"The Walrus" w/ Finland's King Of Comedy  

Ismo deserves more recognition , Netflix special for example. One of the funniest and most intelligent comedians around. Love his clumsy delivery. How do you recognise the extrovert Fin in a group? He’s the one looking at someone else hoe shoes

In like 2013, when Ismo was a rising star, not knowing him, I happened to see his live show in a bar in Helsinki. He was so funny 😆 and I still remember his jokes… “So my girlfriend’s dad asked me. Are you asking for my daughter’s hand? Ismo: We’ll I was mainly looking for pu….y but the hand will do the job.” 😂😂

Finnish humor: How would you like to die? - In a sleep like my father, not screaming like his passengers.

I'm swede and discovered Ismo a couple of month ago. He's the best love watching him.

I expected Ismo to be a pleasure but I didn't know Lucie. She proved to be more than a good interviewer: she's an overall great conversationalist!

This happened during the great Finnish winter war. Pekka had done great things and would be allowed to go home for a few days. To get home he went skiing for three days. When he got back, Toivonen asked what he did when he got home. - First I took my wife, answered Pekka. - But then, Pekka, what did you do then? Toivonen asked. - Then I took my wife once more. - But after you finished with your wife, what did you then do, Pekka? - Yes, then I took off my skis.

Ismo, I just discovered you last night and watched more then 20 youtube videos from your shows. Must be great to know that you bring people to laugh at so different points of the world. Great jokes and very nice personality. Best wish from Istanbul. Lucie tolles Gespraech, danke auch dir.

I came here for Ismo but the host was a delight.

Saw Ismo live in SLC. Can confirm, there was about 10 Finnish people wanting to meet with him afterwards.

_Puliukko_ comes from French _politure,_ a varnish which was made by dissolving shellac to alcohol. It was used by alcoholics as an ersatz for taxed alcohol by trying to filter shellac out of the concoction in bygone days.

Such a great interview! Loved it! An intelligent interviewer who has done her prep work for her questions.

Most delightful interviewer in RU-vid. Thank you Lucie. I watched the whole clip. I've watched never before this long clips from start to finish.

It was deep in the Finnish forests and Pekka and Toivonen often had time to play cards and drink a lot of strong drinks. One evening when they were sitting there, a fly came flying into the room. Toivonen drew the knife and quickly faltered in the air and the fly fell in two pieces. . After a little while, another fly came flying. Then Pekka took the knife and fended into the air, but the fly flew on. . - "Ah, we see, you Pekka, you are starting to get old", said Toivonen. "Oh no you, that fly doesn't make more children"

Never in my life would I have imagined a conversation between Mercy and Ismo. Torille!

One of the funniest things i listened to this year. Had to listen to it again. Great interview!

Only 2.9k subscribers? OMG! Lucie, you did great! The best interviewer in a long time!

Regarding the movie names conversation: the Finnish name for Shawshank Redemption is "Rita Hayworth: the key to the escape".

She deserves Jimmy Fallon's audience numbers: her contagious positive energy is what Fallon tries to be, but genuine. Really keeps the audience engaged in the conversation.

You are absolutely brilliant for having him on your show! 👏👏👏

Oh so lovely German lady💗 Now Ismo just grab some one like her!!

What a great interview, and Ismo one of my favorite comedians. Thank you!

Lucie, this was the first post of yours for me. You are great, keep it up! /Sweden

In Sweden we also sometime refer to the penis as a sledgehammer, "Slägga". Must be a swedish borrow word in Finland... Love you Ismo! ❤

Lucie, I was simply stunned and flabergastered by your podcast interviewing ISMO.......... 😄 You did such a downright f a n t a s t i c job, believe me...... ! I am sure n o b o d y could have done this better than you !!!! My name is Peter, I was born in NYC and my parents took me and my brother back to Germany in 1965 when I was about 12 years old...... They both had been born in Berlin and emigrated to the USA in 1949. Since 1965, I've been living in different parts of Germany up to now..... Just as you were saying, ISMO simply floors me !!!! Every time I'm listening to him I first chuckle...... and then I burst out laughing because his semantic gags are such a great combination of intelligence, slapstick comedy and goodwill, never offending anybody ! The way he designs his ideas and blends them all into his semantic gags, dissecting similarities and even big differences between words and expressions in English and Finnish is simply a w e s o m e to me !!!! And Lucie Pohl, you even topped it all adding what you would say in German in similar situations like "having tomatoes on your eyes"....... "Du hast wohl Tomaten auf den Augen !" - - - you're so right ! 😂 I also loved to hear you mentioning favorite Finnish proverbs you had looked up up...... ! What a nice gesture to apprecreciate your guest ISMO !!!! I will definitely be following you both wherever I can find you, tat's for sure ! 🤗

Only problem is this was too short. Needs part. 2! 🤘🔥🇫🇮

Norwegians have many jokes about Pekka, a Finnish man, and he can be in many situations. When he went home after the Winterwar, he knocked on the door at home, and said, can you guess what I'm knocking with.

