Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej is a long series of TV shows directed by

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

theatre director and satirical artist Olga Lipińska.Wojciech Krzyżaniak
Właśnie wraca kabarecik.
''

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

'', 11 June 2010. Retrieved June 18, 2012. The cabaret was inaugurated in 1974 (under a different name) and subsequently closed in 1984 under the military rule in Communist Poland. It was re-established soon after the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1990, and broadcast until 2005 five to six times a year, for about half an hour. It was taken off the air again, this time for five years due to criticism in the press, and brought back in June 2010 by the TV station

TVP2 TVP2 (TVP Dwa, ''Telewizja Polska 2'', ''Program Drugi Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Dwójka"'') is a Polish public mainstream TV channel operated by TVP. Launched in October 1970, its varied line-up contains a variety of programming (documentary, h ...

.Mariusz Orłowski
Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej, czyli zielone lata dzieciństwa mojego…
Komitet Wyborczy '' Ruch Palikota'', Wybory Parlamentarne 2011. Retrieved June 18, 2012.

Background

Olga Lipińska began producing satirical programs for

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; TVP), also known in English as Polish Television, is a Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster in Poland, founded in 1952. It is the oldest and largest Polish television network. After 2015, when the right-wing po ...

in the late 1960s. The ''Gallux Show'' (1970–1974) was followed by her first true ''Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej'', produced in 1975–1977: a series consisting of 10 episodes entitled ''the Cabaret's just playing'' (''Właśnie leci kabarecik''). It was aired by the TV block of entertainment called ''Only on Sunday'' (Tylko w niedzielę). Between 1977 and 1981 she produced ''Curtain Up'' (''Kurtyna w górę''; 18 episodes), a widely popular program based on absurd and

surreal humour Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portra ...

featuring renowned artists such as Piotr Fronczewski, Wojciech Pokora, and Bohdan Łazuka. One of its best-remembered lines (from a restaurant sketch featuring Jan Kobuszewski) was: "Who ordered Russian ierogi" Answer: "Nobody. They came on their own." – It resulted in an official protest by the Soviet embassy in 1978, followed by secret police questioning. Lipińska was accused of political provocation and suspended from work for eight months; her producer, downgraded to a lower position; and the censor in charge, officially reprimanded. In the subsequent years, the cabaret (inspired by satirical writings of Gałczyński) was a door-opener for many stage artists including Barbara Wrzesińska, Jan Kobuszewski, and Marek Kondrat.

More controversy

''Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej'' was reactivated by the Polish TV station

on 11 June 2010 and almost immediately became the source of new controversy. It was aired just before the elections, although Lipińska insisted that its theme was non-political and focused on different types of voters instead (i.e. the ''Parsley or beets'' episode). Some candidates for office denounced it. Other viewers urged the public: "Please, do not vote for the

Beetroot The beetroot (British English) or beet (North American English) is the taproot portion of a ''Beta vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'' plant in the Conditiva Group. The plant is a root vegetable also known as the table beet, garden beet, dinner bee ...

!" From January 1993 to July 1996, 21 recorded episodes of Lipińska's cabaret dating back 30 years were released on a series of seven

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

s, each consisting of a group of broadcasts. Since 2008, they have been distributed in Poland by

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

. Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej.
Księgarnia ''Quo Vadis'' USA, Chicago IL. Retrieved June 19, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej Polish cabarets Polish satirical television shows 1974 establishments in Poland