The second episode of ‘Scherzi a Parte’ hosted by Max Giusti on Canale 5 perhaps justifies the 26% share of the debut one. The show is fun, the host works, and the writers are truly infamous. Evil subjects that no one would want against, given how diabolically Machiavellian they can become. But we certainly don’t let ourselves be intimidated. Below, passed and failed.
Max Giusti’s coup (who did it to the Gialappi): vote 8
He left the ‘GialappaShow’ to answer the call from Mediaset and we all thought he had screwed up big time. Instead, Max Giusti did it. Right under your nose. In the prime time of Canale 5 it is like a cacio e pepe, between the canonical hosting and its characters (Alessandro Borghese, Cristiano Malgioglio and Aurelio De Laurentiis, the latter strictly connected). The voice set is trademarked, you may like it or not, it stays that way. But Giusti proves to be perfectly at ease in the gigantic studio, mocks the guests with ironic grace and shows off his entire repertoire of masks, always hilarious and caustic. He didn’t shoot himself in the foot, even though seeing him at ‘Caduta Libera’ led us to believe so. He simply gets trapped in quizzes because they give him less space to express himself, he’s for the show. The right man in the program that suits him best. He has fun, we have fun. And whoever changes the channel is a Gialappo!
The holy card to Samira Lui, only the choirs of ‘Hosanna eh!’ were missing: vote 5
For goodness sake, the prank on Samira Lui was rather cruel. The police raid the studios of ‘La Ruota della Fortuna’, a commissioner questions her in the office for affairs related to drug dealing, incitement to prostitution, money laundering, receiving stolen goods. But who is he? Tony Montana in sequins?! However, she falls for it with all her heels, but it is the tone of the narrator of the joke that is, in the long run, cloying. Everything seems to be set up just to make her come out as holy, perfect: “Samira is the most loved by Italians”, “Samira cares a lot about her job”, “Samira has entered the history of Italian television”, “Samira once appeared to the Madonna”. Only one of these four sentences was not actually uttered on the broadcast. The broadcast, among other things, practically co-hosted by her (as Lorella Cuccarini did last week). The impression is that we must like Him. And by now he already has both shoes in the primetime of the flagship, that is where we will find her again, shortly. But besides the superlative narration, what else is there? A beautiful girl who, for the moment, simply echoes the words of the host, whether Uncle Gerry or Max Giusti. Surrounded by choirs of ‘Hosanna eh!’.
Ermal Meta argues in strict Apulian dialect, barefoot in the middle of the night: rating 9
They drove him crazy. We are used to seeing him always calm, interpreting profound lyrics with his delicate voice. A delicate voice which, however, if (un)rightly solicited can transform into a tsunami of expletives in strict Apulian dialect. Ermal Meta is perhaps the surprise of this episode, he had never seen himself like this nor would we have imagined it. Having just returned from a concert, he returns to the hotel with his assistant Viviana (accomplice to the programme, ed.). She gets locked in the elevator in the middle of the night, a thousand alarms go off, the woman screams, Ermal goes to her aid but can’t do anything. Furthermore, he is opposed by the three maintenance workers who use not-so-veiled insults at both of them. It will now be four in the morning when Meta, left alone in the corridor with the concrete suspicion that Viviana has fainted in the cabin because, after a thud, she no longer responds to him, takes the opportunity to stretch. Locked out of the room, demagnetized paper, he was in his pajamas but above all barefoot, on December 14th. A cold beak. It might as well be warmed up like this in the Sperindio. The most successful prank of the evening. Especially because it showed a ‘new’ side of the character. That should be the goal, right?
