2023-12-06 21:27:21
“They only ask me to be super partes, why doesn’t anyone ask Vauro?”. The meeting between the ‘beast’ Francesca Fagnani and Federico Palmaroli aka Osho immediately begins to bombard with current events. The occasion is the Capitoline presentation of the book by the well-known Roman cartoonist, now a Christmas event not to be missed. She presses him immediately: “Minister Sangiuliano’s warning to Radio1 because he resents satire is the news of the day”. But he doesn’t fall for it: “Sangiuliano is very witty, at least with me”, she says slyly.
“I have never received warnings or complaints”, Palmaroli then clarifies. Before explaining that almost no one ever complains about the cartoons, “in fact they often ask me about them, it also happened with Giorgia (Prime Minister Meloni, ed., dear friend of the cartoonist)”. Palmaroli has never hidden his ‘right-wing’ preferences, but – he explains – “this has never stopped me from making transversal satire”. Recently he also joked about Agriculture Minister Lollobrigida when he stopped the train because he was late. “Everyone puts a foot wrong, it’s difficult for it not to happen. I joked about the train incident, without any problems”, he explains.
Some ‘victims’ of his satire are more appreciated by readers than others. “The cartoons about Renzi enjoy widespread approval, the same as those about Di Maio, perhaps because they annoy everyone”, jokes Osho amidst laughter from the audience. Someone who works less? “The one who doesn’t work because he’s not very expressive is Mattarella – says Palmaroli – Maybe it’s also her role. At the premiere at La Scala the expression gave me satisfaction, and I was able to do the cartoon: ‘my goodness, what a great pain in the ass'”.
On the method used, he explains: “The joke comes first, I resort to the photo when nothing comes to mind.” However, not even his great irony makes him immune to criticism. “I suffer criticism – he admits – Sometimes I’m silent, sometimes I’m not”. And he says: “They ask me to be impartial, they only ask me. Why doesn’t anyone ask Vauro?”. The most inspirational moment, politically speaking, “was the period of the yellow-green government – says Osho – They were prairies, I had a world at my disposal”.
And he explains that the ever-growing interest of the public has led him to refine his technique and themes. “Before, the use of Roman dialect was enough, it was easier, now I had to raise the bar a bit and go into the content of the joke, because otherwise I became a bit repetitive. With Meloni it was easy to become a bit redundant, given that you already speak with Roman inflection”.
And if “the Royals are my comfort zone because no one has ever made themselves heard, and God forbid, it would be a bit strange”, the mayor of Rome Gualtieri is also a source of great inspiration (“Rome is my city, I know problems well”). Do they resent the right or the left more?, Fagnani finally asks. “It’s difficult on the left, they are people who are more accustomed to the dynamics of power and therefore also to the arrows of satire”, concludes Palmaroli. (by Ilaria Floris)
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