52:00 David Hasselhoff actually hosted his own TV show in Finland

I was supposed to watch this for a few minutes, but I ended up watching the whole show :D It's always funny to see reactions to finnish language

17:15 for Hungarian language I have to say, that often in Hungary, when I have heard local people talking from a distance or behind a wall or something like that, it sounds like they are talking Finnish - but once you hear it better, it's completely different. As Ismo said, the words are not same at all, but somehow the way they speak is really similar to Finnish.

Star Wars -> Tähtien sota = The War of the Stars 🤔 Jingle All the Way -> Isäni on turbomies = My dad is the Turbo-Man 😭

I love Ismo-the first time I saw him, my Finnish Colleague told me “Yeah, I know that guy.” Every bit I have seen is brilliant. Ms. Pohl-this is my first time seeing you. I love your positive energy! Well Done!

This came up in my recommended videos and I got curious to see what our funniest export Ismo was up at the moment, turned out to be a brilliant interview with a brilliant interviewer! Absolutely loved it! Read some comments and have to also say that we need more and you have to have him back! Greetings from the dark, sarcastic and dry north where we love our German police series ;)

Kiitos tuhannesti, mahtava keskustelu! 🥰 Great discussion. I love Ismo L., in both languages! Jyväskylä literally means "grain village" -- and as Ismo said it's a big place, way bigger than a village. Word-final is fairly common in Finnish place names. It's really cool to hear people talk so specifically and thoughtfully about languages (I'm a bilingual philology graduate from Finland). So many great observations and hilarious takes! I love it, thanks again, onnea matkaan!

Funny guy. Great interview.

For once I listened through an entire podcast episode

In the beginning they joke about Jyväskylä sounding something "vascular". Later I had the captions turned on and Ismo's "Jyväskylä" was translated "vascular".

Nice discussion. Even more when you understand all 3 languages 😄

This was so much fun thank you both - greetings from München

Thank you, kiitos, Danke Schön! This was a fun interview!

This is "lit" and "fire" and "funny and uplifting"!

So funny, informative and fascinating. I love the energy this podcast brought and how you interacted and discussed. I could probably watch this a dozen times. Thank you both ^-^

.Kokoo koko kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon. A perfect example of finnish comedy and the uniqueness of our language.

Love Ismo:). Funny without an effort.

During the great Finnish Winter War, the fighting came to a standstill on the Karelska Näset. It got a bit boring in the Finnish trenches, so one day Pekka asked his lieutenant what was the most common name for a Russian soldier. - It must be Ivan, answered the lieutenant. Pekka put his rifle in position on the edge of the trench and shouted over to the Russians: - IVAN! "HERE", replied a Russian and poked his head over the edge, whereupon Pekka pulled away and shot the Russian. This was repeated several times, until the Russians understood what the Finns had in mind. A Russian soldier wanted revenge, so he asked his Russian lieutenant what was the most common name for a Finn? - It's Pekka, answered the lieutenant. Ivan put his rifle on the edge of the trench and shouted over to the Finns: - PEKKA! Pekka heard it, thought quickly and shouted back: - Isn't it you, Ivan? - Yes, he replied and stuck his head out of the trench, thus Pekka pulled away and shot another Russian.

Ismo goes where no other comedian has ever gone.

Ismo is great! Lucie is great! First time hearing about her channel. Both very friendly and the interview just flows like a natural convo. Awesome! Also moving to Finland kthxbye Canada sucks.

That was fun! learned lots of random, but very interesting things about Finland and Germany!

Puli to puliukko comes from pulituuri, which is varnish used to coat furniture and stuff. So alcoholics in Finland used to differentiate alcohol from the pulituuri coating mix to get drunk cheaper or if booze/vodka not available.

"Pea soup Thursday" is also well ingrained in Swedish culture. The soup is usually succeeded by oven baked pancakes and sometimes "Punch" (an arrarac spiced schnapps).

