Documents published in this week’s grand Wikileaks disclosure describe Silvio Berlusconi as “feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader”. They also claim that “frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest”. If you followed the career of Italy’s premier this probably doesn’t come as a surprise.

The earliest Berlusconi cartoons on toonpool.com date back to early 2008 (here, here, & here). At the time, Il Cavaliere was running for office after Romano Prodi’s cabinet had fallen apart. Berlusconi won the elections and became prime minister once again. Over 650 new Berlusconi-themed cartoons and caricatures have been added since (click here to see them all). To put this in proportion: there are only a little more than a hundred pieces on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Queen Elizabeth II. and Prince Charles combined.

I think that there are two reasons for this. The first one is the relatively large number of Italian artists on toonpool.com, several of whom, apart from being very talented are also very politically-minded and, most of all, very productive. The second reason has to do with Berlusconi himself. There is something about that man that makes him especially suited for cartoons and caricatures.

The picture painted in the report mentioned above fits well with all the articles on Berlusconi’s blundering comments, his hair transplants, his sketchy pool parties, etc. Looking at these, it’s easy to see him as a joke, a cartoon character turned real. Of all the interpretations, Giulio Laurenzi’s big-nosed, high-heeled Silvio (left) is certainly the cartoony-est.

I was wondering if Italian cartoonists thought that their premier was funny and wrote a couple of emails to find out more. It turned out that none of them did.

In fact their perception of “Papi” was much darker than I had expected. Stefano Trucco, aka Kurtsatiriko, for example, wrote that: “in Italy we [don't have] any ideas about future after 15 years of Berlusconi. He modified most Italians’ minds trough television and newspapers.” A statement made by both Berni and Matteo Bertelli was particularly enlightening: both of them described his government as a “tragedy”.

This term fits well with the theatrical quality of Mr. Berlusconi’s style of government and creating a persona for himself. His efforts, however, are pointed in the exact opposite direction: reading about the things he does you can’t help noticing that he is trying to perform politics as a comedy. He has perfected the role of that lusty old buffoon you just can’t stay mad at. He is the star and the center of the political process.

I believe that it’s this tension the between his antics’ entertainment value and the way his policies are undermining democracy that does for the immense number of cartoons.

The question is, if it is possible to fight comedy with comedy, so to say. Don’t cartoons emphasize and strengthen his persona and a cynical view on politics? About a year ago, following the “Milan Cathedral” incident, I was quite disturbed by a number of cartoons, that turned an act of violence into a part of the Italian comedy – a kind of real-life slapstick (1,2,3). On the other hand, how do you fight this kind of tragicomedy? An exclusively objective approach will very likely lack public support and be an easy target for ridicule. I am at a loss here. Admittedly, Mr. Berlusconi will probably not remain in office for too long, now that Gianfranco Fini has sort-of seceded from the PDL. But there might be other comedians following his example.

Paul Hellmich

title image: caricatures by David Pugliese, Rodrigo, Portos, and Dragan

There are some cartoons that simply seem to refer to the fact that the assault happened and that it happened to a person no one in their right mind feels pity for (here, here & here). Others try to make the point that Berlusconi has finally felt the power of the Italian people (here, here & here), conveniently disregarding the attacker’s history of psychological problems. The weirdest version, by far, is this Jesus Vampire Freemason Berlusconi thing. Is his ear representing some shape I should know?

While some cartoonists draw parallels to the 2008 Iraqi shoe throwing incident (here & here), others link the attack to the Copenhagen Conference (here & here). To be honest, I don’t think that any of the cartoons is very good. Except for the vampire.. and perhaps this sexy-nurses-in-a-15-year-old-boy’s-room collage. Or these cartoons  I didn’t understand because they are in Italian (here & here).

Cartoons of Interest

Christmas is coming up, so this week’s favorite is another holiday-themed cartoon. Andreas Prüstel’s untitled cartoon ["So.. what are you?" "Same thing as last year."] nicely fits into my personal (and annual) present-finding terror. There is definitely a pattern emerging in the presents I give away. Come to think of it, there has been a pattern ever since I started giving presents away. Oh, well.

This week, there are some other great works I would like to refer to: Junior Lopez has created an amazing portrait of Sherlock Holmes; fellow Brazilian William Medeiros did this cool and classic caricature of architect Oscar Niemeyer. Finally, there’s Rex May’s cartoon about potentate-people relations.

Have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah or a solemn and dignified Kwanzaa.  That is, if you’re celebrating. Otherwise, have some good days anyway.

Paul Hellmich

The Berlusconi cartoons are pretty uniform in their evaluation of the court’s decision – no one seems to like that little rich guy. As you would suspect, a lot of them come from Italy. Some, unfortunately, exceed my language skills and the Google translator (my Italian is basically French with an accent). So, if anyone could translate one of these, I’d be happy. Cartoons without words or even in English are easier. I liked the way these two by Uber and Matteo Bertelli correspond if you ignore that it’s Lady Justice in one cartoon and Italia Turrita in the other.

As a whole, the cartoons express some hope that Signore B. will finally feel the consequences of his actions (take either one of these). And then there is this one that shows Lady Justice dropping her blindfold and as a consequence all that makes justice just. I don’t know if this was intended or not.

The Obama cartoons differ in their interpretation of the event but, as a friend pointed out to me, a lot of them replicate toonpool.com’s well-established categories of opinion. There are those that  emphasize the hope for change (this one and this one). There are those that concentrate on aggressive American foreign policy (here and here). There are those that… dislike Obama (here). And there is George W. Bush winning the prize.

Finally, there are two cartoons that manage to include Silvio and Barack (here & here).

Cartoons of Interest

My favorite this week is “Execution” by Easterby. It’s a very classic cartoon –  banana republic-style military executions definitely are cliché cartoon settings. And a similar joke has been made in several films and TV programs (with a blind guy instead of an executionee). But I still laughed. Take that, innovative humor.

Paul Hellmich