It’s already nostalgia for an era in which comedians bought their homes with jokes about Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi has been a cross and a delight for Italian satire. Undeniable Muse, Berlusconi coagulated in himself all the main themes of the genre, especially the binomial Sex & Power. He was a Nixon, but with the vices of a Kennedy: from the point of view of those who work in the castigat ridendo mores sector, a godsend – net of the fact that that manna were locusts, indeed precisely for this reason. After all, Silvio Berlusconi was intended in Lombrosian terms to be a satirical object, with that grotesque body (the facelifts, the transplants) accentuated by iconic elements (the bandana, the shoe lifts) which exalted its decadence, and personal style (the joke compulsive, vulgarly ostentatious wealth) of a rare boorishness and rudeness. A real contemporary Trimalchio, caricatured in every expression of him, he was a satirically too greedy morsel, an irresistible banquet for jokers and cartoonists; and if on the one hand this was the fortune of a genre – satire, in fact – otherwise always elitist and niche, which in those years in Italy was kissed by a dizzying popularity (only with Berlusconi did a phenomenon occur that never happened first and which is unlikely to be repeated: satire bought houses), on the other this phenomenon has meant that for too many years making satire in our country has meant only and exclusively making jokes about Berlusconi: a personalization that has dried up the genre, flattening it on monothematicity. The Berlusconi governments marked years in which satire in Italy was indeed successful, but on condition of losing its identity: in becoming militancy and counterinformation, in becoming a denunciation rather than a provocation, the “anti-Berlusconian satire” lost its real charge subversive of satire, that is ambiguity, to stand on a pedestal – antithetical to the satirical statute. Those were the years in which satirical comedians were authoritative, that is, no longer so funny or satirical – given the constitutively anti-authoritarian nature of satire. That satirical production resulted in the Movimento 5 stelle, a political party led by a comedian – and a very tragic ending to that “artistic” season.

I started working at the age of 18 writing jokes about Berlusconi: this was what the market was asking for, and there was a lot of demand. Over time, as I developed my own style and voice, I found it much more fun to make jokes about who Berlusconi elected him rather than about him; but – see above – it was impossible to resist occasionally churning out some ad personam, especially in the glorious years of the “Bunga-bunga”. I don’t know exactly what my first joke about Berlusconi was; from my archives, the oldest known to me is the following, relating to our involvement in the war in Afghanistan: “The Times of London revealed that the Berlusconi government allegedly paid the Taliban in Afghanistan. But Berlusconi has denied: he said that he has never screwed with a Taliban ”. The latest, the most recent, dates back to February of this year, commenting on Berlusconi’s acquittal from the Ruby trial: “To celebrate, the Olgettines sent Berlusconi a bus full of Monza players.” In between, many things have changed: starting with the fact that when I started working on TV jokes about Berlusconi couldn’t be made (the one about the Taliban was intended for live shows); but then yes – that last one was broadcast live serenely.

And this piece was my requiem: to Silvio Berlusconi and all the jokes about him.