Spede Pasanen

Pertti Olavi Pasanen was born on 10 April 1930 in Kuopio, His father was a forestry technician and worked as the district chief of the paper company Ahlström. Other children in the family included Pertti's little sister Virpi and little brother Risto. Pasanen's family lived in the Linnanpelto district. By Kuopio standards, the family was of upper middle class. The nickname "Spede" comes from an earlier nickname "Speedy" which he got from playing ice hockey, and was given to him at an early age. The nickname "Speedy" came from the fictional mouse character Speedy Gonzales, the hero of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Pasanen's interests at school age included entertainment, sports, various games and inventions. He was the star of the Kuopio Lyceum's evening programs, played ice hockey with passion and performed chemical experiments in his home's basement. However, he did badly at school. In spring 1948 he got a report card with five 4 grades (failing grade in the Finnish school system) and stayed behind in his class after spending most of the spring by building a custom scooter from parts he had found from junk shops. After Pertti Pasanen had ended up in arguments with most of his teachers, his parents sent him to another school. In autumn 1950 Spede Pasanen moved to the Iisalmi lyceum, from where he matriculated in the Olympic spring of 1952. He spent the next year doing his military service and completed it with the rank of Sub-lieutenant in the anti-aircraft branch. In the military he also performed in the entertainment parade of the defence forces, which circulated between barracks entertaining soldiers. In autumn 1953 Pasanen moved to Helsinki and started his studies at the Faculty of State Politics at the University of Helsinki. Instead of studying, he concentrated on social life at the Nation of Savonia, where he usually acted as host and master of ceremonies at parties. Pasanen's student indoctrinations and initiations of new students gained fame throughout the university. In the university he also met Jukka Virtanen and Matti Kuusla who became important partners for him. Kuusla, working at Fennada-Filmi as a studio assistant got him a background role in the 1954 film Laivan kannella. He appeared in the film as a man at a bar. ==Career==

Radio career During the late 1950s and early 1960s Spede was a noted presence as a radio comedian. He applied to work at Yleisradio twice in 1956 and again in 1959 as an entertainment provider (ajanvietetoimittaja). On the first try Aune Ala-Tuuhonen, a secretary of the entertainment board and an experienced entertainment scriptwriter, was hired instead of Pasanen. Pasanen applied again in 1959 when the popular Niilo Tarvajärvi moved over to television. Pasanen sent another application which was almost completely identical to his first one, and attached a note "my folder is already there". This time he was hired. The radio started becoming cramped for Pasanen in the middle 1960s. He was making more and more of his own entertainment gigs and got into a dispute about his salary with the management board of Yleisradio. This dispute was the main reason why Pasanen quit his job at the radio in 1964 and instead moved wholly to film and television production. (with Spede's own Leikkikalugangsteri and Jörn Donner's Sixtynine 69), Pasanen did not produce another colour feature until the late 1970s. Jukka Virtanen left the company after Näköradiomies but Ere Kokkonen became Pasanen's closest business partner for the whole of his film career. At the same time Pasanen also found two men who became his trusted actors in both film and television: Simo Salminen who had already played a part in X-Paroni and Vesa-Matti Loiri whose debut was in About Seven Brothers. Spede continued to experience success with Speedy Gonzales – noin 7 veljeksen poika and the tragic comedy Jussi Pussi both released in 1970. Speedy Gonzales performed well, despite Vesa-Matti Loiri being absent due to a leg injury just prior to shooting (he instead received a writing credit). Spede had to finance most of his films during this period due to his poor relations with the Finnish Film Foundation. Jussi Pussi was written and directed by Kokkonen, while Pasanen was responsible for the production but did not appear in the film and was not interested in the plot. The film is completely unlike Pasanen's previous films, as it is more romantic and melancholic than Pasanen's earlier screwball comedies. The film is about the great love between two penniless students during the political and sexual student radicalism of its time. The film gathered about 167 thousand viewers, which was enough to cover the production costs. The film was a financial success and made a profit of 45 thousand markka. Pasanen started planning a new colour film and to his surprise, he got a loan of 75 thousand markka from the Finnish Film Foundation. In the end, this film was left unfilmed, and another film that Pasanen had in mind was also left at planning stage. Pasanen ended up using the loan to cover the losses caused by Hirttämättömät. TV career , composer Jaakko Salo and Spede Pasanen Pasanen's television career started from visits in commercials for lottery tickets and beer, which brought out his talents as a comedian. However, the director of the advertisement studio that had filmed the commercials featuring him announced he could not stand the "Spede style", so Pasanen made a suggestion to Mainostelevisio to make a program all of his own. Starting from 1964, Pasanen began making live 15-minute sketch programming for Yleisradio produced by Mainos-TV, in addition to his film career. The first of these shows was called Spede Show (1964), followed by Speden Saluuna (1965), Spedevisio (1965 to 1970) and 50 pientä minuuttia (1967 to 1971). Only parts of these early Pasanen shows have survived, because MTV3 could not afford many expensive picture tapes and thus had to record new shows on top of old ones. The game sold about 2000 copies and was never published outside Finland. Although the game was made with an official licence from Spede Pasanen, Pasanen himself was not involved in the development. Games and quizzes Pasanen stopped producing Spede Show in December 1987 and instead started producing new shows about his lifelong passion: various games. Pasanen invented and designed one of the longest-lived quiz shows in the history of Finnish television, Kymppitonni, in 1984, when the pilot episodes of the show were shot. Kymppitonni was shown on MTV3 from January 1985 to November 2005, after which it has been shown on SuomiTV from 2009 to 2011. ==Influences and comedy==

