Conan O'Brien: Pro-Finland, Anti-Sweden

Tele-Thoughts

Well last night NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien finally aired its 'Finland special' chronicling the hosts recent five-day visit to the Scandinavian nation. Conans trip to Finland and the TV episode that chronicled it are the culmination of a long running joke on the program. You see Finlands current female president Tarja Halonen and Mr. O'Brien enjoy what some would call an 'uncanny' resemblance to each other. When this fact came to the late show host attention he proceeded to milk it for all it was worth. When Halonen was facing a tough re-election battle recently, the folks at Late Night pitched in producing their own Finish language TV commercials for the president. These commercials ran on Finish television and Halonen was re-elected with a 3% plurality.

While one can dispute how much of a factor Mr. O'Brien was in the Finish federal election, President Halonen seems grateful and the two acutely got to meet on his visit. (I acutely missed that part of the TV show but I do remember reading that they had meet while he was over there.) The show last night featured Conan touring the country and generally making a fool of himself in front of the Fins. He even got to appear on several native television shows and received a special award at the Finish version of the Emmys. While Conan is set to take over as host of The Tonight Show in several years I think he might be just as viable as an ambassador, at the very least that might keep yet another celebrity from seeking elective office.