Miranda Priestly is intent on silencing an Andrea Sachs who has become no Vax for the occasion: “Now you take the vaccine I give you and you like it”; Carrie Bradshaw wonders about the existence of the white zone in love; Jack Dawson toasts the “value of every single Dpcm”; Meghan and Harry are pointed out: “rthank the sky you are in this castle, respect those who brought you inside ». How to make satire in the days of social media? News and pop icons of the 90s, irony and discomfort, is the cocktail of the (brilliant) satire page transformed into meme Taste of bad, over 480 thousand followers only on Instagram, a community of loyalists on Facebook.
It tells and plays down the myths and anxieties of Millennials, and behind it there is Paolo Danzì, 36 years old, engineer, Sicilian transplanted to Emilia Romagna. The first post? “In 2017, I combined Sailor Moon with a pack of Xanax,” he says, and from there a flood of comments and sharing. Which, however, has not made him (so far) want to change strategy: he does everything (helped by the community), adds a new post when he wants to, without calculations or click hunting. The why and the reasons, Paolo already tells them in the bio: «Social engineering. Dark origins. Childhood trauma. Molecular Dogs. Metamorphism. Kingdom of Nonsense. Indolence. Over the centuries”. In other words, proceed with a free rein.
What’s inside Taste of bad?
“Anything that can speak to me and my generation. There are cartoons, Mike Buongiorno and Antonella Elisa, Sex and the City and Titanic. For me it’s a hobby, I never expected such a feedback ».
Who are the 30-year-olds of today?
“A very nostalgic generation, probably because we got stuck in a kind of eternal adolescence. For a thousand reasons, because it is difficult to find work, accommodation, a place in the world. We are the ones who when we hear the Spice Girls in a second we light up, we stayed there, emotionally blocked ».
Can it be healed?
“It’s not for sure”.
And who is 20 years old?
“In their twenties, my memes probably don’t say anything. And that’s okay. It’s a completely amateur project, I’m not aiming for anything else. Even the graphics are imperfect, it is as if it were a fullo of conscience. The intent is to say something funny, with a cynical and slightly nostalgic imprint ».
What is your idea of satire via social media?
«It’s an alternative way to tell reality, an effective way to get messages across. It tends to turn things upside down, it allows you to look at them from another point of view. For example, I like to put a political theme in the mouth of the Titanic characters. A question of power? The devil wears prada ».
Then came the first lockdown. What answer did you give to “you can even joke about the pandemic”?
“I thought about it for a long time, and I decided to focus on the contours of the crisis, the rest is too big, too serious. Thus came the posts on amuchina and yeast and those on video calls via zoom and on the colors of the areas ».
Does it set other limits?
“Lots of them. There are some themes that I don’t deal with, because I think we can do black humor, but not everything. And then there are things I don’t like and I prefer not to talk about. If there is a character that I don’t like, rather than attacking him I ignore him. For the rest, I try to take a stand, I take sides. Even if it is Topo Gigio who speaks ».
His favorite meme source?
“Titanic. Because it reminds me of the first time at the cinema with my middle school mates. The room full, the tears ».
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