Spede Pasanen named Bob Hope as one of his biggest comedy influences. Spede Pasanen is considered emblematic of Savonian ironic humor varying between the fullest extremes of understatement and hyperbole. As he himself explained: "A Savonian never tells a thing exactly like it is." Spede's comedy denounced elitism and he explicitly sought to write and perform comedy for the largest possible audience. His early films in particular, featured elements uncommon to Finnish cinema such as fist-fights, car chases, other elaborate stunt-work as well as unconventional special effects. Many of his movies also featured unconventional settings (such as the medieval period or the wild west), though his later films focused almost entirely on poking fun at Finnish stereotypes. His Uuno Turhapuro movies can be considered conventional farces. An unemployed slacker will, with comically incredible luck, a father-in-law who is rich and connected but unlucky (mainly due to Uuno), and with slick charm, end up in roles of minister, general officer, or rich man, usually causing havoc in the father-in-law's businesses. ==Other achievements==

Pasanen was also an inventor and jack-of-all-trades; he submitted dozens of patent applications, of which ten were registered, and many of his films include Rube Goldberg-style gadgets. Besides gadgets involved with industrial production, his inventions include: • The Ski jumping sling • A Boat ski (to alleviate *bumps* in aquaplaning boat) • A self-extinguishing, one-size-fits-all candlestick. For a period of time Pasanen was also obsessed with inventing a perpetual motion device. His crude drawings of it also appeared in his sketches shows and films. Once he became convinced that perpetual motion is theoretically impossible, he openly ridiculed himself in the character of Härski Hartikainen in one of the Uuno Turhapuro movies. ==Personal life==

, Kuopio during his wedding in July 1965. "Spede saved Simo when Simo was badly cheated in the restaurant business. This was the level of Pasanen's friendship: you save your buddy, even if you lose your own money." - Kari Sohlberg Family and close friends Pasanen was related to singer Kaija Koo (daughter of Pasanen's cousin) and to actor Antti Holma (son of Pasanen's second cousin). Spede Pasanen lived in the Lauttasaari district of Helsinki from 1956 up to his death in 2001. When Pasanen was starting the production of his first starring picture X-Paroni, he was looking for a suitable female actress. He visited a party of the advertisement association of Turku in March 1964 and fell in love with Pirjo Vainimäki who was selling lottery tickets there. Vainimäki got a part in Spede's first film of his own and in the next year she became Mrs. Pasanen - they were married on 14 July 1965. On 31 December 1965 the couple's daughter Pirre Päivikki was born. In the late 1970s the couple started drifting apart and Pirjo Pasanen moved to an apartment of her own in Lauttasaari. She told in an interview by Apu magazine in 1981 that their marriage was still ongoing even though she and Pertti lived at different addresses. Pirre Pasanen stayed living with her father. Already in the 1970 Pasanen disowned the magazine publisher Urpo Lahtinen, and after that Pasanen's name was never mentioned in Hymy magazine any more. In 1976 he got elected as the director of the Finnish Backgammon Society. Pasanen also took part in international backgammon tournaments in West Germany, Spain and the United States. In 1998 Mensa International awarded its annual prize to Pasanen. Pasanen has been described as having been very different in his private life than the Spede known publicly. He was quick to get angry and calm down, preferred to keep to himself and was social only with people he knew closely. Pasanen felt disgust towards alcoholic beverages and drunken people. In his youth he was a teetotaller, but later started consuming alcohol in moderation. He had a lifetime habit of smoking, which he started in 1958 when he got a role in the ballet Don Quijote. ==Death==

