Gialappa's Band (con Andrea Amato)
Mai dire noi

Giorgio Gherarducci, Carlo Taranto, and Marco Santin, 'also known as' Gialappa's Band, were 'representative', unique, in their way of doing comedy based on simple mockery, and 'Mai dire Gol' was their quintessential show.

'Heroes' of my high school years ('97-2003) with 'Mai dire Gol', 'Mai dire Maik', 'Mai dire Grande Fratello', 'Mai dire Domenica', the movie 'Tutti gli uomini del deficiente', and 'Rai dire Sanremo' on Radio 2, where they mocked the Festival hosted by Raffaella Carrà (to whom they sent, during a live broadcast, a pair of women’s underwear via Sottotono, to the immense joy of the three), the stunning model Megan Gale (who still remembers the ecstatic first commercials of 'Omnitel', later 'Vodafone', from 2 years prior?) and her 'stalker' Massimo Ceccherini in 2001.

(Of the cited TV shows, dear to me are many comedians, Alessia Marcuzzi in the '99 edition of 'Mai dire Gol' and the Dutch Elen Hidding in the following year’s edition, and two of the dancers from 'Mai dire Domenica', the 'Letteronze' – a redhead [Serena De Lorenzis] and a blonde [Barbara Petrillo]).

In the last months of last year, I noticed in a bookstore in my neighborhood the book 'Mai dire Noi', an interview book about the life and career of the three, written by a journalist and TV and radio author named Andrea Amato. It goes beyond the cover, which uses the same typeface and iconic cloud from their most famous show, to introduce and guide through their history, starting from their 'chance' meeting at 'Radio Popolare' in Milan in the 80s, the first parody program on football ('Bar Sport'), their call to work as authors and presenters for Silvio Berlusconi's 'Fininvest' network (later 'Mediaset'). During this period, they chose to become voiceovers, as Carlo recounts: '...the company insisted on putting us on air, not understanding how precious our absence from the video was. At first, they found it too strange. The thing is, we had seen the reports that local Milanese TV stations had made for “Bar Sport Mundial”, in 1986: there was us, in the Radio Popolare studio, talking about Tago Mago, Montezuma's revenge, and all our nonsense from those days, but you never saw the images we were discussing. They only showed three idiots saying senseless things. That was when it became clear to me that we should not appear'), the birth of the first in the series of 'Mai dire' shows, 'Mai dire Banzai', the great success and 'cult' status of 'Mai dire Gol' (the first TV show that parodied football), their only film mentioned above, and the rest up to recent years, with the spirit of the three in the booth of various 'Mai dire' shows, guided and 'moderated' by the author's own narrating voice.

Just like in their shows, I often laughed while reading these pages (never in either case with the 'gialappa' effect, named after a plant whose fruit yields a potent laxative – a name found by Marco in a dictionary he read during a tutoring session with a student), immersed in the settings of the shows of my youth.

A wonderful book featuring two sections among many chapters:

– 'Amarcord': stories of experiences, often personal, mostly written by those who lived them;

– 'Amici nostri': conversations (for them 'interviews') between the three and many comedians who participated in some of their shows, two presenters (Nicola Savino and Alessia Marcuzzi) and a TV author (Davide Parenti – famous for creating the comedy and investigative program 'Le iene' and creator of one of the trio's first shows, 'Mai dire Tv') with contributions from the author’s narrating voice.

This alone would be enough to feel 'among friends' with the trio and others, spending an evening reminiscing about 'the good old days'...

But when Walter Veltroni, a writer and former politician, talks about the three in the preface, from 'friends' Carlo, Marco, and Giorgio become 'artists' and 'characters of the century', something they wouldn’t like, preferring, even as 'idiots', to remain one of us.

That's what I think.