Jean-Pierre Kusela is a fictional character invented by

Spede Pasanen Pertti Olavi "Spede" Pasanen (10 April 1930 – 7 September 2001) was a Finnish film director and producer, comedian, and inventor. During his career he directed, wrote, produced or acted in about 50 movies and participated in numerous TV p ...

and played by

Vesa-Matti Loiri Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri (4 January 1945 – 10 August 2022) was a Finnish actor, musician and comedian, best known for his role as Uuno Turhapuro, whom he portrayed in a total of 20 movies between the years 1973 and 2004. According to Yle Ne ...

, appearing in the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

sketch comedy series '' Spede Show'' from 1985 to 1987. The character also appeared in '' Vesku Show'' from 1988 to 1991.

Appearances

Jean-Pierre Kusela became famous with his song ''Naurava kulkuri'' ("The laughing tramp"), a cover version of

Jim Lowe James Ellsworth Lowe (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1956 number-one hit song, " The Green Door". He also served as a disc jockey and radio host and personality, and was considered ...

's song ''Gambler’s Guitar'' that was published by German singer

Fred Bertelmann Fred Bertelmann (7 October 1925 – 22 January 2014) was a German singer and actor. Life Bertelmann was born in Duisburg in the Ruhr area, the son of a chemical industry employee. Aged nine, he became a chorister and later also studied cello, tru ...

(under the ''Der lachende Vagabund'', ''The laughing Vagabond'') in 1957. The song became so popular that Vesa-Matti Loiri published it on his 1986 album ''Naurava kulkuri'', under the Kusela name. The album sold 92 thousand copies. It received a platinum record award in 1987, and is one of the 60 most sold ever Finnish albums in Finland.Myydyimmät levyt
, ifpi.fi. Accessed on 22 July 2014. In 1987 Loiri published another album, ''Voi hyvä tavaton'' ("Oh my goodness"), which sold 25 thousand copies, receiving a gold record award. In 1988, Kusela appeared on the Tyyne album ''Pim peli pom''. They performed the song ''"Tahdon olla sulle hellä"'' together. In 1995 Loiri published a CD single ''Nauravan kulkurin paluu'' ("The return of the laughing tramp"), which included a remix version of the original 1986 song. Jean-Pierre Kusela appeared in November 2001 in the Spede Pasanen memorial concert at the

Hartwall Arena Helsinki Halli (formerly Hartwall Arena) is a large multi-functional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland. It was opened in April 1997. The arena is convertible for various events. The total seated capacity during ice hockey games is 13,34 ...

. The concert was broadcast on

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisemen ...

in December 2001. Kusela's last appearance was in the 2004 film '' Uuno Turhapuro - This Is My Life''.

Concept

The character is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of typical French smooth-voiced ''

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

'' singers, particularly

Jean-Claude Pascal Jean-Claude Villeminot (24 October 1927 – 5 May 1992), better known as Jean-Claude Pascal (), was a French comedian, actor, singer and writer. Early life He was born in Paris into a family of wealthy textile manufacturers. His mother, ...

, whose surname - like that of Kusela - has a connotation of

toilet humour Toilet humour, or potty or scatological humour (compare scatology), is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, diarrhea, constipation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other bodily functions. It see ...

.FINNPICKS - Remaking musical memories
/ref> ("Pascal" sounds like ''"paska"'',

for " shit", and hence the name Kusela comes from ''"kusi"'', Finnish for " piss".) Jean-Pierre Kusela is a big-nosed, dark-haired and dark-bearded

night club A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

singer speaking Finnish in a foreign accent. In a typical Kusela sketch, the character performed his songs smoking cigarettes and drinking alcoholic beverages while the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

pianist Puppe (

Olli Ahvenlahti Olli Ahvenlahti (born 6 August 1949, in Helsinki) is a Finnish pianist, composer and conductor. He is of Russian descent. Ahvenlahti succeeded Ossi Runne as the Finnish conductor at the Eurovision Song Contest for the 1990 Contest. In all, h ...

) accompanied him with piano music.

Discography

* ''Naurava kulkuri'' (1986) * ''Voi hyvä tavaton'' (1987)

Singles

* ''Nauravan kulkurin paluu'' (1995)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kusela, Jean-Pierre Fictional singers Fictional French people Spede Pasanen Television characters introduced in 1985 Finnish comedy musicians Television in Finland