Gabibbo: Boy Attacked Disappeared – Irony is Dead

If the puppets are also beaten, you have to really worry. Last Thursday, in prime time on “Striscia la notizia” on Canale 5, we also saw this. Of course, Gabibbo is not just any puppet, he is the soul of “Striscia la notizia” (next Thursday, the last episode).

Gabibbo, we had left her with funny songs and we found her lying on the ground in the street. What happened?
“I was simply pointing out to a boy (Monday 9th, in Milan, ed.) that he hadn’t bought a ticket for the metro, and I was repeatedly thrown to the ground.”

Were you really afraid for your safety or was it more the bitterness of seeing yourself attacked?
«The bitterness at having been attacked in this way because, of course, I also deserve to be attacked for what I represent: the cathodic populist. I am the belly: I don’t speak, I burp. If I harangue on TV it means that on TV any banal puppet, if he moralizes, can obtain maximum credibility and popularity. If I had been hit as a symbol it was certainly there. Here, however, everything was much more banal: I regret you because you made an observation to me. He beat me up like those old people who complain about too much rumore».

Did you then have the opportunity to speak to that boy?
“No. I only hope that, once he reaches school, he doesn’t boast about his gesture to his classmates because cowardice is now becoming a merit.”

What would you say to him today?
«Unfortunately, Gabibbo was prophetic: in 1990, when he wasn’t yet born, I sang You’re cute, I’ll break your face, but it was a paradox to stigmatize the violence of certain characters, not a model to follow. Today, like all half measures, irony is dead.”

Gabibbo has 36 years of television career behind her and it has never happened that she has been beaten up. What does it mean?
«That if it is normal to attack teachers, it is also normal to abuse a maître à penser like me».

«Striscia» has made civic education its signature: parking on disabled spaces when you don’t have the right to do so, not paying for tickets on public transport, trying to contain pickpockets, calling for fraud and much more.
«Unfortunately in Striscia we are going against the trend: we are indignant and try to raise indignation because places for the disabled are occupied, but we are not indignant enough with those who want to occupy entire towns. Unfortunately the world is moving in the direction of arrogance.”

Do your battles yield results or do you think it’s more of a way to give correct messages, especially to young people, and try to change things?
“Striscia must keep this flame of hope alive for a better and respectful world at the cost of being beaten up.”

Do you hear this anger and aggression around that seems to be the new language among people?
«It is evident on our skin, just think about what they told us in these four episodes: we received attacks, one of our cameramen was thrown into the sea, Luca Abete was attacked while documenting the activity of illegal taxi drivers and was even threatened by neo-melodic singers, threats came to Moreno Morello for the emergency response investigation and to Rajae for the illegal occupants. In the investigation into neomelodics we saw how children are taught and made to sing songs that glorify violence, lyrics against legality and the police.”

You travel around Italy a lot: why have we reached this point?
«Because you ask puppets for solutions».

The night of the episode it was Al Bano who gave the voice to Gabibbo. Was he hurt?
«He was struck by the banality of the attack. He didn’t expect it. Violence is free and there is no one who puts taxes on violence.”

Will he come back, will you go back to the streets?
“Certain. We need to reclaim the streets because they teach, it’s the way to stay grounded and not live in a bubble.”