. Pasanen turned 70 in 2000. His circle of family and friends had already noticed his weakening condition. He had previously been sportsmanlike, but also chainsmoked cigarettes and drank about four litres of full-fat milk every day. Pasanen was aware of his weak condition, so he decided to sell off his entire entertainment empire and only concentrate on the things he felt were most important for himself: golf and new inventions. Despite advice from his friends, Pasanen refused to see a doctor. Pasanen signed the last documents about the sale of his Spede-Yhtiöt companies on the morning of 7 September 2001, mere hours before his death. Pasanen is buried at the "Artists' Hill" at the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. Legacy Spede Pasanen died very wealthy, and his daughter Pirre Alanen inherited almost the entirety of her father's wealth of about 10 million euro. Pasanen left 170 thousand euro to his ex-wife Pirjo. From 1998 to 1999, Pasanen had lent Maria Drockila a total sum of 1.85 million markka for a period of 30 years without interest. After death After Pasanen's death almost all of films have been published on DVD (and in the beginning also on VHS). The television channel MTV3 has shown Pasanen's films on television. From 2005 to 2008 almost all surviving episodes of the sketch comedy Spede Show were published on DVD. The last episode of 1987 was not published. In 2002, EMI published all surviving radio sketches of Papukaija G. Pula-aho played by Pasanen and Leo Jokela on CD (the title of the CD was Pure nenääs! ("Bite your nose")), which remained at the Finnish official list for a total of 20 weeks, of which five weeks at the top spot. The last Uuno Turhapuro film, Uuno Turhapuro – This Is My Life, was made in 2004 in memory of Pasanen. After Pasanen's death, Saija Hakola replaced him as the host of Speden Spelit, having acted as his back-up already in a few earlier episodes. A twist of fate was that the first episode of Speden Spelit after Pasanen's death was shot on 11 September 2001, when the producers had the time to see one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City collapse on live television. In Pasanen's honour, a beer named Härski & Sörsselson after Pasanen and Simo Salminen was made in 2017. The beer can shows the pictures of Pasanen's and Salminen's characters and the beer was brewed by the Saku Brewery in Estonia. Pasanen appeared as one of the characters in the board game Steampunk Rally Fusion by the Canadian game publisher Roxley Games Laboratory in spring 2020. A biographical film was made about Pasanen's life, called Spede directed by Aleksi Delikouras, based on Tuomas Marjamäki's 2017 book Spede, nimittäin and the 2021 book Uuno on numero yksi - Turhapuron koko tarina. The film stars Riku Nieminen as Spede Pasanen and it was premiered in autumn 2023. 2022 revelations In 2022, famous Finnish businesswoman and former TV host Lenita Airisto accused Pasanen of having attempted to rape her in the early 1990s. Hannele Lauri and Riitta Väisänen, who had been working closely with Pasanen for years, said they were completely surprised with Airisto's statement. The model Marita Hakala commented on the news: "I would have sufficed on my own, and I was not offered a job via the bed - except in Finland. With that, I was referring to Spede." Former MTV manager and director Jorma Sairanen also confirmed that Airisto's and Souri's allegations were not a surprise to him due to Pasanen's importance and status at the network. Sairanen had told about the matter himself in his 2017 memoirs. ==Notable collaborators==

• Ere Kokkonen • Jukka Virtanen • Simo Salminen • Vesa-Matti Loiri • Leo Jokela • Riitta Väisänen • Pentti Siimes • Olavi Ahonen • Juhani Kumpulainen • Hannele Lauri • Marita Nordberg == Criticism ==

