How didn't I remember to mention this when you asked for satirical political comedy. This was one of my favourite shows as a kid. During this era I thought politicians were actually cool, because of this show. You'd never think this Sauli Niinistö is the president until recently.

For Finnish people with nostalgy for this series and curious foreigner, this whole series is now in Yle Areena streaming service (free, but not sure if geo limits).

This show was my childhood. Honestly it cleverly teaches you different politicians and the humor each character has is tied to somehow to real life politician but turned to extreme. When it aired episodes were most of the time related to some recent political discussions so in a sense it was quite relevant and funny way to keep up with politics.

Those characters were Finnish president Tarja Halonen (woman with glasses) prime minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki (woman without glasses) foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja (bearded man) and speaker of the Finnish parliament Paavo Lipponen, of that time. Episode was made to compete in international TV Festival in Montreaux (hence it's in English) The Autocrats (or Itse Valtiaat as we Finns called it) aired from April 2001 to January 2008 for 233 episodes. The serie parodied some of our then parliament members and president of that era. They also made specials or I should say Musicals in Finnish in those most of the songs were popular Finnish songs with new lyrics. I used to be so sad when they stopped making the serie. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autocrats

I was aware of it and even watched a few episodes, but I haven't watched much TV since the 90s. Note that the name of the show is a bit punny with a double meaning. Itsevaltiaat would mean "The Autocrats", but Itse valtiaat means "The rulers themselves" if taken literally.

I remember one episode where the Finnish MP:s get stranded on a deserted island and start finding ways to survive, each representing their political views and of course it's a complete mess. Excellent satire!

Back in the day, this was extremely popular in Finland. It's also the way lot of us in this age group actually knew the "top names" in politics. It's very no holds barred type of show, taking hits at every party, broadcasted by the Finnish equivalent of BBC. Starting with our chain smoking former president Sauli Niinistö right wing party leader to the Green party leader being represented as a literal potato. I agree that this episode is very much catered to foreign audience and not as "good", but also the older ones are harder to follow without knowledge of people and politics of the time. The whole series is available on Yle Areena, so someone can likely get it to you as needed. It also has some banger songs made both for the TV show and short movies, similar to the one feature in these episodes. The name is a bit of double pun in Finnish

A political satire series made in 2001-2008, the characters of which are mainly Finnish politicians, mainly MPs and ministers. Tarja Halonen was the president of Finland from 2000-2012 and Pentti Arajärvi is Halonen's husband. Other figures include Paavo Lipponen, who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Anneli Jäätteenmäki, the first female Prime Minister of Finland, whose prime ministerial career was cut short by 69 days when it was discovered that Anneli had leaked classified information about Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen and American President George W. W. Bush's negotiations on the Iraq war.

0:49 Ben Zyskowicz 0:50 Suvi-Anne Siimes 0:51 (Left) Seppo Kääriäinen 0:51 (Right) Mauri Pekkarinen 0:54 Pentti Arajärvi and Tarja Halonen 0:58 Ville Itälä 1:01 (Left) Sauli Niinistö and Paavo Lipponen 3:06 Paavo Lipponen 3:10 Anneli Jäätteenmäki 4:13 Erkki Tuomioja 5:59 Tarja Halonen

Eurovision song "Chingalingingaling" or what ever was banned in Russia..

I loved the show as a kid. I was a bit too young to really understand the satire, but it was fun to watch nevertheless. Also my older cousin used to like it, so I thought it was cool to watch it 😅 I would love to see something like this now that I actually understand something about politics.

If I remember correctly, the regular episodes weren't as silly as this was. They were usually set in the parlament house, and their antics were somewhat realistic, and they even took some of the real life politics in the show (which they of course made fun of).

I absolutely love this show. Back in the day I tried to imitate these characters and found I actually have tallent for imitating voices since I managed to recognizably dublicate all characters from this show just naturally.

This was a show I watched actively, even though I was not a fan of politics. It was the crazy antics that characters would get themselves into, that made it fun to watch. Sometimes it took jabs at real life political events going on Finland, but it would also make it's own standalone episodes that have no relevance to current events.

I am glad that you took my recommendation into account :D

These days they wouldn't take Putin's word at face value.

Essentially more or less the Finnish Spitting Image equivalent

14:10 This plan sounds suspiciously close to what Trump could have come up with xD I never watched this when it came out, but it seems a bit higher quality than I thought at the time, but still not quite my cup of tea. The impersonations of those Finnish politicians are absolutely spot on however

Finnish politician Ville Itälä blamed that this show ruined his whole political career. Cause he was represented wimpy minion of Sauli Niinistö. Maybe he was. Niinistö became president later. Ville Itälä, who knows and who cares?

Lenin Museum in Tampere has been a popular sight for Russian tourists over the years: "Miksi Tampereella on Lenin-museo?". Also: "Lenin arrives in Finland Station". Here's Putin on a summer holiday trip in Finland in the early 90s around the time of Soviet Union's collapse: "Young' Putin in Finland playing Ping Pong. Table tennis by the other name". Finland had parliamentary election in March 16, 2003. The episode is from May 17, 2003, so there's president Halonen, who called Putin as her friend in 2011. Then there's prime minister Jätteenmäki, who had to resign in June 18, 2003 due the 'Irak-gate'. She had been leaked some classified information by president's adviser regarding Lipponen's (prime minister before the election) trip to Washington and Finland's possible role in Iraq's reconstruction. Jätteenmäki used that information against Lipponen during the election. Later she denied having gotten any leaked information, and at some point told that she told the truth in the matter to her best abilities. Lipponen was later on (2008-2022) a lobbyist for Nord Stream gas pipeline. Tuomioja was the minister for foreign affairs at the time. In those 2003 elections, one of the governing parties currently, Perussuomalaiset (True Finns at the time), got 1,6 % of the votes. Their candidate, late Tony Halme, got fifth most votes in the election: "VIIKINKI - elokuvan virallinen traileri". He also appeared in Die Hard 3: "Die Hard 3 Tony Halme". I assume the 'Ihmisten puolue' (People's Party) show, which couple episodes you've watched, had something to do with the True Finns entering politics. And here's how Finland might have solved the nuclear waste storing problem: "Finland Might Have Solved Nuclear Power’s Biggest Problem".

I remember this from childhood in the 90's. Though the ones I've seen had Ahtisaari, not yet Halonen as a president so they were older than this.

You know Nightwish, a big Finnish band, But there are others...just wait a mo...

Lets be friends all ❤. Love that song in the end 😂. Hello from finland. Someone send this video to Putin. 😊

KIITOS! 😂😂😂

Did not watced at the time, but wow, suprised now

it's a shame we will never get political satire like this again even with the problems it may have caused

I can't watch these anymore as all of those politicians are gone except Ben Zyskowicz.

Honestly this episode wasn't the greatest. It was quite nonsensical, but I guess it showed the animation style well. The shows best moments were when it satirized finnish politics but obviously those episodes can be hard to understand for non natives.

Mankeli - suomalainen mies

Why not send them to the sun?

Have you heard Metallica's Sad but True song? You might have - but not like this :D

Not political satire this...next one, you gonna like it :)

This is poor satire, really.

Not a very good show…