Ismo Leikola

Ismo Leikola (born Ismo Mikael Leikola; 22 January 1979), sometimes known professionally as ISMO, is a Finnish comedian, musician, author, screenwriter, and YouTuber. He made his United States debut in 2014, when he won the "Funniest Person in the World" competition organized by the comedy club Laugh Factory. Leikola was born in Jyvaskyla, Finland, and before pursuing stand-up comedy he studied physics and philosophy at the University of Jyvaskyla, where he first encountered stand-up at the campus bar Ilokivi and debuted in 2002.

Leikola began performing in English in 2005 while visiting the UK, and in 2007 and 2008 he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In October 2014 he won the first "Funniest Person in the World" competition, receiving almost 160,000 online votes and being awarded US$10,000 and a tour across the United States. In 2015 he made the comedy series ISMO for Finnish television and moved to the United States. He gained more recognition after appearing on Conan O'Brien's talk show in 2018, becoming the first Finnish comedian to appear on an American talk show; a clip of his interpretations of the word "ass" became the most-watched stand-up clip in the history of the show, reaching 70 million Facebook views by August 2019.

Leikola uses his outsider's point of view to find humour in ordinary things, often with philosophical or science-based subtext, or by analysing the Finnish and English languages. In 2019 he began collaborating with Merriam-Webster's dictionary on videos about English. He has performed at festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe, Just for Laughs, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and in 2022 performed for 45,000 people at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles as an opening act for Gabriel Iglesias.