Hannu Karpo

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Hannu Karpo (born November 5, 1942 in Helsinki) is a famous Finnish reporter who hosted his own show, Karpolla on asiaa, from 1981-2007. He was a reporter for Yleisradio from 1961 to 1981 before moving over to the competing network (MTV3). His own show was produced by his privately owned Pallosalama Oy production company which he founded in 1970.

Karpo's show ran for 26 years during which he received a number of death threats. He has also been asked to run for politics by numerous parties but has continually refused to do so. Karpo is also known for sticking to his guns, evidenced by the fact that the graphics for his show hadn't changed since the late 1980s and the fact that he refused to rerun a particular episode of his show, in spite of popular demand, as it had originally aired at the same time as a ice hockey match on a competing channel. His rationale was that the ice hockey results could have been seen later on numerous newscasts.

Karpo also awarded many of his guests with a piece of smoked reindeer or an encased 100 mk (later 100€) bill for speaking out. During the early run of the show Karpo also granted financial and material aid to guests on his show but stopped after feeling that his help was being exploited. He also confronted a person who had threatened another person by "telling Karpo" about him in order to solve a legal case.

Karpo also didn't shy away from criticizing Finnish politics and bureaucracy. Indeed, many of his guests were people who felt that they were being mistreated through careless decision making. Others were people in positions or predicaments (either legal or financial) from which they couldn't seemingly find a way out of.

[edit] Karpocature

His distinctive appearance as a bearded man, with glasses with a furry hat (karvalakki) and a furry microphone with a frank and demanding voice has become a popular image of a hard-hitting reporter in Finland. Numerous Finnish comedians at various times have "done a Karpo". His famous catchphrase "Onko tässä mitään järkeä!?" ("Does this make any sense (to you)!?") is often a key-part of these caricaturistic impressions.