Meet the cast. From left to right: Pippo Palmieri, Gibba, Marco Mazzoli, Maccio Capatonda, Ivo Avido, Herbert Ballerina.
- "Attention - in this program, the kind of comedy we're proposing is irreverent, with an explicit and common language full of swear words and vulgarity in general. If you're sensitive to this kind of stuff, then you're asked to avoid listening to it as a whole."Disclaimer (paraphrased) by cast member Petosauro at the beginning of each episode
Alternatively known as "The Zoo!" or "Lo Zoo", "Lo Zoo Di 105" (literally, "The Zoo Of 105 [Radio]") is an Italian sketch comedy radio program, that can be best described as "about as much Refuge in Audacity as possible". Which of course is part of its charm among its fanbase.
It all started back in 1999, when DJ Marco Mazzoli was working with his colleague, Gilberto "Gibba" Penza, at New York City for the 105 N.Y. radio show, thus giving birth to what would later become one of the most popular radio shows in Italy ever. One year later, the show was canceled due to the excessive vulgarity, only to be uncanceled shortly after. During the following years, a lot of DJs were introduced, but not much of the supporting cast really seemed to stick aside from Mazzoli, Gibba and the notoriously controversial/divisive parody singer Leone Di Lernia. Then, after causing two more controversies - namely, a joke about torturing animals and an accidentally aired blasphemy - the show got canceled twice again for these respective reasons, but each time it got uncanceled and resumed broadcasting (once from a studio located in Miami, for those curious).
At the end of 2010, three members of the supporting cast abandoned the show for good and started working for one of the main radio stations in Italy, Radio Deejay (easily the best-known in Italy, which is why long-time fans of the show saw this as the ultimate selling-out, if not a full-fledged Face–Heel Turn). This Channel Hop made the show's fandom fear the worst... until it was announced that famous comedian Marcello Macchia,
better known by his "Maccio Capatonda" moniker, would join the show's crew alongside his fellows. Considering Macchia's own reputation in Italy as one of the funniest - if not Mind Screw-y - comedians in the country, his recruitment in the show has been perceived as, say, the equivalent of Monty Python joining Whose Line Is It Anyway? if some of the latter's hosts happened to drop the show for some reason. In other words, as you might have guessed, the fandom rejoiced. To this day, the show's doing fine (and even got a Live-Action Adaptation shown on Comedy Central) and it's not going to stop anytime soon... hopefully.
Its current timeslot is between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM, Italian timezone.
The Other Wiki has a brief article on the show.
List of some of the featured sketches:
- Chuck Norris Facts - Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a Dramatic Reading of the Facts, adapted as a radio sketch. It worked until the Facts
stopped being the cutting edge among fads, and then the focus of the Memetic Badass treatment became Bear Grylls of Man vs. Wild fame, and later MacGyver. - Merde Stellari (Star Shits) - as you might guess, it's a parody of the Star Wars franchise. Notable in that it serves as a Bat Family Crossover for the entire cast of the show.
- Ninfowoman (Nymphowoman) - a sketch involving a woman from another planet who uses her superpowered vagina to fight crime... with "any" means necessary.
- Il Discoretto (Rectuum Disco) - parody of an old radio program about reading love letters. It features love letters from people with weird nicknames talking of their absurd sexual habits, and the host's e-mail addresses, which are sex-oriented parodies of popular italian songs.
- Gay Team - Guess what? The A-Team, but they're homosexual. And they build tons of penis-themed vehicles.
- Marcello "Maccio" Macchia's own sketches deserve their own list:
- As a part of his sketches adapted from TV, there's his chronically depressed and constantly broke musician persona, Mariottide. By the end of the episode, the guy - as well as his ditzy son - has suffered enough Amusing Injuries to put the burglars from Home Alone to shame.
- Unreal Radio, radio version of Unreal TV, which in turn parodied Real TV. The sketch is about a reportage of highly implausible facts. Basically Shocking Moments getting Played for Laughs. Later, it moved into describing the tentatives of an eternal loser named Bino Da Vinobogge to enter into the Guinness World Records as things like "Horsiest Man in the World".
