Conan O'Brien & the Finnish President: Separated at birth?

If you watch Late Night With Conan O’Brien at all, you’ve no doubt heard about the strange resemblance between Conan and the Finnish President Tarja Halonen. It’s been a running gag on the show for a while and one can easily see why: they do look eerily alike.

Conan actually caused quite a stir when he endorsed Halonen for re-election – attacking her opponents and everything – and she won!

Conan actually traveled to Finland in February of 2006 to meet with the President. To his surprise, it turned out that he had garnered a huge Finnish fan base due to his recent jokes putting President Halonen in the spotlight. The President thanked him for making Finland better known.

Conan has joked that he hoped for a cabinet position, because he could use the money. He wanted to be inspector of saunas, “mostly women’s saunas.”

Here’s a clip of Conan accepting an award in Finland and explaining the joke. He seems like a very nice and humble guy.