Watching shows like Wildboyz and Jackass really brings up that bile of fear in the back of my throat. Now if I was one of the Dudesons I would puke that bile up on my best friend while he was sleeping on an ice floe. The Dudesons consist of childhood friends from Finland named Jukka Hildn, Jarno Leppl, H-P Parviainen and Jarno Laasala. In their classic Dudesons Movie, released for the first time in the US, they do insane stunts that even freak out guest stars such as Steve-O and Bam Margera.
Buy The Dudesons Movie
Daniel Robert Epstein: Where are you today?
Jukka Hildn: Enjoying myself since I got my ass out of Finland freezing. Im under the Californian sun, so Im slowly bit by bit getting out of the frozen mode.
DRE: Are you going back to Finland soon?
JH: I havent decided yet. Well be here for a little bit.
DRE: This DVD is the first Ive ever heard of you guys, how did you get together?
JH: We met in elementary school so our families just grew up together so I guess thats when the downhill started. Thats when we decided that we are like brothers so lets put our stupid heads together and start coming up with these crazy things. Since then you havent really been able to take us apart. Were more like family.
DRE: Did it start with skateboarding?
JH: Yeah, thats how we spent all our childhood together in Finland. But since we were way better at falling from our skateboard than doing actually a trick, we started liking the stunts that go bad more. We noticed that people like them a lot more so thats where we started sticking. Also we always wanted to be a rock band but none of us can play so we started headbanging on the wall.
DRE: Did you get your stunts out there with videotaping them?
JH: Yeah, thats the youth culture we live in so we made skateboarding and snowboarding videos and after that we started filming parties that we had. Then we started showing the videos at parties. My friends enjoyed watching those and our first movie came out around 1995 and in 2000, Jarno got an idea. He was working on a cable channel in Finland called Moon TV and he got an idea that hey guys, we should make a TV show out of this. So we put together a pilot and all of a sudden it was the most popular show on that cable channel and then Channel 4 from Finland got interested. That took it to the next level.
DRE: Whats the worst youve ever hurt yourself?
JH: I still see nightmares about the testicle mousetrap.
DRE: Thats horrible.
JH: Yeah, it is. I dont know why I did it but I every night I wake up shaking and cold sweat, seeing nightmares about the mousetrap chasing me. So that is the worst injury.
DRE: Ive interviewed Steve-O and he does a lot of cocaine. I think thats what helps him a little bit, do you guys do anything like that?
JH: No. The Dudesons dont smoke, dont drink, dont do drugs. We decided that we get hurt enough when we are sober so we wont do drugs. We come from Finland and during wintertime its so cold that you have to do something to get warm. Then during the summertime, the sun never really sets, so you just go crazy because you dont know when to go to bed.
DRE: The guys in Jackass had a budget to build their crazy shit. Where do you get all the cars and all the props?
JH: We get a great idea and we go with the idea. We get a car that runs and we tune it up a little bit. We dont go and buy expensive Ferrari and do a stunt with that because we always want to do it Dudeson style. Since we dont have as much money as they do we always come up with a great idea and we do it with the idea. Someone with a lot of money might have an idea to blow something big up but you wouldnt have that much of an idea behind it.
DRE: What was the first stunt you guys ever did?
JH: One of the first stunts was probably when we filmed Fireworks War. That was way back in the day during the New Years Eve. We had a big pile of roman candles and we were shooting each other with them. A couple of the bullets caught my hair on fire so that was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful thing because there were so many colors around because the sun was getting down a little bit.
DRE: Do you have girlfriends?
JH: We have lovely women in Finland and we have a pet pig, Britney.
DRE: You guys must be really popular with the girls.
JH: People know The Dudesons. They know theyre crazy and theyre excited about how we live at the Arctic Circle at the ranch, we live by our own rules and just do crazy things. For example, in Finland weve done live shows for over about 30,000 people with a rock band playing in the background. Wed do stunts like blindfolded boxing or shooting a shotgun into a bulletproof vest, things like that.
DRE: What about your parents?
JH: Theyre the biggest fans of The Dudesons. At the end of the day, I dont they can really blame us because theyre the ones that gave us the genes.
DRE: When Jackass started, it was accused of stealing stuff from skateboard videos. What did you guys think when you first saw Jackass?
JH: First of all, Jackass is a great show. Were great friends with Steve-O and he and Bam [Margera] guest star on our DVD so its great to have their support and we love the things that theyre doing. We are always come up with original ideas and with The Dudesons its more about just the lifestyle that we live, all the stunts, all the pranks, all the hidden cameras just go along with it. That way its taken to the next level because people actually get interested in our life. Like How the fuck does this guys survive a day when they go to the ranch and they wake up and somebodys hitting their balls with a baseball bat and at the end of the day they burn down the ranch and during the day maybe two cars got blown up?
DRE: How did your stuff get all over the world in the first place?
JH: There were bootleg tapes all over the world. Jarno is the one thats always filming and editing. He showed the tapes to a friend and then he was working at a cable channel and decided that hey guys, lets make a show out of this lifestyle that we have and about The Dudesons. Then after doing five years of TV in Finland, we decided that we would do an international thing. We had visited Viva La Bam a couple of times so we looked for people to distribute our DVD.
DRE: You guys have a new show thats going to come on Spike TV in America. Will that be all new stuff?
JH: The Dudesons TV show that will be on Spike is eight half hour episodes that weve already produced in Finland. It has some new material and includes the most legendary Dudesons stunts. For example H-P breaks his leg in three different spots and we show the surgery and everything. There is how we accidentally burnt our house down. But The Dudesons DVD is the original Dudesons movie that has all the most hardcore things in it and is everything that we cant show on television in the US.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy The Dudesons Movie
Daniel Robert Epstein: Where are you today?