Since the 1960s, critics were particularly harsh towards Pasanen's films. The criticism was mainly targeted towards the shallow nature of the scripts. The critics thought the films mostly seemed like sketch comedies without a supporting plot. According to Veijo Hietala, the critics missed the fact that Pasanen was carrying on the tradition of farce that had started already in the period of silent films, where the plot is only secondary and mostly serves to create a background for slapstick humour and individual comedic scenes. The criticism grew even harsher as the films themselves grew more popular. According to Ere Kokkonen, Pasanen's movies were not always reviewed fairly. Sometimes the films even received negative criticism before they had been shown in the first place. Sakari Toiviainen once wrote that he had not seen the new Spede Pasanen film yet, but it must be a bad one. Pasanen usually ignored criticism towards him, but in a way he got back to his criticisers. In 1981 he put an announcement in Helsingin Sanomat promising a reward for killing critic Mikael Fränti who had given a negative review of Uuno Turhapuron aviokriisi. == Filmography ==

Writer, director or producer • X-Paroni (directed with Jaakko Pakkasvirta, 1964) ("The X-baron") • Millipilleri (1966) ("The milli-pill") • Pähkähullu Suomi (1967) ("The nutty Finland") • Noin seitsemän veljestä (1968) ("About seven Brothers") • Näköradiomiehen ihmeelliset siekailut (1969) ("The wonderful hesitations of the television man") • Leikkikalugangsteri (1969) ("The Toy Gangster") • Pohjan tähteet (1969) ("The remains of the north") • Jussi Pussi (1970) ("Baggy John") • Speedy Gonzales – noin 7 veljeksen poika (1970) ("Speedy Gonzales - the son of about seven brothers") • Saatanan radikaalit (1971) (Producer only) ("Bloody radicals") • Kahdeksas veljes (1971) ("The Eighth Brother") • Hirttämättömät (1971) ("The unhanged") • Uuno Turhapuro (1973) ("Uuno Turhapuro") • Viu-hah hah-taja (1974) ("The streaker") • Professori Uuno D.G. Turhapuro (1975) ("Professor Uuno D.G. Turhapuro") • Lottovoittaja UKK Turhapuro (1976) ("UKK Turhapuro, the lottery winner") • Häpy Endkö? Eli kuinka Uuno Turhapuro sai niin kauniin ja rikkaan vaimon (1977) ("A happy end? Or how Uuno Turhapuro got a wife so beautiful and rich") • Rautakauppias Uuno Turhapuro, presidentin vävy (1978) ("Hardware store owner Uuno Turhapuro, the son-in-law of the president") • Koeputkiaikuinen ja Simon enkelit (1979) ("''The test-tube adult and Simo's Angels''") • Tup-akka-lakko (1980) ("Quitting smoking") • Uuno Turhapuron aviokriisi (1981) ("''Uuno Turhapuro's marriage crisis''") • Pölhölä (1981) ("Dumbsville") • Uuno Turhapuro menettää muistinsa (1982) ("Uuno Turhapuro loses his memory") • Uuno Turhapuron muisti palailee pätkittäin (1983) ("''Uuno Turhapuro's memory comes back piece by piece''") • Lentävät luupäät (1984) ("The Flying Boneheads") • Uuno Turhapuro armeijan leivissä (1984) ("Uuno Turhapuro goes to the army") • Uuno Epsanjassa (1985) (Uuno in Spain") • Kliffaa hei! (1985) ("''Hey, that's fun!''") • Uuno Turhapuro muuttaa maalle (1986) ("Uuno Turhapuro moves to the countryside") • Liian iso keikka (1986) ("A Gig Too Big") • Pikkupojat (1986) ("The little boys") • Uuno Turhapuro – kaksoisagentti (1987) ("Uuno Turhapuro - the double agent") • Fakta homma! (1987) ("''That's a fact!''") • Tupla-Uuno (1988) ("Double Uuno") • ''Onks' Viljoo näkyny? (1988) ("Have Ya Seen Viljo?''") • Rampe & Naukkis (1990) ("Rampe & Naukkis") • Uunon huikeat poikamiesvuodet maaseudulla (1990) ("''Uuno's wonderful bachelor years at the countryside''") • Uuno