The Dudesons () are a Finnish entertainment group. They are best known for their TV shows and live performances, which are a combination of stunts and comedy. Their early TV shows were similar to Jackass. Starting their television career in the early 2000s, they gained international fame and had a show on the American television channel MTV in 2010. After The Dudesons in America, the group started to shift from the stunts to more multidimensional careers. Background The Dudesons consists of Jukka Hildén (b. 1980), Jarppi Leppälä (b. 1979), Jarno Laasala (b. 1979) and Hannu-Pekka "HP" Parviainen (b. 1981). All were from the town of Seinäjoki, where Hildén, Leppälä, and Laasala became close friends while attending elementary school together, where they later met Parviainen. As teenagers, the four became quite interested in snowboarding, skateboarding and downhill mountain biking. In the early 1990s, when Laasala got his first video camera, the group began filming their activities which eventually led to further pranks and extreme stunts. They created and sold VHS tapes which were filmed and edited by Laasala and subsequently their reputation began to grow in Seinäjoki. Original Finnish TV series In January 2000, Jarno Laasala obtained a job as an editor for a small Finnish cable TV channel called MoonTV. Similar to the American show Jackass, he saw a possibility to make his own show out of all the stunts the Dudesons had filmed. After finishing high school, the Dudesons set up their own production company called Rabbit Films. The group immediately began shooting a self-financed pilot episode of their own show. This pilot was finished in August 2000 and the channel immediately green lit the first season, titled as "Maailmankiertue" (Worldtour). The episodes began airing in January 2001, and the series became the most popular show on MoonTV. In September 2001, the Dudesons moved from MoonTV to a nationwide TV channel Nelonen. The 2nd season, called "Extreme Duudsonit, Maailmankiertue 2", was first screened in 2002, and the same year the Dudesons were also elected as The Media Persons of the Year by the readers of Finland's most popular youth magazine Suosikki. The 3rd (Maailmankiertue 3) and 4th seasons (Duudsoni Elämää) of Extreme Duudsonit ran respectively in 2003 and 2004. Recurring stunts and segments on the English-language version of the Dudesons includes: the "Human Dartboard," playing pranks on "Mr. Hitler" and a vast array of other stunts with "absolute disregard