#DIMALEINBINI. Federico Palmaroli: “I want to continue to do satire in total autonomy and try TV”

Federico Palmaroli was born in Rome on June 9, 1973. In 2015, he created the social pages The most beautiful phrases of Osho, in which he uses images of the Indian holy man Osho Rajneesh and, decontextualizing them, attributes to that character phrases taken from stereotypes of everyday life in the Roman dialect. In 2017, she receives the Forte dei Marmi satire award. Since 2018, she has dedicated herself exclusively, with the same humorous mechanism of her origins, to political satire and her “cartoons”; according to many, they manage to assume the rank of real editorials. From that moment on, she began collaborating with national newspapers such as Il Tempo and Corriere della Sera, and with TV programs such as Italy tonight And Door to door. Since 2018, he has been the “cartoonist” of the newspaper Il Tempo and since 2019 he has been the fixed satirical presence of the program Door to door. He has published two books with Rizzoli: See de fa little ‘or witty in 2020 and Carcola that they smash you in 2021 in which, through satirical cartoons, he recounts the last years of Italian and international politics. His initial experience is told in a TV series entitled The Santone, available from February 2022 on Raiplay. Currently, his Facebook page is followed by about 1,200,000 people and his Twitter profile has more than 500,000 followers. She is also present on Instagram with her personal profile, followed by more than 30 thousand users. She still considers all this a hobby and in fact she also carries out a “normal” profession.

When and why was the idea of ​​# lepiùbellefrasidiosho born?

«He was born on 23 February 2015. He was born like this, with no specific objective other than to have fun desecrating Eastern spirituality, trivializing the image of a holy man. A pure personal amusement that I obviously hoped could be shared on social networks. And so it was, even in an unexpected dimension. “

Satire is always more beautiful if done on the right rather than on the left. Are things changing or do the leftists continue to think that the “high” culture belongs to them?

“There is certainly this deep-rooted belief that good, and therefore also quality, is only on the left. Everyone thought I was on the left, because they thought it impossible that something artistically valid could come from the right. In this, I broke the fences a bit and still managed to make everyone like me. Then of course there is always someone who does not forgive you for declaring an ideological belonging to him unwelcome. In fact, I think that many people in the entertainment world profess to be leftist, even if they are not, so as not to run into some obstacle to their career. For me this started out as a hobby and in a sense it still continues to be. Perhaps this has given me more freedom of expression. “

You spare no one despite having a clear political position. Is there anyone who is seriously pissed off about the cartoons?

“I would say that I have always gone quite smoothly, apart from a couple of episodes that immediately returned, no one has ever pointed the finger at me, if not the most passionate supporters of the various political camps, the most avid ones, those who graze on social networks only for drool hate. I always applaud the indifference of people who, rather than throw yourself against a feeling as precious as hatred, just don’t shit you at all. “

As for the satire question, how are we in Italy?

“I would say that with the advent of social media satire has become a national pastime, everyone tries to make jokes, because it’s one thing to do them at home with friends and another thing is to have an audience that likes you and you brings out. It is a human mechanism. So, even if the technical tools are within everyone’s reach, rising is even more difficult. The real problem with satire today is politically correct. I am grateful for having trained myself humorously in times when comedy was freer to cross over even towards “improprieties”, especially on a cinematic level. Some masterpieces of the 80s today would meet the ax of censorship. As for me, I stop only in the face of death and disease; everything else is “satirizable” for me. “

From libraries to a sitcom for RaiPlay, The Santone. When did you perceive that you were becoming popular on the web, newspapers, on TV and therefore among the people?

«With Osho I immediately went viral, also because he was a national-popular character, disconnected from political issues, therefore certainly more transversal and universal. When I started dealing with political satire, things changed a bit, I will have lost many fans, I will have gained some, but surely the television limelight, the books and all the rest arrived when I started dealing. current issues. The series on Raiplay actually brings to light the first character I created, but it is a story unrelated to the cartoons, there is a narrative arc that recalls my first creature, but then it develops autonomously. “

Invitations, conferences, TV, meetings but what does Federico Palmaroli want to do when he grows up?

“In the meantime, to begin again to deal with political satire in the strict sense, which here between pandemic and war we have become a bit fossilized on topics that we never thought we had to tell. Then I do not hide that I would like to try to do something different on TV or radio, but it is just a desire without any presumption. Maybe I know na pippa! “

Are you engaged or do your loves remain the city of Rome and Lazio?

“I know engaged to Osho!”

A word each for Roberto Gualtieri, Silvio Berlusconi, Giorgia Meloni, Enrico Letta and Beppe Grillo. I spare you Luigi Di Maio.

“Nice. Timeless. Badass. Too much left. Victim of himself. “

#DIMALEINBINI. Federico Palmaroli: “I want to continue to do satire in total autonomy and try TV”