Tatu (left) and Patu (right)
"Tatu and Patu are two brothers who act a little strangely now and then. They are from Oddsville, after all, where people do things differently than we do. Tatu and Patu explore our world with excitement and curiosity, always ready for new adventures.'"
— The English opening narration
Tatu and Patu is a long-running Finnish children's book series created by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen. The books are about two rather weird brothers, Tatu and Patu, who come from a place called Oddsville, where "people do things differently than we do", and often do things in their own strange way. The first few books were about Tatu's and Patu's friend Veera, who showed them what things were and how they worked, but the later books shifted the focus to the brothers, though Veera still occasionally appears.
Three of the books, This is Helsinki, This is Finland, and Tatu's and Patu's Marvelous Christmas, have been translated into English. Marvelous Christmas also has a film adaptation, Tatu and Patu: An Oddsville Christmas, released in 2016.
Tropes in Tatu and Patu:
- All Just a Dream: Two books have ended this way. In "Tatu and Patu as Superheroes", Tatu and Patu dream about becoming superheroes, and in "Tatu and Patu's Space Adventure" they dream about going to space.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Tatu and Patu are referred to as being male, but the creators have stated that gender is not important to them and they are more "walking curiosities" than masculine or feminine.
- Ambiguously Human: Tatu and Patu themselves and all their shown relatives are shorter than adult humans, have large heads, big round noses and Four-Fingered Hands. You might assume they're just stylized humans, but given how strange they act and how they come from a place no normal human has been in, they're most likely not human.
- Benevolent Monsters: One book has a story of a little girl who is friends with a bugbear, a ghost, and a skeleton, but is afraid of the bed under the bugbear, the closet behind the ghost, and the mirror behind the skeleton.
- Breakout Character: Tatu and Patu first appeared in the "Veera" books as secondary characters, but got their own series which is much more popular.
- Cartoonish Companions: Tatu, Patu, and everyone else from Oddsville look like small cartoony humans, while the normal people are given more realistic proportions.
- Cloudcuckooland: From what we hear about Oddsville and how it's mentioned in the opening narration of every book, it's definitely this.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Tatu and Patu, who have a very weird understanding of normal things, and like building machines for bizarre tasks.
- Cooldown Hug: In "Tatu and Patu as Superheroes" Tatu, Patu, and Hypercyberman defeat Dr. Void by giving him a "Group-X-Hug".
- Creator Cameo: Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen appear in many of the books on one page, most commonly in crowd scenes.
- Easter Egg: All the books have some kind of an object, animal or word that is hidden on every page.
- Fictional Disability: Apparently, Tatu doesn't wear glasses because he has bad eyesight. He has a condition only known in Oddsville that causes his eyeballs to sweat, and has to wear glasses with ventilation to prevent it.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: "Tatu and Patu's Weird Sleep Book" features two: "The world's most boring bedtime story", called "Silver Hair and Six Bears" that ends with Silver Hair leaving before the bears even arrive, and "The Story of the Prince who Couldn't Sleep" which is a version of "Princess and the Pea" that has the prince stay awake because he's constantly worried and not even noticing the king dressed as a pea under his mattresses.
- Funny Background Event: The books are known for their detailed illustrations with various background gags in them.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Tatu and Patu have invented many devices, which they show off in a few books. Though given how weird they are, most of them are meant for accomplishing rather weird tasks, such as removing olives and other parts they don't like from food or eating ice cream really fast.
- Identical Twin Id Tag: Aside from their clothing color and Tatu's glasses, Patu has a birthmark on his back shaped like Zimbabwe and Tatu has an oddly shaped knee.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Many times. For instance, one of the books presents trying new food as a battle complete with headbands, and another gives ridiculously specific instructions on how to climb a tree or build a snowman.
- Name and Name: Tatu and Patu.
- Named by the Adaptation: Veera's mothers are unnamed in the books, but in Tatu and Patu: An Oddsville Christmas, they're called Lissu and Mirkku.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Veera has green almond-shaped eyes, while every other character has black-and-white Sphere Eyes.
- Obliviously Evil: The antagonist in "Tatu's and Patu's Space Adventure" is a giant space being that takes planets from their solar systems to wear as jewelry without realizing that they have life. After Tatu and Patu give him a giant contact lens, he realizes what he's done and returns the planets.
- Older Than They Look: Due to their small size and odd personality, Tatu and Patu have been mistaken for small children many times, especially in the early books, where they even attend kindergarten. However, other books make it clear that they're just short, weird adults. Averted in the film, where they're clearly played by grown men.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The 20th book reveals that "Tatu" and "Patu" are nicknames, their real names being Touhukarbonaatti and Poutapilvi.
- Opening Narration: As seen on the page quote, every book begins with one, accompanied by a picture of the brothers doing something odd, with arrows pointing at them that read "This is Tatu." and "This is Patu.".
- Outlandish Device Setting: In "Tatu and Patu's Weird Sleep Book", Tatu and Patu recall some weird dreams they've had, and in Tatu's dream, he accidentally shrinks his head by setting his washing machine to "skull shrink".
- Redhead In Green: Veera has orange hair and wears green overalls.
- Riddle for the Ages: Where is Oddsville, and what is it like? One of the books gives various ideas, including that it's an underwater planet or the inside of a little kid's pacifier, but they're just theories presented by other people.
- School Play: In "Tatu and Patu in Kindergarten", the brothers attempt to escape the kindergarten they accidentally ended up attending, first by having the kids build a teleporter out of cardboard, and then by Totem Pole Trench, but they decide to stay when they find out that they're putting on a play, and include both the teleporter and the disguise in the story. The play is about a princess trying to find a prince by putting a message in a bottle in the toilet, and marrying the plumber who came to fix the clogged toilet.
- Something Person: In "Tatu and Patu as Superheroes" the in-universe comic that the brothers read is named Hypercyberman. Inspired by him, Tatu names himself Active Boy and Patu names himself Measure Man.
- Superman Substitute: Hypercyberman the in-universe comic book superhero is beefy in a blue costume and red cape, can fly and has super strength, and has a weakness to a rare element called "rubberium".
- Trademark Favorite Food: Tatu and Patu love ice cream, and eat it in several books.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Dr. Void, the villain of "Tatu and Patu as Superheroes", plans to replace the citizens of Ylivetola with robots, with the implication that he's going to kill them. Most of the books don't have antagonists at all, and the only other major ones, the space giant from "Tatu and Patu's Space Adventure" and the Halver from "Tatu and Patu as Detectives" are only Obliviously Evil and a little girl who never does anything more evil than cutting and hiding some things, respectively.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Tatu and Patu have worn dresses several times, such as as a disguise or putting on a play, or just because.
- Wicked Toymaker: Dr. Void doesn't make literal toys, but has somewhat of a toy motif: The buildings he places all over Ylivetola are packaged in plastic boxes like giant toys. Later he traps the brothers and Hypercyberman by strapping them on pieces of cardboard like action figures at the store, and his robots that he plans to replace the citizens with look like human-sized dolls and even have "try me" chest buttons that make them talk.