Jukka Hildn: Enjoying myself since I got my ass out of Finland freezing. Im under the Californian sun, so Im slowly bit by bit getting out of the frozen mode.
DRE: Are you going back to Finland soon?
JH: I havent decided yet. Well be here for a little bit.
DRE: This DVD is the first Ive ever heard of you guys, how did you get together?
JH: We met in elementary school so our families just grew up together so I guess thats when the downhill started. Thats when we decided that we are like brothers so lets put our stupid heads together and start coming up with these crazy things. Since then you havent really been able to take us apart. Were more like family.
DRE: Did it start with skateboarding?
JH: Yeah, thats how we spent all our childhood together in Finland. But since we were way better at falling from our skateboard than doing actually a trick, we started liking the stunts that go bad more. We noticed that people like them a lot more so thats where we started sticking. Also we always wanted to be a rock band but none of us can play so we started headbanging on the wall.
DRE: Did you get your stunts out there with videotaping them?
JH: Yeah, thats the youth culture we live in so we made skateboarding and snowboarding videos and after that we started filming parties that we had. Then we started showing the videos at parties. My friends enjoyed watching those and our first movie came out around 1995 and in 2000, Jarno got an idea. He was working on a cable channel in Finland called Moon TV and he got an idea that hey guys, we should make a TV show out of this. So we put together a pilot and all of a sudden it was the most popular show on that cable channel and then Channel 4 from Finland got interested. That took it to the next level.
DRE: Whats the worst youve ever hurt yourself?
JH: I still see nightmares about the testicle mousetrap.
DRE: Thats horrible.
JH: Yeah, it is. I dont know why I did it but I every night I wake up shaking and cold sweat, seeing nightmares about the mousetrap chasing me. So that is the worst injury.
DRE: Ive interviewed Steve-O and he does a lot of cocaine. I think thats what helps him a little bit, do you guys do anything like that?
JH: No. The Dudesons dont smoke, dont drink, dont do drugs. We decided that we get hurt enough when we are sober so we wont do drugs. We come from Finland and during wintertime its so cold that you have to do something to get warm. Then during the summertime, the sun never really sets, so you just go crazy because you dont know when to go to bed.
DRE: The guys in Jackass had a budget to build their crazy shit. Where do you get all the cars and all the props?
JH: We get a great idea and we go with the idea. We get a car that runs and we tune it up a little bit. We dont go and buy expensive Ferrari and do a stunt with that because we always want to do it Dudeson style. Since we dont have as much money as they do we always come up with a great idea and we do it with the idea. Someone with a lot of money might have an idea to blow something big up but you wouldnt have that much of an idea behind it.
DRE: What was the first stunt you guys ever did?
JH: One of the first stunts was probably when we filmed Fireworks War. That was way back in the day during the New Years Eve. We had a big pile of roman candles and we were shooting each other with them. A couple of the bullets caught my hair on fire so that was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful thing because there were so many colors around because the sun was getting down a little bit.
DRE: Do you have girlfriends?
JH: We have lovely women in Finland and we have a pet pig, Britney.
DRE: You guys must be really popular with the girls.
JH: People know The Dudesons. They know theyre crazy and theyre excited about how we live at the Arctic Circle at the ranch, we live by our own rules and just do crazy things. For example, in Finland weve done live shows for over about 30,000 people with a rock band playing in the background. Wed do stunts like blindfolded boxing or shooting a shotgun into a bulletproof vest, things like that.
DRE: What about your parents?
JH: Theyre the biggest fans of The Dudesons. At the end of the day, I dont they can really blame us because theyre the ones that gave us the genes.
DRE: When Jackass started, it was accused of stealing stuff from skateboard videos. What did you guys think when you first saw Jackass?
JH: First of all, Jackass is a great show. Were great friends with Steve-O and he and Bam [Margera] guest star on our DVD so its great to have their support and we love the things that theyre doing. We are always come up with original ideas and with The Dudesons its more about just the lifestyle that we live, all the stunts, all the pranks, all the hidden cameras just go along with it. That way its taken to the next level because people actually get interested in our life. Like How the fuck does this guys survive a day when they go to the ranch and they wake up and somebodys hitting their balls with a baseball bat and at the end of the day they burn down the ranch and during the day maybe two cars got blown up?
DRE: How did your stuff get all over the world in the first place?
JH: There were bootleg tapes all over the world. Jarno is the one thats always filming and editing. He showed the tapes to a friend and then he was working at a cable channel and decided that hey guys, lets make a show out of this lifestyle that we have and about The Dudesons. Then after doing five years of TV in Finland, we decided that we would do an international thing. We had visited Viva La Bam a couple of times so we looked for people to distribute our DVD.
DRE: You guys have a new show thats going to come on Spike TV in America. Will that be all new stuff?
JH: The Dudesons TV show that will be on Spike is eight half hour episodes that weve already produced in Finland. It has some new material and includes the most legendary Dudesons stunts. For example H-P breaks his leg in three different spots and we show the surgery and everything. There is how we accidentally burnt our house down. But The Dudesons DVD is the original Dudesons movie that has all the most hardcore things in it and is everything that we cant show on television in the US.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Hahahaha!
I love anything to do with Jackass, Viva La Bam, Wild Boyz... When I saw The Dudeson's on Viva La Bam, I was just waiting politely for them to show up.
They did.
But they didn't talk about Jarppi!
Awesome interview.
More more more more about people of this nature! My lifestyle is very similar to theirs. I just wish I had cameras and shit.