Facts: Mauri Hermundsson
Age: 25
Place of birth: Järna
Occupation: Youtuber, presenter and podcaster.
Career: Hermundsson became successful with the Aftonbladet-funded Youtube channel “Assignment: Food” in 2018, which he makes together with photographer Filip Meneses. The episode hosted by Bianca Ingrosso is one of the most watched in Sweden in 2020.
In 2019, Hermundsson was nominated for the Great Journalist Award in the Innovator of the Year category.
Current with: “Mauri – what happened then?” as shown on TV4.
— We knew it would be difficult to get people on board. Some don’t want to be associated with it anymore and almost have a wound in their soul, says Mauri Hermundsson.
He is a well-known face from the YouTube series “Uppdrag mat” and the TV4 competition “Lego masters Sweden”. In an episode of “Uppdrag: Mat” from 2020, Mauri Hermundsson met early viral hits like “kräk-Eva” and Patrik who wanted to say hello to his mother in Linköping. The experience gave more flavor and he sold the format to TV4.
— People thought it was so much fun that I said maybe we should make a whole program with several episodes. This is a bit of a dream project for me, similar to what I do on Youtube but much more luxurious.
No food focus
Mauri Hermundsson is still employed at Aftonbladet, where he also started his career as a presenter for the “Assignment: Food” format in 2018 – despite the fact that he himself is rather uninterested in eating and cooking.
TT: Does it feel good to be able to do something where you don’t have to focus on food?
— I’ve almost stopped doing that on YouTube too. People don’t seem to care so much about the food but more about the people I meet. But some food will appear in the “What happened next?” also. It is quite natural when you meet a person over the course of a day and hang out with them that you eat something.
In the first episode, Mauri Hermundsson meets the couple Ola and Maud, who became famous when a bear appeared outside their summer cottage just as Ola was out peeing. He describes being able to get out and meet “ordinary people” as the biggest advantage of this type of program.
— It’s nice that the focus is not on celebrities but ordinary people who have been part of something strange and happened to become Sweden’s most famous people for one day. Hopefully the TV audience likes it so much that I won’t have to do a celebrity show next time.
Three of the people are old child actors from Astrid Lindgren film adaptations who have not chosen to continue being in the limelight in adulthood. Among others, Hanna Zetterberg, who played Ronja Rövardotter and then embarked on a career as a Riksdag politician.
— She has never talked about Ronja before. The first time we asked the question if she wanted to participate, it felt quite rushed. But then we kept in touch from February until the summer and in the end it felt like she thought it would be a bit of fun.
Hungarian meme man
A highlight of the series, according to Mauri Hermundsson, comes in episode two, when he meets “Hide the pain, Harold”, a Hungarian man who has become famous for appearing in a series of genre pictures in which he looks in pain.
— We met this Hungarian man whose name no one knows but everyone recognizes in a picture. He turned out to have an absolutely wonderful attitude towards life, saying that “it’s the memes that keep me young”. I put him in a tent out in a park. You know, like back in the day when you got to see the world’s tallest man. People had to pay ten bucks and then they got to go in and see him in real life.
TT: You mean like a freak show?
– Haha no. Well. There was something humorous about doing that and he thought it was hilarious. But it’s really not a freak show program, it’s rather me who is the freak.
“Mauri – what happened then?” is broadcast on TV4 on Thursdays and is available in TV4 Play.