Funland: how humor of the Mexican-Finn went viral on Facebook
The creator of some of the most popular memes about Finland admits, “I don’t consider myself that funny.”
Nadiia Fedorova
Nadiia Fedorova
Published 24.09.2024 1:33
Updated 24.09.2024 3:29
A young woman with a Latin American appearance was waiting for me outside the cafe in central Helsinki. She greeted me with a warm, genuine smile but right away confessed that being in the spotlight feels awkward. She prefers to go by the nickname “Lola”, which means “laughing out loud alone” — a description that perfectly fits her personality. Lola chooses not to reveal her real name. Anonymity helps her to separate her professional life as a serious economist and businesswoman from her humorous online persona.
Lola moved to Finland 16 years ago for work and studies. When asked why she chose Finland, the woman laughs: “I didn’t choose Finland. It somehow chose me.”
Initially, her plan was to gain some work experience, complete her master’s degree, and then return to Mexico. However, for one reason or another, she kept extending her stay or coming back. Now Lola has been living in Mexico for 2 years, but she still comes to Finland quite often and plans to expand her business here. She has Finnish citizenship, friends, an apartment here and, of course, the Funland page. Finland does not let her go.
A place to share smiles
The story of Funland started in 2013. By that time, Lola had been living in Finland for five years. She often shared jokes and memes on her personal Facebook page but received little response from her friends. So, she decided to create a community that might appreciate her humor. The page wasn’t initially intended to focus on Finland. But since Lola had been living here, many of the jokes naturally reflected her experiences in the country.
“I thought, if I am a citizen already, I can make jokes about my country and share them with the world.”
In the first six months, Funland had only around a hundred followers. Then Lola posted a meme about Finnish spring, and it went viral. Overnight the number of followers skyrocketed to 3,000. The new members started sharing earlier posts, and the audience grew up quickly.
Lola never wanted that much exposure. However, she thought, “I’m sharing smiles, and this country needs a lot of smiles.” That’s why she continued.
“Where have you been?”
Since then, Funland and its creator have gone through many phases. There were times when posting felt like an obligation, times when Lola struggled with depression and didn’t feel like sharing funny content, and times, such as during the pandemic, when humor seemed scarce.
Over the years, similar pages to Funland have emerged. Lola often noticed her ideas being copied and re-posted on those pages with new graphics. Frustrated by others profiting from her materials, and dealing with depression, Lola decided to hide Funland in 2018. For several years the page was inactive.
However, Lola kept coming back to it. She made several attempts to revive the page, and ultimately reopened it in 2022, curious to see if people still remember her. The response of the followers was very warm:
“Perkele, where have you been?”
“Saatana, don’t scare us like that, we thought you were dead!”
Old school way of making jokes
The majority of Funland’s followers are either Finns or people who have some connection to Finland. They either have lived there for some time or have Finnish roots.
True fans who have been following the page for many years, formed a real community. Lola can recognize them by the profile pictures and the style of the comments. She draws a lot of inspiration from her audience. “The best part of Funland isn’t really the memes, but the comments,” she says. “They’re often funnier than the original post!”
Lola feels free to joke about almost anything without worrying about offending her followers. Those who have stuck around understand the humor and know there’s no intent to hurt anyone. However, she does try to keep away from sensitive topics like politics, religion, or war. “I try to be respectful when I’m joking,” she explains.
While many content creators have shifted to Instagram and TikTok, Lola has kept Funland on Facebook. “I decided to keep this old- school way of making jokes for people who are the same as me and don’t use other social media,” she explains.
Mr. Perkele
Lola has never viewed the page as a source of income. In almost 11 years, she has earned just 25 euros from the merch with Mr. Perkele, the mascot of the page. The story with the mascot is also curious: the image of the character was created by a fan of Funland, and another fan came up with the name for him: “Oh, that’s the Perkele guy!”
Perhaps because of Mr. Perkele, many followers assume the page owner is a man, which Lola finds a bit offensive. “Women are funny too!” she assures.
It is hard to run the page while living in Mexico, in other cultural context. Lola once asked the followers what they wanted to see on the page. Most said, “Just write whatever pops in your head. It doesn’t matter if it is about Mexico or Finland.” Lola stopped worrying about the relevancy of the content and now she just enjoys writing for the page.
Lola is sure that her humor is not that much different from any other Mexican. “We can laugh about everything, even about death. But I have lived in Finland long enough to also be a Finn. That’s why my jokes resonate with Finnish people – I’m just feeling it!”