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Our special Defamer diplomatic envoy to Finland weighs in with a full report on the Conan O'Brienmania currently sweeping the land of smelt and cellphones. As we mentioned yesterday, Conan's delightful sense of the absurd has gotten a bit out of hand of late, with the Late Night host throwing his considerable celebrity influence behind current President and O'Brien lookalike Tarja Halonen's re-election bid.

Well, Conan better get his skinny just-had-baby butt over here to Finland right now. He's talked the talk... and yes, maybe he has done his bit to influence this Finnish Presidential election. Butt...


... I'm an ex-pat UK journalist and have lived here in Helsinki for 2 years. Live with my Finn long-term lady see and oooh, like very many people in Finland, we've been watching Conan and more recently Tarja and the Finnish elections for... damn, seems like forever...

And... as a very curious outsider, it's hard to believe... but Conan has livened things up here these last months. Because yes, the Finns do love their U.S and U.K comedy (The Office, Lost, Desperate, O.C, 24... Ok, we get it all) and late night talk show TV (Conan we mean you) and yes, the tabloid culture is alive and well in this relatively unknown but Scandinavian-next-to-Russia landscape and yes, every time Conan does the Tarja schtick thing here, it makes the front page in the tabloids (all two of them).


But, let's get this straight right now... the Finns are amused that a NY talkshow bouffant is getting a woody because he thinks he looks like a 60-something female Finn president but ha ha, a topic of amused conversation it has been for a few months now, but noooo, suddenly it is full-on winter right here this mid-January. That means... sense of humour still alive, but there is too much university education and impressive alcoholic consumption and mild depression going on here right now in this snow and darkness and sub-zero nastiness to take it all too seriously.

So, hey, the Finns (and us Finglish) love to get our names mentioned in any International / U.S press/ TV, but Conan.... if you want to keep this beautiful US/ Finn relationship going, you'd better get yourself and the new young'un (and the other kid) and the good lady over here pronto if you really know what good international relations mean. There are a a bunch of Finns who would love to have a chat and take you out and get you well pissed. Hear me now... you have influenced - just a touch, this election thing. Now is the time to get on a plane and... for God's sake, bring Max with you.

—An amused Englishman in Helsinki.