Humor and Cynical Political Parody in Italian Movies and Newspaper Cartoons

Italian cinematographic comedy is poised between an indulgent picture of Italian society and its recent history, and the denunciation of responsibilities and compromises. Movies such as the saga of Peppone [The Communist Mayor] and Don Camillo [The Parish], respond to a comforting representation of the common feeling whereby Italians, also in war or in political struggle, remain “good people,” sensitive to human values. However, in the post-war period we find a more crude and cynical satire of politics, typically in the form of social criticism, generally inspired by left-wing thinking, gradually more effective in denouncing the problems of an increasingly consumerist and individualistic society. Social satire has been able to interpret the widespread mistrust towards politicians, reflecting the long impasse of civil and social rights in Italian democracy and the growing cultural changes in society during the forty-year government of the Christian Democracy [Democrazia Cristiana] party. Different semiotic and rhetorical tools are used by films and other media to create desecrating and provocative satire, such as social alienation and hypocritical conformism, vulgar language as difference, and the hidden and petty faces of power.