Hello, Hello, Hello
September 25, 2014 2:44 PM   Subscribe

Stressed out? Does the fast-paced world of today have your head spinning? Sit back and relax with the Finnish educational TV show "Hello, Hello, Hello," and the terrifyingly slow adventures of Stan and Dud. Clip most likely to cause childhood trauma : "I'm Cecil. She's Cissy." Most likely to mark you as a Finn who learned English from watching this show: "The cat's in the moon."

Why was the cat in, and not on, the moon? Because the producers had decided to teach only one preposition, "in" -- a decision the writer, Neil Hardwick, later called "absolute bollocks" -- and so that's where the cat was stuck.

Hello. Hello. Hello.
posted by The corpse in the library (13 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Kissa on kuussa!
posted by ursus_comiter at 3:19 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


That Cecil/Cissy video is like Twin Peaks for kids.
posted by tunewell at 4:07 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Add a twangy soundtrack and give Dud a five minute monologue on the futility of existence and True Detective season 2 is in the (cat)bag.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:42 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]


Oh dear god...yeah, serious shades of David Lynch filtered through unmitigated childhood trauma. Christ, and I thought Muzzy was weird enough.
posted by Diagonalize at 4:57 PM on September 25, 2014


Fucking Stan, man. Fucking two cakes having bastard. When Dud gets his revenge it is sweet.
posted by fleetmouse at 5:16 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]


I couldn't find the opening credits, but I remember it being a woman's voice saying "Hello, hello, hello," so very slowly, so very deliberately, so very soothingly -- nothing like the copper's "hellohellohello, what's all this then?" So you knew something was wrong from the very start.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:53 PM on September 25, 2014


And I suddenly understand how the Russians lost the Winter War - the Finns are freakin' terrifying.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:26 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Omigod, I totally remember seeing this show as a kid! Seems a lot... trippier in hindsight.
posted by Crane Shot at 8:35 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Moon of Forgotten Cats
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 10:20 PM on September 25, 2014


That's the right stuff, that is. There seems to be a book version, too!
posted by holist at 10:24 PM on September 25, 2014


Well, wow, talk about a blast from the past. This programme was how I first started to learn English as a wee Finn in the seventies. My whole family watched it, even though my parents already spoke some (rather clumsy) English; they just enjoyed the surreal humour. What I remember most clearly was trying and failing to wrap my little head around the 'the' (there are no articles in Finnish), as well as needing to differentiate between 'he' and 'she'. Also, Cecil and Cissy scared me out of my wits.

Neil Hardwick went on to have a remarkable career in Finnish theatre and broadcasting. He's a national treasure if you ask me.
posted by sively at 1:35 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


Why is it terrifying that he keeps pronouncing Cecil differently? I'm CEE-cil. I'm Cess-il.
posted by tunewell at 2:35 AM on September 26, 2014


Oh god, I love this. Now I am totally going to wander around my apartment and pretend I don't know where my cats are, just so I can say, "Hello hello hello? Where is the cat? Missä kissa on?"

Actually, where is my orange cat? Usually we're joined at the hip for afternoon naptime. Oh of course, the cat is in the moon. I mean, box.
posted by gueneverey at 9:52 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


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