Column: Fantozzi, Italian humor

Every country and every language has its own humor. This is often difficult to translate into your own language, because the humor element is often (partly) lost. In the Netherlands, for example, we have a lot of jokes about Belgians and how 'stupid' they are in our eyes.

Italians have that with the carabinieri (the military police). Experience has taught me that our Belgian jokes lend themselves very well to Italian translation, but with carabinieri characters. Success assured. Another success number were and are Fantozzi's films.

Zero sense humor

Italy also has the 'flat' humor that you can laugh about with your mind at zero and your eyes on infinity. In the 70s, these were Fantozzi's successful films. These were part of the Italian culture.

Who didn't know Fantozzi anyway? Ask Italians on the street who Fantozzi is and they will be smilingly hit by an attack of 'youth sentiment'. On Saturday night, entire tribes of people laughed their teeth to tears until their jaws ached. So dry and yet so predictable, but nevertheless a phenomenon.

Fantozzi, the biggest unlucky person in the world

The bookkeeper Ugo Fantozzi was played by the actor Paolo Villaggio. A dry civil servant, who is always the piss pole and experiences the most bizarre things in his daily life. His biggest 'accident' is his daughter Mariangela, a beautiful name, but a terribly ugly person.

That role was played fantastically by the actor Plinio Fernando, in real life not exactly mother's most beautiful. Fantozzi is startled to death every time he sees her. His wife Pina Fantozzi is also earthy. This role belonged to Milena Vucotic.

In the movie Fantozzi Subisce Ancora le Olimpiadi Aziendali (Fantozzi undergoes the corporate Olympics again) Fantozzi is once again the unlucky person of the corporate Olympics, which the company where he works organizes every year. He's going to have a hard time. It's also all because he called 'No. 17' on his shirt, the unlucky number in Italy. That is of course asking for trouble.

Even for readers who don't understand Italian, the non-verbal part will make you laugh. Italians are masters of talking with gestures and facial expressions.

So we go back in time (you can tell by the quality of the video), with a sample of genuine Italian humor.