Gialappa's Band is the name used by Marco Santin (born 11 February 1962 in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

), Carlo Taranto (born 16 December 1961 in Milan), and Giorgio Gherarducci (born 1 November 1963 in Milan), the Italian trio of TV and radio commentators.

Overview

Gialappa's Band formed in 1985 at the

Radio Popolare Radio Popolare (or RP) is an independent radio station based in Milan, Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterra ...

, where they launched the show ''Bar Sport''. The show contained satirical commentary on Sunday matches of Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

. The trio also commented on the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, employing large doses of sarcasm and sound effects (smashed glass and car crashes for tackles and fouls, babies crying for injured players, sounds of hammers and saws for medical interventions on the pitch, etc.) to emphasize on-screen action. Their delivery was hectic and at times chaotic, sharpened by hyperbole and zany, sharp, non-sequitur witticisms. The format was very successful and, , they have broadcast comments on every football match for the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

and

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

since 1986. Several

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

matches were also commentated upon during the 1990s. The trio also employed mock national anthems, such as the Sex Pistols' " Anarchy in the U.K." for England,

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

tracks for Germany, etc. They eventually moved to private radio station

Radio Deejay Radio DeeJay is an Italian radio station. It was founded on 1 February 1982 by the Italian radio and television personality Claudio Cecchetto and was acquired by the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso in 1989. In 2020 EXOR (of the Agnelli-family) became ...

, and later on to

Radio Due Rai Radio 2 (''radio due'') is an Italian radio channel operated by the state-owned public-broadcasting organization RAI and specializing in talk programmes and popular music from Italy and China. History The origins of the channel can be tr ...

. In 2006, Sky Sport offered Gialappa's Band as an alternative live commentary to its official broadcast featuring

Fabio Caressa Fabio Caressa (born 18 April 1967) is an Italian journalist and football commentator, broadcasting for Sky Italia. Career Caressa began his career in 1986 for Canale 66, a local Roman broadcaster linked to TeleRoma56. In 1991 he was chosen ...

and Giuseppe "Beppe" Bergomi — which coincided with

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

winning that year's World Cup, its first since 1982 and its fourth title overall. At the same time, Gialappa's Band were hired as television writers for several shows broadcast by

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

's network

Mediaset Mediaset Italia S.p.A., also known as Mediaset, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope. Founded in 1987 by former ...

. Their first original show was 1989's ''Mai dire Banzai'' (Never Say Banzai!), an Italian interpretation of the Japanese game shows ''

Takeshi's Castle is a Japanese game show that aired between 1986 and 1990 on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). It features the Japanese comedian Takeshi Kitano (also known as Beat Takeshi) as a count who owns a castle and sets up difficult physical challeng ...

'' and ''

Za Gaman is a Japanese television program from the 1980s. It is not particularly well-known or remembered in Japan, but it became famous in other countries, particularly the United Kingdom. This is likely due to its appearance on the British televisi ...

''. As in all of their previous shows, the trio never appeared on-screen, instead, adding voice-over comments, often mocking the acting characters. The success of ''Mai dire Banzai'' spurred their most famous TV show, ''

Mai dire Gol ''Mai dire Gol'' was an Italian football television program of featuring Gialappa's Band, which was broadcast on Italia 1 from 18 November 1990 to 25 February 2001. The program was, at the beginning, the footballing version of Gialappa's Band's ...

'' (Never Say Goal!) as well as the similar ''Mai dire Mundial'' (Never Say World Cup!), which was devoted to the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

and repeated for the 1994 edition. These formats, very similar in concept to the radio program ''Bar Sport'', featured performances by various comical actors. During ''Mai dire Gols long run, Gialappa's Band hosted such actors as

Teo Teocoli Antonio "Teo" Teocoli (born 25 February 1945) is an Italian actor, TV conductor, singer and writer appearing in about 30 mostly Italian productions since 1975. Selected filmography * ''Paolo e Francesca'' (1971) * '' The Boss and the Worke ...

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Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo are an Italian trio of comedians, actors, directors and screenwriters, composed of Aldo Baglio (; born 28 September 1958), Giovanni Storti (; born 20 February 1957) and Giacomo Poretti (; born 26 April 1956). Perfo ...

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Gioele Dix Gioele Dix, a pseudonym of his name David Ottolenghi (born 3 January 1956) is an Italian actor and comedian of Jewish descent. Life Gioele Dix began his theatrical career at the end of the 1970s, promoting and animating the Milan stage compan ...

Luciana Littizzetto Luciana Littizzetto (born 29 October 1964) is an Italian comedy actress, shock jock and humor writer. Littizzetto is known in her home country for her irreverent gags, lampooning government ministers and church prelates alike. Nicknamed "Luciani ...

Paolo Hendel Paolo Hendel (born 2 January 1952) is an Italian actor, playwright and comedian. Life and career Born in Florence, at young age Hendel made several works, including gamekeeper, guardian of a garage and detective.Giorgio Dell’Arti, Massimo Par ...

Fabio De Luigi Fabio De Luigi (born 11 October 1967) is an Italian actor, voice actor, comedian, film director, television presenter, and former basketball player. Biography Great-grandson of Tonino Guerra; has a son, Dino, born in 2007, and a daughter, Lola, ...

, and many others. Several of these actors gained popularity in Italy through their work on the show. Currently, Gialappa's Band have parlayed the show into an alternative commentary program on RTL Radio, entitled ''Noi dire Gol'' (We Say Goal), which has included commentary from Euro 2012 and the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

.2014 FIFA World Cup Semifinal - Brazil 1-7 Germany (Commentary by Gialappa's Band on ''Noi Dire Gol'')
YouTube (originally aired on RTL)

References

External links

Official Facebook Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gialappas Band Italian television personalities Italian comedians Mass media people from Milan 1962 births Living people