The times of Freewith Flavia Vento closed in a transparent case in the center of the studio – a manifesto of female objectification that naturally filled television programs for decades – have been over for a while. The only one who hasn’t realized it yet, nostalgic for that vulgar comedy disguised as brilliant irreverence and yes, even a little macho, is his former host, Teo Mammucari, who made that way of joking and putting himself in front of a camera, bold and at times even arrogant, the bulwark of an entire career. Gone are the days of the vulgar joke or the swear word to shout into the phone during a prank call, but also those of the easy target to find, perhaps in the public, and shoot at nothing without hesitation. There are no longer the Flavia Ventos to keep under lock and key nor the Juliana Moreiras to be treated like idiots, all strictly for ‘joke’s sake’.

Twenty years later we no longer laugh at the same things and comedians have necessarily had to deal with it, as have all the protagonists of the entertainment world. TV moved on. And fortunately. Instead of the Gascon cabaret of Seven Show – hosted by Mammucari at the end of the 90s – the wittiest stand up comedy has arrived and a bandwagon of young artists with less easy but certainly fine and disruptive irony, such as Edoardo Ferrario and Valerio Lundini – to name a few – but also the multifaceted and irresistible Emanuela Fanelli. Political correctness has arrived, awareness towards minorities – no longer an object of laughter, whether one is in a studio or in a theater or on a set – the fight against bullying, including verbal bullying, but above all on TV, the women, beloved and authoritative, talented protagonists, and no longer an aesthetic accessory between silence and winking. So it can happen that for one evening she is the star and you, out of your comfort zone, prove too claustrophobic to stay in the display case.

The discomfort of Mammucari, a fish out of water in the new TV

Of the twenty minutes of pathetic drama aired on Tuesday evening at Beaststhe only sensible and coherent thing said, even more than once, by Teo Mammucari was that “I’m not at ease”. A phrase that says a lot about these last years of the showman’s career, spent chasing a runaway protagonism. Landed last year in Dancing with the stars to attempt the final coup in Rai, the success of the past now seems unattainable, despite having recently returned to the helm of a program – The disorientedbroadcast on Rai 2 – and so the new television panorama, completely transformed compared to its beginnings and where it struggles to carve out the space of the old times, makes him uncomfortable. For this reason he desperately tried to take the stage in front of a very tough Francesca Fagnani, with whom he even went so far as to compete, evidently feeling not only threatened but also defeated by the new player who was advancing. Or perhaps it would be better to say from the ‘new’ one that is advancing. As soon as he realized that there would be no space or way to do his usual show, he found a way to take it home anyway – so much so that he was careful not to sign the release despite the disastrous result of the interview – and (re)taking much more than 15 minutes of fame.

Touchy, pretentious, angry with a system that no longer works like it used to. Imprisoned in his stale character, Teo Mammucari continues to make the most fatal mistake an artist can make, that of remaining perched on the success he once was, convinced that he can survive on an income. It could have been a perfect ‘beast’, but instead he wanted to make ‘Mammucari’, but twenty years late.