A Giant Uproar
Besides the traditional address by the President, the likeness of a neighboring head of state also appeared on the air on New Year's Eve, causing, if not gigantic waves on the Gulf of Finland, at least some national soul-searching at home.
The foreign dignitary was Finnish President Tarja Halonen, who seems to be becoming a regular on late-night TV outside her native country, this time involuntarily.
In the skit, a "giant Halonen" appears in the best monster movie tradition to exact revenge for years of, well, Estonian exploitation of Finland.
Apparently angry at Estonians helping themselves to swords, jobs and prison space, Halonen hilariously visits destruction on Tallinn's so-called "City" - the financial district of several 28-story buildings and one prominent Finnish-owned department store.
Prime Minister "Andrus Ansip" shows up with barbaric yawp, but is flung a kilometer onto the concrete of Freedom Square. Exhorted to rise ("like the Estonian economy"), he wields the conveniently nearby Liberty Cross as a light-saber, and prevails.
The skit, the finale of a program called "Tujurikkuja" (Mood Spoiler), took many people aback. For one thing, it was a major technical step up from the doddering hand-puppets of the country's only regular political satirical TV show, "The Soft and the Furry", whose dialogue is often just that. Fifteen people from some of the country's top post-processing studios reportedly did the New Year's Eve skit's special effects.
The details were also rewarding, from the way the actor who played Ansip got the set of the prime minister's jaw just right, to the flickering electrical system on the Freedom Cross.
But then a morning-after feeling sank in. Tarja Halonen? After all, Putin, who seems to be hated by his own people, is right next door, and yet ETV went after the only other head of state in the world who speaks Estonian?
It's not every day that you see the head of state of a friendly neighboring country depicted casting off her vestments, Hulk-like, to reveal a bodice and then being impaled on a sword.
Naturally there was no official protest from Halonen, whom TV watchers may also know from her slot on a show hosted by Conan O'Brien, her Irish-American doppelganger.
But some Estonians were aghast. Erik Tohvri titled his commentary in Postimees "declaration of war against a good friend."
"My inner feeling is that since ETV directly represents the Estonian state, the government should apologize to the Finnish President for the incident," he wrote. "This bit of hooliganism has besmirched the entire Estonian state and shows that the entire people should be viewed with caution."
ERR's ethics ombudsman Tarmu Tammerk took a more matter-of-fact tone, saying that the social issues highlighted by "Tujurikkuja" were real ones, and that the leaders were only "symbolic of issues in bilateral relations and of Estonian domestic affairs."
Responding directly to Tohvri, former MP Jaanus Betlem wrote in Postimees: "I think it was cutting self-irony about Estonia and Estonians' attitudes and mainly Andrus Ansip's grandiosity."
Was that why Prime Minister Ansip, who is of course the head of government, not head of state, was selected as Halonen's foil? Perhaps, but what is certain is that Estonians tend to venerate their own president, whoever happens to be in office.
No one recalls a case where a sitting president was parodied by a comic actor, as happens on American TV. It is already a rare occurrence if the President's voice is sampled (as Lennart Meri's voice was for a 1990s rap ditty). As for Ilves's bowtie, the President's Office itself has elevated it to a symbol of quality, leaving little space for mockery, even if anyone were to have such an unclean notion.
What is clear for now is that ETV's show has raised the bar for political satire. While the rest of its programming this year may be quite satire-free - "The Soft and the Furry" having moved to a commercial station a few years ago - many will look forward to having their "moods spoiled" again on New Year's Eve 2012.
Kristopher Rikken