- Jerry Polemica (Jerry Controversy), a thinly disguised - and generally thinnier - parody of Michael Moore, this character talks about such controversial topics as... mundane things that really aren't.
- Babbi Editore (Teddy Press) - fake commercials about either Do-It-Yourself kits or "How To" guides. The range of things includes how to become boozers, or "how to become a politician by getting laid with one".
- Star Gay - while the title is a pun on Stargate, the actual sketch is a gay version of Star Trek. As with any sex joke in the show, expect puns by the bucketload.
- Forse non tutti sanno che... (Not everyone knows that...) - Little Known Facts about famous characters and their secret twin brothers who were the exact opposite of them, or about how normal things of life (like Christmas, childhood or sex) once didn't exist until the great genius known as Paride from Messina came by and invented them.
- L'Ispettore Anale (Inspector Anal) - Rossano Anale, a man who became blind after he stuck a pair of heated metal bars in his own eyes when was young, teaches Crimianusology (the art of solving crimes by smelling butts and doing prostate exams to the suspects) in a university. Every time he has to interrupt his lesson to solve a crime. Featuring a narrator that just repeats the last line said before his intervention.
- Mistero (Mystery) - A parody of the Italian TV show with the same name, features mystery detective Amiam Miammo and his costant failures of finding proof of mysterious creatures being real. Some of his failures include the findings of a documentary about an alien coming on Earth and manuscripts showing pictures of a secret society of anthropomorphic animals.
- Dissapori (Disagreements) - A Soap Opera parody and a deliberate Mind Screw. The episodes are apparently aired
in a totally random order (and judging by the opening narration, it has at least 3 billion episodes), with every episode featuring a completely different cast of characters with only some unseen characters and locations being the same all the time and each episode ends in a cliffhanger that is easily recapped in a Pun.
- Prank calls have also been a staple of the show ever since its debut. An elaborate one involves voice clips of some TV show host used to make deliberately incomprehensible questions towards the victim of the call. Numerous similar prank calls are repeated, with the same target, and the final one uses said victim's own recorded voice clips.
- "Alan In Love" is perhaps the show's best-known prank call. It began when DJ Alan made a prank call to an old lady, claiming to have fallen in love with her and... well, talking dirty to her. The twist is, said lady not only went "Sure, Let's Go with That," she actually fell in love with him for real. DJ Alan has since made things up (getting arrested, joining the army, you name it), and by May 2013 the sketch holds the title of "Longest Prank Call Ever". The hag not only believed every single thing he said (or so it seems), she even took part in Alan's fappings. You've read that right. The two actually met in person twice, in events organized for her by the DJs.
- Misunderstanding - A brief series based on Manipulative Editing. At first it seems like they're doing a prank call with tons of obscenities, then it's revealed that the bleeped out words were totally safe ones.
Tropes present in the show as a whole:
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: inverted. The new bulding that hosts the studios of Radio 105 as well as Virgin Radio and Radio Montecarlo has been financed by a group named "Finelco", so whenever that word is spoken, Gibba reacts accordingly by replying mid-sentence.
- Black Comedy Rape: Although the show rarely uses the word "rape" as anything aside a purposefully controversial analogue to generic sexual intercourse.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: often used among the jokes, but one instance stands out - namely, when cast member Herbert Ballerina came back from a trip to Thailand, another cast member, Petosauro (see Shout-Out below), made a brief speech about Thailand only to be promptly interrupted by Gibba.Peto: "Ah, Thailand. Glorious nation, home to sun, shores and..."Gibba: "AND WHORES!"
- Camp Gay: just about any gay character ever portrayed in the whole show.
- Cluster F-Bomb: enough to rival any Robin Williams stand-up routine. And that's saying a lot.Leone Di Lernia: "Oh, we're doing fine with this sketch... there's not even a single naughty word!"Marco Mazzoli: "Nope... Leo, you didn't get it, really - we support naughty words! I love saying "fuck" on the radio, you know."