I love Ismo, both of my grandparents on my dad's side are from Vaasa Finland, there accents were so strong to was hard as a kid to understand them.

45:15 I think they are referring to "kiviäkin kiinnostaa" which has about the meaning "Oh, tell [us] more because even the stones are trembling in suspense to hear your message" (and literal translation would be "even stones are interested"). I think it was supposed to be originally interpreted as a slur. It's a pretty old expression and it's used mostly in sarcastic style nowadays.

Regarding the difficult to translate funny Finnish humour: One of Ismos first gigs I saw in Finnish included a language bit. "segue" in Finnish is called "A donkey's bridge", where you change to another subject that is only a little similar to the one originally talked about. Ismo had a built in poorly made segway in his show and he elevated it by saying "Well that was a poor bridge, even the donkey drowned". Really hard to translate without knowing the etymology behind it.

Yummy Sledgehammer!!! Such an intelligent and interesting and funny interview, thanks.

I love how she says "I'M SO EXCITED"....because Ismo does a full standup routine on the overuse of that very same phrase!

Molotov was USSR's foreign affairs minister.

Another lively, and entertaining episode keep up the great work!!

In Finland we do a coffee shop brand "Robert's Coffee" by one of our coffee companies Paulig, which has branches at least in the bigger cities, including one in the Helsinki Train Station.

In Germany we don't say "komisch liegendes Tischhähnchen" as one word, we wouldn't even say "Tischhähnchen", except there would be a chicken that looks like a table or it would be very common to have a chicken on the table. It would be common to say "da liegt ein komisches/seltsames Hähnchen auf dem Tisch".

Really enjoyed this interview. I experienced similar frustration upon returning to Toronto Canada after 5 years in Europe. The ladies were so beyond reach. European women are awesome!

That Stones are even interested is really common phrase. That ~Kiviäkin kiinnostaa~ its means like if someone is telling you really useles fact or boring story you say that. I'm really surprised how Ismo doesn't know it, or maybe it's because it's a little more common in the colloquial language of the youth.

Every Finn commenting on this video - please drop a joke - the few I red are absolute gems!!! And yes, a really good interview - that’s how you take one!! Compliments, Lucie, so natural and so flowing - and you have a true skill of complementing and adding to the whole story without making the whole thing about yourself like too many insecure commentators do 😊

I came here because of Ismo. But Whoever this interviewer is she’s a great interviewer. Her questions are great, she doesn’t interrupt. I think it’s because she’s genuinely curious. She did her research. She’s just all around a great interviewer.

You know how to say sauna!!! 👍🏽 My mom is from Finland 🇫🇮 Love Ismo!!!

Very good flowing funny interview. Also loved the cultural exchange of Germany and Finland.

I love Ismo and this was a great pod! Thank you!

great interview - really enjoyed it - fantastic content - well done guys.

this was a enjoyable interview. Thank you!

Absolutely wonderfun interview, interviewer, and interviewee! Great job!

Ismo is getting me Lucie to know.And my first impression of Lucie is great it's awesome she has so much energy I can't believe it

When the war on the Karelska Näset raged, both Pekka and his brother were soldiers in Mannerheim's infantry. When the war ended, Pekka's brother emigrated to America. 25 years later, his brother, Juhanni, sent a letter to Pekka and said he would come home for a visit. Pekka prepared the sauna and drove large quantities of "spirit" to a log cabin he had in the yard. When the brother arrived, they first went to the sauna. Afterwards they went to the cabin where they made a good fire in the fireplace and began to drink. When they had been drinking for nearly six weeks, Juhanni said: - How is our old mother? Pekka replied: - Pärrkäle! Did you get home for drinking or talking shit?

Javelin thrower Seppo Räty didn't make it to the final in the Stuttgart 1993 World Championships and gave some comment about Germany which stuck. I found out that even my neighbor's German husband knows it. I heard the pea soup thing has something to do with pea being Thor's plant and Thursday being Thor's day. Also in Catholicism Friday used to be the day of fasting so they ate something filling (pea soup) on Thursdays- The pancake tradition possibly originates to Germany, where Finnish Jägers were trained during the First World War. The Finns made friends with the local miller and got treated pancakes.

For me the biggest shock when visited LA was the air. When you come out the airport, eyes started to sting and i startes to coff, i thought like how the hell can you people breath in here... the pollution was crazy. It took almost a week to get somewhat use to it.

