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 a ...

") 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 1 ...

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'' (Ar ...

and Jyrki Liikka. 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 is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, consisting of four members: bassist

, lead guitarist

, drummer Jyrki Liikka and singer Satu Kurvinen, who was later replaced by Matti Toivonen. 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 (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

(''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 Comedy, comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant t ...

). Every week two new

palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...

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 and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

(in the early 1990s

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

was used). 20th-century Finnish comedians Finnish musical groups Radio in Finland {{Finland-band-stub