- E = MC Hammer: an Unreal Radio sketch (aired on March the 21st, 2011) had "Professor Incredible Hulk Batman Einstein Bruce Banner Jr."note trying to solve the "Jordan-Chiambretti theorem", which "explains why there are so little short basketball players."Professor Incredible Hulk Batman Einstein Bruce Banner Junior: "So, the basket is three meters above the ground... [three meters] minus Brunettanote ... equals two..."
- Go Mad from the Revelation: show host Marco Mazzoli has, in late February 2012, found out that former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi got away with yet another one of his trials. He didn't take it well.Mazzoli: "And they have the balls to have the sentence "Law is the same for everyone" written inside courtrooms! I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, IF I EVER HAPPEN TO BE SUED, THE FIRST THING I DO IN THE COURTROOM, I SWEAR TO GOD, I'M GOING TO TAKE A SHIT ON THAT PHRASE!"
- Hurricane of Puns: most notably jokes involving sex.
- Indecisive Parody: Ninfowoman. It's supposedly a Wonder Woman parody (with a spoof version of the theme song from the TV show to boot), but she is more like "Franchise/Batman as a slutty woman with a mighty clitoris".
- Inherently Funny Words: by now, shouting "Canaglia!" (scoundrel) for no reason is a Running Gag on the show.SCOUNDREL! SCOUNDREL! SCOUNDREL!
- Letting the Air out of the Band: often employed.
- Mood Whiplash: in this show, the focus may shift from audacious sketch comedy to somber, serious and topical rants before you can even notice it. And then it shifts back again to comedy.
- N-Word Privileges: parodied. The show's whole cast misuses whe word "negro" (Italian for "nigger" as well as... well, "negro") on purpose because of it actually being the Italian archaic equivalent to the word "black". Of course, the word is also used to address black people as well, but even then, it's still very tongue-in-cheek.
- No Indoor Voice: Gibba.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: in a sense. The sketch based on Maccio Capatonda's ever-sad character Mariottide, Casa Mariottide ("The Mariottides") has "The world's saddest sitcom" as its subtitle. And since when sitcoms have ever been sad to begin with?
- Poe's Law: After having informations that the catering at the Music Festival of Sanremo offered food with an horrible taste, it spreaded a Running Gag about the Festival host Gianni Morandi being a coprophague. He probably haven't liked it, since now they have to bleep his surname every time they make a joke about it.
- Pungeon Master: Maccio Capatonda's pal, Herbert Ballerina. Holy Pun, Herbert!
- Refuge in Audacity: good Lord.
- Self-Deprecation: usually done to the radio itself, although it's more likely to be just another quip between the DJs.
- So Unfunny, It's Funny: any joke by Herbert Ballerina.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: the usual response to Herbert's lame puns.
"THAT'S! NOT! FUUUUUUNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" - Sophisticated as Hell: all the friggin' time.
- Sound-to-Screen Adaptation / Live-Action Adaptation: as mentioned in the description, this program became a Comedy Central show in 2011.
- Shout-Out:
- The cast member behind some speeches — including the disclaimer that also serves as this page's quote — is nicknamed Petosauro. In English, that translates into "Fart-saurus", that may or may not be a reference to "Fart-zilla".
- The audio for the montage sequences of Gay Team (for when they build their cock tank, or whatever) features many random clips, including Spider-Man shooting his web, Sergeant Hartman's introduction and The Major Asshole scene.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: although the show in general has plenty of swearing, the main host, Marco Mazzoli, is known to be the most... spicy of the group. Hell, even the official website's bio about him says it all:Censoring him? That task can't be accomplished.
- Take That!: unlike other shows, this one is not afraid of giving away these like candies. Justified as the targets of these deserve every single bit of their snark.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: the intro to the Memetic Badass-based sketches."Walker. Texas. Ranger. So, listen up, bitches! These are his heroic achievements!"
- Trash Talk: one of the show's staples.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: the DJs constantly snark, quip at or even insult each other, only to shrug it off like it's no big deal. This even includes Your Mom jokes, which would fall into serious "Dude, Not Funny!" category under normal circumstances.
- Your Mom: way more common than you'd expect it to be.