Turhapuro, herra Helsingin herra (1991) ("Uuno Turhapuro, the big shot in Helsinki") • Uuno Turhapuro, Suomen tasavallan herra presidentti (1992) ("Uuno Turhapuro, the President of the Republic of Finland") • Uuno Turhapuron poika (1993) ("The Son of Uuno Turhapuro") • Romanovin kivet (1993) ("The Romanov stones") • Pekko ja Poika (1994) ("Pekko and son") • Uuno Turhapuron veli (1994) ("The brother of Uuno Turhapuro") • Johtaja Uuno Turhapuro – pisnismies (1998) ("Director Uuno Turhapuro - the businessman") • Naisen logiikka (1999) ("The Logic of the Women") Actor • Laivan kannella (1954) ("On the deck of a ship") • Sankarialokas (1955) ("The recruit hero") • Säkkijärven polkka (1955) ("The polka from Säkkijärvi") • Villi Pohjola (1955) ("The Wild North") • Tyttö tuli taloon (1956) ("The girl came into the house") • Tyttö lähtee kasarmiin (1956) ("The girl goes to the army") • Rintamalotta (1956) ("The Lotta at the frontline") • Anu ja Mikko (1956) ("Anu and Mikko") • Pekka ja Pätkä ketjukolarissa (1957) ("Pekka and Pätkä at a pile-up") • Vääpelin kauhu (1957) ("''The sergeant major's horror''") • Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä (1957) ("Pekka and Pätkä as scuba divers") • Asessorin naishuolet (1957) ("The lady troubles of the accessor") • Pekka ja Pätkä Suezilla (1958) ("Pekka and Pätkä at the Suez") • Ei ruumiita makuuhuoneeseen (1959) ("No bodies into the bedroom") • Mullin mallin (1961) ("Jumbled up") • Taape tähtenä (1962) ("Taape as a star") • Hopeaa rajan takaa (1963) ("Silver from beyond the border") • Pohjan tähteet (1969) ("The remains of the north") • Tup-akka-lakko (1980) ("Quitting smoking") • Koeputkiaikuinen ja Simon enkelit (1981) ("''The test-tube adult and Simo's Angels''") • Hei kliffaa hei! (1985) ("''Hey, that's fun!''") • Pikkupojat (1986) ("The little boys") • Naisen logiikka (1999) ("The logic of women") In the Uuno Turhapuro series, Pasanen played the role of Härski-Hartikainen, a car repairman with a cunning and ribald character, who often participated in Uuno's farcical adventures. His sidekick was Sörsselssön – earlier known as Lörssön (played by Simo Salminen). Television series Spede is considered the father of modern Finnish television sketch-humour. Starting his career on Yleisradio he later jumped camps to the competing MTV3 network. However, his work on both has been extremely popular. Apart from starring in these series he was also the main producer for many of the popular shows on MTV3, such as the game-show Kymppitonni and the cult-hit show Pulttibois. Yle • Spede Show (1964, 1971–1976, 1982 ja 1984-1987) • Speden saluuna (1965) • Spedevisio (1965–1967) • 50 pientä minuuttia (1967–1971) • Robin Hood ja hänen iloiset vekkulinsa Sherwoodin pusikoissa (1974) MTV3 • Kymppitonni (1985–2005) • Uuno Turhapuro armeijan leivissä (1986) (the film as a TV series) • Vesku Show (1988–1991) • Spede Special (1988–1990) • Pulttibois (1989–1991) • Spedestroikka (1990) • Junnutonni (1991) • Speden sallitut leikit (1990–1992) • Speden tee-se-itse TV (1991–1992) • Hynttyyt yhteen (1991–1995) • Speden spelit (1992–2002) • Tsa Tsa Tsaa (1993–1994) • Blondi tuli taloon (1994–1995), in English The Blonde That Came to the House • Uuno Turhapuro (TV series) (1996) • Ihmeidentekijät (1996–1998) • Parhaat vuodet (2000–2002) • Kuumia aaltoja (2003) ==Legacy==

In popular culture In 2023, a biopic feature-length film, Spede, directed by and starring Riku Nieminen in the title role, was released. Named after Spede Pasanen • SPEDE (Spacecraft Potential, Electron and Dust Experiment), an instrument attached to the SMART-1 lunar probe. ==References==