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Striscia la notizia

Striscia la notizia
Genre Satire
Comedy
Created by
Directed by (2005-present)
Presented by Various
Country of origin  Italy
Original language(s) Italian
No. of seasons 27
No. of episodes 6117+
Production
Running time 35/40 min
Release
Original network

Mediaset

Picture format 16:9 SDTV
Original release 1988–present

Mediaset

Striscia la notizia (pronounced [ˈstriʃʃa la noˈtittsja]) is an Italian satirical television program on the Mediaset-controlled Canale 5. Founded in 1988, it is meant to be a parody of the daily news, which airs right before the program, but Striscia also satirizes government corruption and exposes scams with the help of local reporters who are also comedians. The program is directed and produced by Antonio Ricci and is hosted by two major comedians. Usually Ezio Greggio (who co-founded the show with Gianfranco D'Angelo) is assisted by another comedian (such as Enzo Iacchetti or Michelle Hunziker) for the winter season, after which there is a change of guard with the two comedians Ficarra & Picone.

The name of the show literally translates in English as "the news slither". The polysemic term striscia (English: strip) refers to a cartoon strip (noun) while its conjugation strisciare is a verb which means "to crawl" or "to slither", thus allegorically referring to a worm or snake which slithers and bores underground digging holes and exposing "cheats".

The Gabibbo, an Italian cultural icon, acts as the mascot and is the soul of the show. Gabibbo is a caricature of an Italian layman, a low-income worker who lives near the docks of Genoa. Always loud, braggart but pungent in his naive but straightforward ways, he butts in everywhere he sees new friends to chat to with a childlike enthusiasm always running after the veline, the show's two dancing showgirls. He is, in some ways, like the Cockney type often seen in British comedies.

The term velina (English: tissue paper) is a figurative term in Italian journalism which refers to government-issued propagated news. It is a parody of the news industry during the Fascist era under the Mussolini where the government controlled and heavily censored all news reports and papers.


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