Striscia la notizia


Striscia la notizia 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 is assisted by another comedian 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 refers to a cartoon strip 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

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 ''veline''

The term velina 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.
Within Striscia, the veline are two young women in their early twenties who come on stage to hand the "news anchors" their news and perform short dances called stacchetti, always finishing up on the news anchors' desk.
The names of the veline for each season of Striscia are announced after a long beauty pageant during the summer. The program is called Veline. A similar program, "Velone", is a contest for women in their 60s. As in "Veline," the women dance and perform in brief sketches.
The word velina has become a synonym for television presenters's assistant. In 2012 also velinismo became an entry in the Zingarelli dictionary.

The ''veline''

The Reporters

The Tapiro d'Oro, a small golden statue, is a special "prize" delivered to big celebrities or politicians who have been humiliated or defeated. Although many personalities take it in front of the cameras in the hope of getting attention for themselves, others run away and Valerio Staffelli, a special correspondent for the show, has to run after them until they finally take it. Some even react aggressively. Rai Uno Director Fabrizio Del Noce, cornered by Staffelli, banged his microphone on the reporter's face, breaking Staffelli's nose.

Subtitles

Each edition of Strip uses a subtitle always different, which reads the voice of-enza.
YearEditionSubheading
1988/1989Giornale Radio
1989/1990La voce dell'innocenza
1990/1991La voce dell'incoscienza
1991/1992La voce dell'impotenza
1992/1993La voce dell'incontinenza
1993/1994La voce dell'intenza
1994/1995La voce dell'insistenza
1995/1996La voce dell'impenitenza
1996/19979aLa voce dell'incandescenza
1997/199810ªLa voce dell'insorgenza
1998/199911ªLa voce dell'inavvertenza
1999/200012ªLa voce dell'interferenza
2000/200113ªLa voce dell'imprudenza
2001/200214ªLa voce dell'insolenza
2002/200315ªLa voce della differenza
2003/200416ªLa voce della renitenza
2004/200517ªLa voce dell'indipendenza
2005/200618ªLa voce della divergenza
2006/200719ªLa voce della turbolenza
2007/200820ªLa voce della persistenza
2008/200921ªLa voce della supplenza
2009/201022ªLa voce dell'influenza
2010/201123ªLa voce dell'improvvidenza
2011/201224ªLa voce della contingenza
2012/201325ªLa voce dell'insolvenza
2013/201426ªLa voce dell'irruenza
2014/201527ªLa voce dell'indecenza
2015/201628ªLa voce dell'invadenza
2016-201729ªLa voce dell'impudenza

Listen since 2008

EditionsYearBetsMedia plays
21°2008–20092219.315.000 – 34.30%
22°2009–20102217.530.000 – 27.85%
23°2010–20112226.246.000 – 23.49%
24°2011–20122235.928.000 – 20.99%
25°2012–20132275.613.000 – 19.88%
26º2013–20142205.009.000 - 18.29%
27°2014-20152215.353.000 - 19.48%

Awards and recognition