Simo Ojanen

The people at Circus Hepokatti decide to throw a big surprise party for Herman The Clown, but no one seems to know when Herman's birthday is. No one has ever organized a birthday party for him before. The birthday arrangements take a surprising turn when the ruthless leader of a rival circus, the ringmaster Tilpehööri, wants Herman to be the attraction of his own circus by any means necessary. When his attempts to trick Herman fail, Tilpehööri decides to bring in the more extreme methods, and soon things start to get weirder and weirder at the Circus Hepokatti.

Herman the Clown sets out to find his father, whom he hasn't seen since he set off to measure the Earth with his feet. He is secretly followed by the son of Max the Magician, ten-year-old Roni. And so begins an exhilarating adventure full of magic, twists and colorful circus life.

Pelle Hermanni is a Finnish children's TV show shown on YLE TV2 in the Pikku Kakkonen children's program. The show's main character is Pelle Hermanni, a clown who lives in his own trailer at a circus trailer park. He was played by Veijo Pasanen, cousin of director and inventor Pertti "Spede" Pasanen. There is no major continuing plot, instead the episodes consist of Hermanni talking about his life and daily events in a funny, clownish, somewhat childish way. His comedic antics are further increased by the comically misproportioned props and his way of fumbling over difficult words. Hermanni would often ask questions from his children audience, and then pretend to actually hear what they answered, saying such things like "Right, Annika there knew the answer!" In by far the most of the episodes, Hermanni is the only human actor shown. Other characters include Vekkari, Hermanni's large alarm clock which starts ringing when Hermanni least wants, and Kepakko, a wooden teacher's staff who feels intellectually superior to Hermanni and often insults him by laughing at him. Hermanni is especially fond of his dear old mother and the pancakes with strawberries she makes, and he often phones her to see how she's doing. Hermanni's telephone is a large, complex contraption with its own video communications screen. Because the show predates actually feasible real-world video communication by more than a decade, this only adds to the comedy.