Matteo Bassetti stuck on the padel court, the weakest joke of the episode: rating 4
There must also be a reason why the authors left it until last. And the reason isn’t because it was some sort of icing on the cake. The joke on the virologist Matteo Bassetti is the weakest of the evening, first of all for audio reasons: he feels very low, especially him, we are unable to sadistically enjoy his every reaction. It is no coincidence that the supporting subtitles intervene as in any episode of ‘Temptation Island’. However, our guy finds himself playing padel as a couple with his wife (accomplice of the program, ed.). On the other side of the net, a friend (also an accomplice, ed.) and a huge rude man named Ascanio. Knowing that Bassetti is a fool with the racket, they let him win the first set. Then, the locusts: the rival knocks him over with balls, invents fictitious rules to call a foul and stop the action, it’s the torture of the Chinese drop. However, he speaks Romanish. Without any respect, he even begins to compliment Mrs. Bassetti, even writing her a message on Instagram. At this point, the doctor explodes and shouts: “I’ll put a hole in your head, go away, quickly!”. Obvious conclusion: the unfortunate virologist tries to take the door, but the exit is blocked. Nothing, we wrote it much funnier than it was. Which is probably saying something.
Filippo Bisciglia escapes to psychiatry by his ‘fainted’ cousin: score 8
Max Giusti disguised himself as Alessandro Borghese and chilled him at the beginning of the episode: “But do you really exist? I thought you only came out in the summer, like watermelons!”. And this is a welcome to Filippo Bisciglia, host of ‘Temptation Island’ and therefore master of ceremonies of Cervate TV. The joke that the program plays on him, however, has nothing to do with cheating and cheating. More simply, the unfortunate man sees his cousin Lorenzo faint in front of him, after a game of tennis. The ambulance takes him away, he follows it cursing the navigator, very worried. Once in the hospital, the doctor (an actress, ed.) reassures him: the relative is fine, except that he had ‘a blackout’ and now ‘perhaps he’s confusing reality with fantasy a little’. Bisciglia finds him enticed, convinced that he is a singer. He raves about upcoming tours, shouts ‘Cinque Giorni’ by Michele Zarrillo at the top of his lungs, getting almost all the lyrics wrong. Meanwhile, next to him there is another patient, catatonic, who screams ‘Ada’, without a reason. Filippo soon realizes that he is in the Psychiatry department and, left alone ‘among crazy people’, he doesn’t know how to manage the chaotic situation. All in all, he demonstrates a calmness that perhaps we wouldn’t have thought could belong to him, but in the end he runs away, albeit politely. The only real victim in all this remains poor Michele Zarrillo who, really, didn’t deserve such havoc.
The untouchable Claudio Amendola victim of an inspection at (his) restaurant: rating 6.5
By now Claudio Amendola is a fan of ‘Scherzi a Parte’. We are at the fourth time in which the program chooses to pull a trick on him, but the most epic remains that of the early 2000s, when a tattoo artist made him believe he had imprinted the Lazio eagle forever on his entire back. This time, they target him in his Milanese restaurant serving Roman cuisine (but is he a hustler?, ed.). Three NAS inspectors arrive, one more unpleasant than the other. The one in command candidly admits to him that he wants him to close the place ‘to move up in rank’ and that, consequently, he will find a way ‘so tomorrow morning all the newspapers will talk about it’. The threats don’t intimidate the actor who, at first, shows off a good philosophy: “Go ahead, I’ll reopen three more anyway.” However, when the chief inspector begins to ‘touch’ him, taking him in with his hands, Amendola transforms into the Hulk: “You don’t have to do that, keep your hands off, I’ll get nervous”, he hisses at him like a growling puma. Unheeded, he invites him to discuss the issue ‘outside’, that is, he wants to run him. Meanwhile, an assistant at the restaurant confesses to him that he was the one who called these checks because he misses the sushi from the restaurant that was there before, replaced by the Amendola restaurant. “I’m about to beat you, stop me!”, our very bullish guy replies, while four people try to hold him back. Perhaps a thread less plausible than the others – because it is more ‘acted’ – the joke ends prematurely because ‘the Cesarone’ notices the earpiece worn by one of the actor-inspectors. Luckily another five minutes had passed, someone ended up in the hospital. And certainly not Amendola, the untouchable!
