‘Carcola che sfonno’, the cartoons of ‘Osho’ Palmaroli in time of Covid

Once upon a time there was ‘Il Forattini’. Today the cartoons that caricatured politics are in the hands of a guru of laughter, the “Osho” ​​Federico Palmaroli. “Carcola che ve sfonno” is the new collection of comic strips by the Roman author who in February will also see his original “fatigue” represented in a television series broadcast on RaiPlay. In the book no longer Giuseppe Conte on the cover, but a severe and threatening Mario Draghi, “very reserved, not at all mediatic unlike his predecessor” Federico explains to the Adnkronos which he was the first to grant the preview. Suddenly hilarious, again serious and mostly irreverent, Palmaroli is, for many, the new Forattini. Able to represent reality, approaching it with irony to the public, able to laugh at everything, even in times of pandemic. And perhaps this is the watershed between the two humorists, the completely different scenario in which the two laughter geniuses, the first class of ’31, the other ’73, found and found inspiration. “I would have liked to have done cartoons at the time when Giorgio Forattini began to draw them – says ‘Osho’ Palmaroli – When politics was very distant from citizens and politicians were almost unreachable, with an almost sacred aura. Today the scenario is completely different. , social media have narrowed the distance between the representatives of the institutions and the common people. And even the premier, distant even from his predecessor, takes choices duly endorsed, not only by the majority “. The days of Occhetto are far away, with the sickle, and Cossiga with the pickaxe, outlined in black on the hump of a very great and seraphic Andreotti. “In this historical phase, the people are at the center of my satire – says Palmaroli – vaccines are the main focus, for which the ongoing clash is an even more divisive topic than politics and the social war is underway. I take grotesque and never divisive events as manna from heaven, as was that of Monica Cirinnà’s dog, imagined as a billionaire who flattened his money. Then the wild boars, a real source of inspiration to get out of the insults (albeit today distant) of the palaces of power, from the stale of current politics, monopolized by the Covid theme “. Always be informed, even with cartoons: “A friend of mine discusses politics with her teenage son starting from my satire”, confirms Federico, looking at reality with detachment and irony. This is the key to reading “Carcola che sfonno”, a book “dedicated to that idiot who will take him seriously”. (By Silvia Mancinelli)