Beppe Grillo seems like a character many of us would like, even if we can’t quite get his name right. A clown, a provacateur, perhaps the honest man Diogenes kept searching for, he is taking Italy by storm. Here’s an intro, in the New Yorker, followed by a link to his web site — in English for the mono-linguals among us….

On September 8th, two million people in two hundred and twenty cities across Italy celebrated V-Day, an unofficial new national holiday, the “V” signifying victory, vendetta, and, especially, “Vaffanculo” (“Fuck off”). The event had been organized by Beppe Grillo, Italy’s most popular comedian, to protest endemic corruption in the national government. Grillo, a bearlike, trumpet-voiced man of fifty-nine with a pile of graying curls, is a distinctly Italian combination of Michael Moore and Stephen Colbert: an activist and vulgarian with a deft ear for political satire. … A large screen had been set up … projecting the names of twenty-four convicted criminals currently serving as senators and representatives in the Italian parliament, or as Italian representatives in the European Parliament. Grillo read the names aloud, in alphabetical order, together with their crimes, which ranged from corruption, perjury, and tax evasion to more inventive infractions, such as fabricating explosive ordnance and aiding and abetting a murder. The crowd booed and jeered, raising their index and middle fingers in a V, for victory, or, whenever Grillo cried “Vaffanculo,” their middle fingers alone.

Beppe’s Inferno

Here he has some grillo-zen techniques to discover the truth:

3 Without laughing, read aloud an electoral programme chosen at random in front of a mirror in candle light (example: the contract with the Italians or the 208 points of the Olive. )

4 Always expect the worst. Whoever is thinking of the worst does not fear surprises. They can live peacefully. What else could happen to them? (example: the State will go bankrupt. The State bonds will be frozen. Italy will leave the Euro and our capital will crumble to dust.)

GrilloBlog

[thx Michael Ferber]

Print PDF