Vincino
Il Male

I had thought of many ways to write this review, yet I didn't like them; they felt as tight as when you try on a shirt that is a size smaller in the collar than what you usually wear. At a certain point, I remembered a video that had made me laugh a lot, heartily, and there I asked myself a question: do we have any idea what satire is?

It's a question not easily answered, but I propose a test: The video in question is the following (Luttazzi and Wojtyla).

Can you associate an adjective with this clip? If yes, which one is it? My answer? Bastard.

The value I want to give to this word is absolutely positive because I believe this is what satire is: being bastards, diabolical, having no sense of morality and limits. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so. Today, instead, satire seems to only have to speak about stupid things or trivial events, as Vauro was censored after the Abruzzo earthquake because one had to hold back in that context. No, that's not how it works. On the contrary, it's the exact opposite: a huge tragedy happens? Then you have to go in heavy and be cruel; otherwise, it's easy to appreciate satire.

Thirty years ago, Pino Zac kicked off the most brilliant Italian satirical adventure ever, that of "Il Male", a magazine that came out in the early months of 1978, a year when everything happened: the historic compromise, the football World Cup in Argentina orchestrated by the dictatorship, three popes in one fell swoop, and the Moro kidnapping. On all this and more, in the following years, brilliant ideas came out, all this in 16 pages that came out every week on Wednesdays. A condensed madness that came out of the heads of a group of crazies: from Ambrogio Sparagna to Sergio Perini, through the late Sergio Angese and Andrea Pazienza.

To recount this adventure was Vincino who was the director of this creature for all five years (except for the first 3 issues, where Zac was in charge); in the book, you can find the story of the main creations that were produced in those years with little-known and decidedly funny anecdotes, complemented by a series of images for a book that is also a historical document. Over the years, many would create something on the wave and model created by Vincino and company ("Tango", "Cuore" up to the more recent "M"), but none managed to repeat the feat.

What was so special about "Il Male"?

In my opinion, two things: first of all those qualities I listed before about satire and then the fact of never compromising (something that all the others did not manage to do thoroughly). And so, off with the book "Who Killed the Pope?" after the death of John Paul I, off with the editorial defending Moro (with an emblematic "Fuerza Moro" as the title) because thanks to the kidnapping all the newspapers had tripled sales, off with the fakes and let's quote the most shocking one: "The head of the BR arrested: it's Ugo Tognazzi", all this a few weeks after the death of Guido Rossa and in the midst of the brigadier escalation, off with the display of the marble bust of Andreotti with a presentation to the press made by a very young Roberto Benigni, off with the parody of the socialist posters (where, for example, Craxi walks on water and Signorile underneath to support his leader) or the sensational announcement declaring that the magazine drew from PSI's slush funds (Tangentopoli before its time!).

Those who are a bit older have an indelible and legendary memory of this magazine, those who do not know it have the chance to relive something extraordinary and can wonder why today we have lost the value of satire.

Enough is enough! Long live satire!