Seriously Funny

Comedian Beppe Grillo may be banned from TV, but He hasn’t let that stifle his unique political humor

Maybe Beppe Grillo should have been a state auditor 
instead of a comedian. Back in December 2003, Italy 
was rocked by the Parmalat scandal, in which the 
Italian dairy conglomerate imploded in a vacuum of 
debt and deception that became the largest 
bankruptcy in European history. But Grillo had seen 
it coming. As early 4s 2001, he had a whole routine 
built around the Parma-based firm’s dubious balance 
sheet—noting that even 4s a multibillion-euro debt 
was piling up, Parmalat was expanding its product 
line to include a new milk that contained the 
fish-based supplement Omega-3. Grillo would walk 
through the crowd dunking a dead fish in a glass of 
milk, looking for a taste tester: “Drink it. Drink it. What’s the problem? It’s Omega-3!” It’s the 
quintessential Grillo tragicomic formula: use a touch of over-the-top humor to probe the serious 
social issues that leaders don’t want to touch.

The Parmalat skit was a far cry from Grillo’s early 
days on the Italian stand-up circuit. Back then he 
suffered from what he calls “punchline fever. I 
lived for that moment when the crowd breaks out 
laughing. So it was one joke, one punchline after 
another.” That fever broke in 1985, when Grillo 
decided to tackle topical humor. It began with 
venting his disgust for the melodramatic drivel he 
saw on television, then expanded to include riffs 
about false advertising and polluting consumer 
products. Grillo was still funny, but his jokes were 
now draped around barbed social commentary.

Then in 1987, during an appearance on the rai public 
television network, Grillo took a swipe at then 
Prime Minister Bettino Craxi that referred to 
ongoing suspicions of corruption. When the host of 
the show walked off, Grillo quickly realized that in 
the highly politicized world of Italian state TV, he 
was doomed. “The doorman wouldn’t even look at me,” 
he recalls with a wink. Craxi’s career ended in 
disgrace six years later after a vast corruption 
scandal, but ever since, Grillo has been persona non 
grata on state-owned stations and on Prime Minister 
Silvio Berlusconi’s private Mediaset network.

Instead, Grillo barnstorms around the country in 
sold-out arena shows, using the stage ever more 4s a 
platform for his crusades against government and 
corporate malfeasance. A big, bearded bear of a man, 
the 57-year-old Genoa native likes to roam through 
the crowd, mixing the physicality of John Belushi 
with the social conscience of José Bové. Grillo is 
that rare class clown who does his homework. He’s 
also started a blog that, not yet a year old, is 
already the most-trafficked in Italy. His favorite 
target these days is Bank of Italy governor Antonio 
Fazio, whose resignation has been widely demanded 
because of allegations of conflict of interest. 
Sometimes, when body politic is sick, laughter is 
the best medicine. —By Jeff Israely

Non sempre concordo con Grillo: certe volte è troppo superficiale e polemicoso. Però è innegabile che è uno dei pochi ad avere il coraggio di dire la sua: GIUSTO o SBAGLIATO che SIA, LUI dice ciò che pensa. E per questo lo ammiro.