Pirjo may be certifiably insane

Pirjo starts talking incredibly quickly, barely leaving any space for herself to catch her breath (gasping several times during her attempt).

She immediately launches into what seems to be an improvised (and nonsensical) monologue about flowers, a man wearing a bowtie, and a cat who was fascinated by the bowtie, but had no intention of buying its own bowtie, as it was a cat.

The man goes for a walk, which turns into a run – at which point Pirjo just keeps repeating the word “run”, likely trying to think of something else to say – and the man rushes to the store to buy a new bowtie.

Pirjo keeps repeating the word “but” while trying to think of more things to say, and then turns away from Pilvi, saying that they don’t even have to look at each other while she’s talking.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Pirjo takes a hard turn and begins talking about “poetic language, tautology”, and says that sometimes, the structure of tanka poems means that speakers may stutter while reading them aloud. Pirjo then just starts stuttering, without saying any actual words.

Pirjo then returns to her original story, saying that the cat is also going to the store. While saying this, she notices Pilvi making a move towards her stopwatch, and Pirjo loudly proclaims that she has not yet finished speaking, and that she still has “a lot of talking left” in her, as her story is only at the midway point, “and the bowtie is still strong on the cat’s mind”.

Pirjo says that she’s “going insane”, as she’s “losing momentum,” but that the man in her story is still running. She then starts making laughing noises instead of saying actual words.

Pilvi clicks her stopwatch, which Pirjo notices, and questions why she has done so, before finally falling silent.

In the studio, Pirjo explains that her understanding of the task brief was that nobreaks were allowed in the conversation. She also justifies her attempt by pointing out that the task did not forbid repeating any words (or, indeed, just relying on the same word over and over, as she often did). Jaakko agrees with her logic, but reminds her that the task did not require her to talk as quickly as possible, either.

Pirjo talks for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, and earns joint third place.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by Karl Craven)