EXCLUSIVE: Breaking Bones and Having Fun with The Dudesons

Move over Jackass because The Dudesons are poised to take America by storm. Hailing from Finland, The Dudesons are four "dudes" who take their stunts to the extreme. Members Jarppi, Jukka, Jarno and HP (and sidekick Britney; their 500 lb. pig) perform such stunts as putting their testicles in mousetraps, doubling as a human dartboard, jumping cars through cabins and whole lot more.

Recently, Jarppi and Jukka took time out of their schedules to talk about the upcoming DVD release of The Dudesons Movie on July 11th as well as The Dudesons TV-Show which began airing July 6th on Spike TV.

You guys have a disclaimer on your movie that says that these stunts are performed by "trained professionals." Exactly how does one become trained in the kind of stunts that you guys do?

Jukka: You're born with it! When Jarppi was born his mom said, "Okay, that's gonna be a professional human dartboard." You're just born with it.

Jarppi: That's a talent. (Laughs) You've got to forget about the sports.

Do you guys ever wonder how you don't get more hurt than you do?

Jukka: I think we get hurt enough. In the movie we went to the hospital six times. I've broken my jaw, I've broken my back a couple of times. HP has broken his leg in three different spots. Jarppi's lost a thumb and is insane. Jarno's suffered some third degree burns on his back. So... all those things happen. We go from accident to another one. They're pretty comical disasters. The goal is to keep it real and that is... when something bad happens, someone gets hurt, we also show the consequences by going into the hospital, showing the surgery and showing how they fix the leg.

How did you guys end up getting on TV and have you been surprised that your antics have been able to be aired?

Jukka: Where we met was in elementary school a long time ago and we just bonded right away. We started doing skateboarding and snowboarding movies, and we were actually better at falling off from the boards then actually doing a trick on it. Our first movie came out around '95 and we were already performing The Dudesons stunts. After that, Jarno the mastermind, got to work at a cable station and got an idea that, "Hey you guys, lets make a TV show out of this filled with stunts and pranks, and hidden camera stuff that we've been pulling on our friends. They've been enjoying watching the movies."

And our quality level was that we make better shows than the worst show on this channel. So we ended up doing the TV show and it became a national hit, and since then we've been doing five years of TV in Finland. Our feature film, in Finland, opened up second after Ice Age 2. That was in March so this is the first international thing that we're doing and we're really excited about it. It's being sold to fifteen different countries and tonight the Spike TV show airs; the first time. And on July 11 the movie comes out so it's a very exciting time for us.

I think it's gonna be pretty big for you guys.

Jukka: Thank you. We've been doing it in the Arctic Circle for five years and we've been freezing our balls off, so we're pretty ready to come over here and start the Arctic mayhem over here.

How do you guys come up with your stunts? Is there extensive planning?

Jukka: The stunts and the ideas just come to your head. They pop up and you know how we're just living our lives and documenting what happens. That's how, for example, you can see our accidents of burning a house down or somebody forgetting a handbrake for the car and getting the car totaled. We keep on filming all the time and we don't do stunts for the sake of doing stunts, we just live our lives and it's about the lifestyle. You can see us go from one disaster to another one.

The stunts... you see something on the floor or you see some kind of a funny bike... and you say, "Hey, lets take that bike and those chairs downstairs and do a stunt over there." You just come up with different ideas and you go and do them, and maybe sometimes you actually do something totally different than you were thinking about. Because things just kind of live all the time and you come up with additional ideas when you actually go into a scene and start filming.

Are you guys ever nervous before doing these stunts?

Jarppi: Yeah, of course we are nervous and really excited about doing new things. That's part of the rush, the adrenaline rush that you get before you actually do something.

Jukka: Everytime I do a stunt I have poop in my pants. (Laughs) That's why I wear diapers all the time.

Do you guys have influences as stunt people like Evel Knievel? Or, are you just going off and blazing your own trail?

Jukka: My influences are Santa Claus. He's been doing stunts for centuries. Following Rudolph the Red Nose and everything.

Jarppi: Of course our influences are all legends like Evel Knievel and all those guys. They are cool and I like to watch what they've done and we get some influence from there, but it comes from everywhere. From snowboarding, skateboarding, motocross, all that. That's all that I'm interested in.

What is the most interesting aspect of your job?

Jukka: I think, every day you wake up to a new day. You don't know how you'll wake up, you don't know where you'll wake up and for sure you can laugh and enjoy it with your best friends. And just have fun and have an adrenaline rush all the time. That is what I like about my life.

Jarppi: I definitely agree. It's a great opportunity for us to do things with your best friends and get to be with people you like to be with; and do things you really enjoy.

Jukka: Everyday Jarrpi wakes up and wishes that he grows his thumb back. But that never happens...

Jarppi: If it will happen, I'll chop it off again.

Now is there anything...

Jarppi: When it does grow back I'm not gonna tell Jukka. I'll hide it...

Jukka: (laughing) He's gonna hide it up his butt!

Is there anything you guys won't do?

Jarppi: Well, I wouldn't drive a bicycle with no hands. Now that's just dangerous!

Jukka: When we come up with a crazy stunt idea we find a way to do it; to perform the stunt. So far the only stunt I really ever did was testicle mousetrap. That's because it's simply stupid and painful. Took away my ability to have kids. Killed my balls in other words.

What do you guys have coming up next?

Jukka: Well, The Dudesons story has just begun in the U.S. so there's gonna be plenty of things to come. The TV show starts tonight, the 6th of July at 10pm on Spike TV and the DVD, the movie, comes out on the 11th. That's the beginning of the story, there's a lot more to come.

Jarppi: Yeah, you'll be hearing from us.

Catch The Dudesons TV-Show currently airing on Spike TV and pick up the DVD of The Dudesons Movie hitting stores on July 11th, 2006 through Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

WATCH THE DVD TRAILER!