Description
The story behind the jokes and lots of the jokes. ISMO: Breaking Bad English mixes hilarious performances with the life of comedy's funniest outsider.
ISMO: Breaking Bad English combines stand-up comedy, biography and a revealing look at the creative process behind Finnish comedian Ismo Leikola's unlikely rise to international success. Known for approaching the English language as a fascinated outsider, Ismo has built his comedy around the contradictions, double meanings and inexplicable rules that native speakers rarely stop to question. What began as the perspective of a Finnish comedian performing in a second language ultimately became his greatest comic advantage, taking him from Finland to sold-out international tours and a worldwide audience.
The documentary tells the story behind the jokes while making sure audiences get plenty of the jokes themselves. Stand-up performances are woven throughout the film, including Ismo's breakthrough appearance on Conan, which became the show's most-viewed comedy clip with more than 140 million views. His observations transform ordinary English words and expressions into elaborate comic puzzles, exposing absurdities that resonate with both native speakers and the nearly two billion people navigating English as a second language. As Chortle observed, Ismo approaches the world like a confused but appreciative tourist, taking audiences along as he discovers familiar things from an entirely different perspective.
Breaking Bad English also goes beyond the performances to examine how Ismo constructs his material. The filmmakers follow a seemingly random thought as he develops it into a premise, tests the idea and gradually refines it into a finished joke for the stage, offering an unusually close look at the mechanics behind his deceptively spontaneous comedy. Jay Leno, Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias and others provide additional perspective on Ismo's distinctive comic voice and the qualities that have helped him cross cultural and linguistic boundaries. His career includes winning the Laugh Factory's Funniest Person in the World competition and extensive touring across the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Directed by Ilkka Hynninen and Saku Pollari, ISMO: Breaking Bad English is both the story of comedy's self-described outsider and an 82-minute showcase for the observational humor that made him an international phenomenon. By examining language through someone who had to learn its peculiarities rather than simply grow up with them, Ismo turns everyday English into an endless source of comic discovery--and invites audiences to wonder how they ever thought the language made sense in the first place.
Media
Cast & Crew
Actors:- Ismo Leikola as self
- Jay Leno as himself
- Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias as himself
- Conan O'Brien as self
Director: Ilkka Hynninen
Director: Saku Pollari
Additional Details
Label: Pop Twist
Genre: Comedy
Language: English
Run Time: 82 mins
Region: 0
Release Date: 12/15/26
UPC: 760137225003