During the live Twitch commentary on the Portugal-Slovenia game, in connection with the Gialappa band he was there last night Enrique Balbontinthe comedian who was famous in Zelig for his “Savonese lessons”. When Josip Ilicic entered the field, more or less halfway through the second extra period, Balbontin came up with a very wrong joke that, in a television context, would have more or less the same effects as the joke about socialists made by Beppe Grillo in 1986. Before he showed it. , a little ‘ context: Josip Ilicic’s presence at the European Championships is the most classic of fairy tales with a happy ending. The former Palermo, Fiorentina and Atalanta footballer fell and got up several times from depression which made him fully recover only when he returned to his home, to Maribor, the team that sent him as a boy. So to see that great champion play a round of 16 against Cristiano Ronaldo’s team is exactly what, pardon the rhetoric, is usually conveyed by a phrase: the magic of football.
Enrique Balbontin knows this context clearly. Here he interjects an impenetrable and very wrong joke which Banna Gialappa immediately labels as “Balbontin’s prophecy”: “For Ilicic, it would be nice if after overcoming depression, he takes a penalty, loses it and commits suicide.” Gialappa comes in immediately: “Ma nooo!”. And Dissocillo is in the center of the scene immediately, that is the puppet created by Banna Gialappa when necessary when someone in the studio is allowed to make this kind of joke. As if everything was written, the game went on until Josip Ilicic lost it. Balbontin and Gialappa’s can’t hold back their laughter while in the studio, to tell the truth, it seems a little cold is getting worse.
Whether the joke is liked or not, if it provokes anger, if it disturbs or alienates one’s personal spheres, is none of the writer’s business. Everyone has his own experience on his shoulders, his own intellect and is able to judge the context according to the reference compasses in his pocket. However, “Balbontin’s prediction” shows us that the Twitch context is cheaper, at least apparently, than the TV one. It is no coincidence that the Gialappa Band itself decided some time ago, in the absence of other relevant proposals, to migrate to this platform for its own projects. Gialappa knows very well that she can free her language on Twitch in a way that not even on Tv8, becoming completely effortless even on very sensitive topics such as mental health. Enrique Balbontin would not be able to make a joke like that on Rai or Mediaset. The television thugs, who are connected to one political party or another, would leave an account without delay to measure the viewing figures; the questions, the press releases, the distances, the defenses that would have started. In short, the ax of protection and guarantee of the sensitivity of others would have fallen.
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The paradox is that Twitch is free up to a point: A joke like this about mental health could hit much harder than bare breasts. But on the Amazon-owned platform, sexual content, like gratuitous violence, is expressly prohibited. Nipple exposure alone is enough to get content creators into serious trouble. Speaking of excess. For the rest, we can argue all day about whether a joke about depression can make you laugh. But it is not that such a joke should not be made. In fact, we would fall into the trap of “nothing can be said anymore” which is, in fact, a trap. It’s not true that you can’t say anything anymore, you can say anything, you have to say anything. We can’t deny, however, the witch-hunt climate that has long targeted even the politically incorrect holy monsters, from Ricky Gervais to Dave Chapelle. OK, Enrique Balbontin isn’t Ricky Gervais, he isn’t Dave Chapelle, but that’s exactly a joke (it’s a joke!) they would have done. A joke that the traditional media, even on GialappaShow itself which was broadcast on TV8, would not be broadcast today. A joke that shows the strange effect that is generated every time someone makes a joke about topics that cannot be touched by someone.
Gennaro Marco Duello (1983) is a professional journalist. He graduated in Communication Sciences at Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples. He has been working at Fanpage.it since 2011. He made his first fiction in 2022 with the novel Un male purissimo (Rogiosi). California Milk Bar – The chasm of Secondigliano (Rogiosi, 2023) is his second novel.