Alivaltiosihteeri ("

Undersecretary of State Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is al ...

") is a Finnish comedy group currently consisting of

Simo Frangén Simo Juhani Frangén (born 6 September 1963 in Ulvila, Finland) is a Finnish TV presenter and humourist, living in Tampere. History Frangén matriculated in 1982 and graduated as a Master of Social Sciences at the University of Tampere in 1990 ...

Pasi Heikura Pasi Eino Heikura (born 14 April 1963 in Karvia, Satakunta) is a Finnish humorist, musician, writer, television actor and presenter best known for his work on Alivaltiosihteeri. Heikura hosts the radio program ''Aristoteleen kantapää'' (Aristo ...

and

Jyrki Liikka Jyrki is a Finnish masculine given name and may refer to: People *Jyrki 69 (born 1968), the lead vocalist for Finnish rock band ''The 69 Eyes'' * Jyrki Blom (born 1962), retired Finnish javelin thrower * Jyrki Hämäläinen (1942–2008), Finnish ...

. It started as a band in 1985 but has since made both the weekly radio show Alivaltiosihteeri and a few TV shows. Books based on the radio shows have also been published.

Band

The band Alivaltiosihteeri was formed in the mid-1980s in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, consisting of four members: bassist

, lead guitarist

, drummer

and singer

Satu Kurvinen Satu may refer to: Geography * Satu Mare, a town in northwest Romania * SATU, a people mover in Portugal Other * Satu (name) Satu is a female given name in Finland, meaning ''fairytale''. Its nameday In Christianity, a name day is a traditi ...

, who was later replaced by

Matti Toivonen Matti may refer to: * Matti (given name), people with the given name * Matti (surname), people with the surname * Matti, Karnataka, a village in India * '' Matti: Hell Is for Heroes'', a 2006 film about Matti Nykänen See also * Masa (disambigu ...

. The band was active from 1985 to the mid-1990s, but since then has concentrated on comic radio shows, books and even TV shows.

Radio program

Since 1990 the first three members of the group have made weekly hour-long radio shows for the Finnish national broadcasting company

Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

(''Alivaltiosihteeri - Suomen virallinen ohjelma'', strictly translated ''Alivaltiosihteeri - the official program of Finland''). The humour used in the shows is based on playing on words and the style is dry and official throughout, no matter what the subject is (

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...

). Every week two new

palindrome A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...

s are released, read both forwards and backwards. One of the songs played during program is always chosen from the albums by

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

(in the early 1990s

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...

was used). Finnish comedians Finnish musical groups Radio in Finland {{Finland-band-stub