Article on an anti-Berlusconi show which aired on Monday
Benigni’s Jibes at PM, Ruby and Bindi
Tuscan comedian begs Berlusconi not to resign: “You’ll ruin us”
MILAN - Joke after joke on Berlusconi and Rubygate. Roberto Benigni’s irreverent comedy exploded - successfully, to judge by the audience applause - onto the first episode of Vieni via con me [Come Away with Me], RaiTre’s Monday evening show conducted by Fabio Fazio and Roberto Saviano. “Let me start by saying that celeb sex gossip is rubbish. I’m here to talk about politics”, was how the Oscar-winning comedian opened his extended monologue. “If the news is confirmed - but I don’t believe it, it can’t be true - there’s a prime minister who went with a Moroccan woman, a minor, but for age reasons, the name of the prime minister cannot be made public”.
“SILVIO RESIGN” - Addressing the prime minister directly, Benigni rubbed generous helpings of salt into the wound of the looming government crisis. “Silvio, don’t resign. Don’t listen to Fini because otherwise you’ll ruin us. We won’t get any more work. Presenters like Santoro and Fazio, and newspapers like Unità and Repubblica won’t have anything to do. And what will [the prime minister’s lawyer, Niccolò - Ed.] Ghedini do? Go back to making horror films? Hang in there, Silvio. Listen to me”. Then came the about-turn: "Silvio resign. We can’t take any more”. Then back to Ruby: “Let’s go back to politics. So, this Ruby... Berlusconi said it was the Mafia getting their own back. Once upon a time, the Mafia would rub you out. Now they send you two escorts in the bathroom. I dread that”. Benigni continued: “You Mafiosi are animals, you disgust me. I’ll give you the address of my hotel in Milan. Get your own back on me”.
MESSAGE TO BINDI - The next target was the Democratic Party: “Berlusconi says the magistrates are leftwingers, the constitutional court is leftwing, the press is leftwing. Think how furious he would be if the Democratic Party were leftwing too”. Benigni then appealed directly to PD parliamentarian Rosy Bindi. “Come on, Rosy. He fancies you. Do it for the party”, said Benigni, again referring to Berlusconi and the private gatherings at his Arcore villa. “He likes you, Rosy. You can tell, he’s always mentioning you. He keeps referring to you. Here’s what to do. Give [TG4 news director, Emilio - Ed.] Fede a photo and that’ll get you into Arcore. Go there and tell him you’re over 18. Keep it legal. And then when you’re alone with him, tell him who you are! You’ve got nothing to fear. If they arrest you, just say you’re Zapatero’s mother-in-law. Or Castro’s granny”.
COMEDIAN’S FEE - In the course of his long monologue, the Tuscan comedian made plenty of ironic references to the fee he was initially going to receive for taking part on Fazio and Saviano’s show (in the end, Benigni opted to appear for nothing): “I agreed to appear for free. RAI needs the money but I don’t want any funny stuff from [RAI director general, Mauro - Trans.] Masi. When I wound the car window down at some traffic lights, a Pole recognised me and gave me a euro. I thank RAI, and also Saviano and Fazio for inviting me. I’m giving you 70% of my fee for the evening. For nothing. I brought the champagne, Masi contributed the glasses, his own personal ones. We drank a toast. Director general, we’re here but who’s pulling the strings? Are you going to send me packing? That would be the limit”.
SAVIANO AND THE MUD - The episode of Vieni via con me opened with a comment from Roberto Saviano. “For some time now, I’ve been living with an obsession. It’s the mud machine, the mechanism for defaming people”, because of which “democracy is literally in danger. And it is at risk”, added the author of Gomorra, “insofar as if you take on certain powers, this government, what you can look forward to is an attack from the mud machine, starting from the tiniest details of your private life”. Saviano went on: “There’s a difference between an investigation and defamation” because “defamation takes a single detail and sets it up against the individual targeted for defamation”. The aim of the machine is “to be able to say that we’re all the same” when “we should be highlighting the differences”. Saviano then referred to “the story of the Montecarlo home of Fini, who was intimidated”, and the case of Dino Boffo, “a Catholic editor who started to criticise the government in a Catholic newspaper [Avvenire - Ed.]. And the mud machine depicted him as some sort of criminal because he’s homosexual. Unthinkable. Unbelievable”. Then there is the case of “[Campania regional authority chair, Stefano - Ed.] Caldoro’s alleged homosexuality” which became “the weapon used by a fellow party member, [Nicola - Ed.] Cosentino”. Saviano then addressed young people: “I’d like to tell you the story of someone who managed to stand up to a huge mud machine, Giovanni Falcone”. This was the beginning of a long digression, featuring newspaper articles some read by actress Angela Finocchiaro, on the accusations and attempts to undermine the judge and the entire Sicilian anti-Mafia pool.
VENDOLA, SAVIANO AND GAYS - The chair of Puglia’s regional authority, Nichi Vendola, then mounted the Vieni via con me stage. Vendola went through all the ways of referring to homosexuals, from queers to bumboys, pederasts and crypto-fags. Savano immediately came back with the behaviour associated with gays “where I come from”: drinking beer with a slice of lemon, having clean nails, wearing beach shoes on the rocks or lying down for an injection. Vendola’s ironic reply: “I no longer know what my sexual nature is”. The exchange became serious when Vendola read out a list of suggested punishments for homosexuality, from “castration” to “deportation to a concentration camp”, “internal exile”, “locking up in a mental hospital” and “punitive rape”. There followed definitions of homosexuality made in public: a “crime”, a “disorder”, a “death impulse”, “filth” and a “sin”. Fazio concluded by quoting a recent remark by the prime minister, asking is it “better to look at pretty women than be gay?” Vendola noted: “It’s much better to be happy”.
English translation by Giles Watson
source
This was the most watched show on Monday night in Italy with 7.623.000 viewers, followed by the Big Brother with 4.862.000 viewers.
Benigni, Vendola and Saviano are IMHO amazing and I get emotional every time someone talks about Falcone.