pranks and extreme stunts. They created and sold VHS tapes which were filmed and edited by Laasala and subsequently their reputation began to grow in Seinäjoki.

Original Finnish TV series

In January 2000, Jarno Laasala obtained a job as an editor for a small Finnish cable TV-channel called MoonTV. 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 of their own show.

This pilot was finished in August 2000 and the channel immediately green lit the first season, titled as "Maailmankiertue" (Worldtour). The episodes began airing in January 2001, and the series became the most popular show on MoonTV. In September, 2001, The Dudesons moved from MoonTV to a nationwide TV-channel Nelonen.

The 2nd season, called "Extreme Duudsonit, Maailmankiertue 2", was first screened in 2002, 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 (Maailmankiertue 3) and 4th seasons (Duudsoni Elämää) of Extreme Duudsonit ran respectively in 2003 and 2004.

Recurring stunts and segments on the English-language version of the Dudesons includes: the "Human Dartboard," playing pranks on "Mr. Hitler" and a vast array of other stunts with "absolute disregard for [their] own safety."

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 V in February 2006. The American debut was on SpikeTV on July 6, 2006.

The Dudesons can be seen on Bam Margera's Viva La Bam and Bam Margera Presents: Where the ♯$&% Is Santa?.

By September 2007, The Dudesons Season 1 had been shown in 22 countries around the world, making it the most widespread Finnish TV-series of all time. The second season began in Australia on May 20, 2008 on Channel V. By the year 2010, different Dudesons seasons have been seen in over 150 countries.

The Dudesons are also featured in the hit 2010 movie Jackass 3D, alongside Johnny Knoxville. All four Dudesons were seen on the red carpet at the Jackass 3D premiere.

The Dudesons in America: 2010

After a multimillion-dollar deal with MTV, a new show called The Dudesons in America was green lit. With a budget of six million dollars, it would consist of the same line-up of all four Dudesons, and was set to be produced by both Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine. The Dudesons' own production company, Rabbit Films, decided to do the show with the co-operation of Dickhouse. "The Dudesons have balls where there should be brains and I am honored to be doing a show with them," Knoxville says on the Dudesons's official website. However, after the episode Cowboys & Findians, MTV changed the time the episode would air due to unknown reasons. The Dudesons stated on their official Facebook page that the show would continue on July 16, 2010 and has since ended.

The first episode was shown on MTV May 6, 2010.

The Dudesons in America was first aired on August 1, 2010 in the UK, on MTV Bang.

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 Favorite Movie" at Jussi Awards, the Finnish equivalent of Oscars, with about 47% of votes.

Dudesons Do Gumball

In 2013, The Dudesons filmed and launched their own three-part series when taking part in the Gumball 3000 event. The show aired exclusively on Extreme Sports Channel, and followed the Finns as they travelled from Copenhagen to Monaco. This year they had a Cadillac SUV which had the look of a blue elephant. During the race through Europe they had their "Wheel of Fortune", which was used for different types of pranks.