Mahtava podcast, kiitos Izmo, äh, Ismo. Danke Lucie, cool, dass Du Ismo zu Gast hattest. LG aus Helsinki

Hey, Ismo Maybe you’re too young to remember but H Pedro Hietanen, (M A Numminen’s excellent multi instrumentalist) was sporting the most beautiful walrus mustache I have ever seen. The pair brought both style and inventive music to the Nordic countries. McOrd

Ismo and Mercy, I never expected that duo.

"We can learn so much from Finland" after discussing about the word Puliukko was gold.

"Language!" is, of course, a shorter form of it's original form which is: "Watch your language!". I think that phrases has a tendency to happen in every language by the time. Things get simpler but the danger is that the original meaning changes or even reverses. A good example of that is a phrase: "Blood is thicker than water" which today (seems to) mean that the familiy relationships (bloodline) are the most important or stronger form of relationships. The original meaning, however, was quite the opposite as it used to mean that blood oath is the strongest form of a relationship. The original form of the phrase was: "Blood is thicker than water of the womb". The other kind of a similar phrase is the hair of the dog. Even though the original form, which is: "The hair of the dog that bite me yesterday" has nothing to do with hang over, it at least adds some logic to the shortened form.

Both of them are great!

Entertaining and engaging, thanks :)

Really good podcast. I really enjoyed the content. Great work Lucy and Ismo, what a good interview. I love your comedy. ❤️

wow you actually had him as a quest!! seen couple of your videos but this is so unexpected but welcome!!!!!

Funny, she seems to have no idea that people used to beat carpets before vacuum cleaners. Surely, I'm not that old.

Great interview ❤

Probably this is why the Winter War is so popular with the Americans, because they must've heard of Simo Häyhä : "Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname, The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper in World War II during the 1939-1940 Winter War against the Soviet Union." He didn't even use a scope on his rifle, and over the course of his career he accumulated 500+ soviet kills. This raises a lot of eyebrows especially in a country with a famous gun culture, no wonder a lot of Americans know about the Winter War.

I would gladly instigate a conversation with Ismo if I was seated with him on that flight. I hate the Facebook algorithms, but the feed of video shorts, Reels, understands that Ismo videos are the best thing to present to me first.

Oh man... I thought of this one saying after Ismo talked about "Well Go" (Tervemenoa). There's this saying "Milloinkohan vieraat olisivat kotona, jos nyt lähtisivät?" which translates to "I wonder when the guests would be home if they left now." It's an especially mean way of suggesting that your guests go home. Only context I've heard it in is a sort of bad mean joke made by my late grandpa.

This is great!! I learned about the Finnish and German languages and how people from those countries weave an idea in one sentence...3 pages in German for one sentence or idea. Amazing!!

i hope ismo comes to Linz, Austria. i work at a small culture club sometimes (volunteering). would be great if he could come by if he has time. we have good beer as well.

Funny, smart and cute as hell!:D

I don't think he lives in the US, but you should consider inviting Henning Wehn on the show. He's a German comedian (that rarest of birds) who does a ton of shows in the UK, so I reckon he'd have a lot to say on the podcast

that sledgehammer section was so fun one :D oh god

Such a great show! Go Finland! I'm 100% sure Ismo knows the phrase "Kiviäkin kiinnostaa - Even rocks are interested", its a common phrase in finnish. It means that the fact is so interesting that even rocks finds it interesting :)

Man... listening Ismo's voice talking there now I just realized how he sounds like Robin Williams but way slower paced and with a Finnish accent...

Ismo definitely deserve more recognition

"Even the stones aren't interested" means "Kiviäkin kiinnostaa", in other words it means "not interesting at all". I deeply wonder how Ismo did not know that.

To say that Finish people have a dark sense of humor is really an understatement to most of other cultures. It's so laconic and to other people probably even morbid. No member of any other nationality can describe a suicide quite as casually as a Finn.

Greetings from Finland! 🥶

Über den grossartigen Ismo, den ich erst gerade gestern entdeckt habe, nun diesen Kanal gefunden. Tolles Interview. 35:00 same in the Swiss Army, It was great when the Officers forgot your name

Puliukko comes from Swedish word Polityr=pulituuri, something bums drank because it was cheaper than alcohol. It was used for polishing and cleaning. Sometimes they used white bread (ranskanleipä) to filter it through.

Yellow split-pea soup is eaten (often) on Thursdays throughout the former Swedish region. This includes Finland.