Moment of the TV-3 program “Polònia” in which he parodies the different religions.
The Virgen del Rocío returned to the TV3 screen this Thursday. A new parody, this time on the Polònia programme, revived the debate over whether a public broadcaster should make fun of religious symbols. With the new production of the Virgen del Rocío, Polònia achieved the best ratings of the season: 636,000 viewers and 28% screen share. The program is being produced by the same production company as Està passant, the space that sparked controversy last week by releasing a comedian dressed as Blanca Paloma to dedicate sexually-tinged comments to her. TV3’s content director, Cristian Trepat, stresses that the controversy of recent days will not affect the treatment of the issues broadcast by the channel: “The controversy has been very loud, but we will not put on the brakes.” .
The reappearance of humorist Judit Martín, dubbed the Virgen del Rocío, in Polònia came as no surprise. TV3 had announced that following the excitement surrounding the Està Passant jokes, there would be a new religious spoof in the humorous space that has aired Thursday prime time for eighteen seasons. Polònia is a work by Minoria Absoluta, the same production company responsible for the release of Està passant. TV3 pays him more than 5.1 million euros per season.
This Thursday, the authors tried to repeat the allegations of “Andalusophobia” raised in recent days with a joke and at the same time to show that they treat all religions equally. They place the Virgen del Rocío and the Moreneta, Virgin of Montserrat, together with the Dalai Lama and an alleged Muslim imam in the same scene. There was also room for an actor to parody Andalusian President Juanma Moreno Bonilla.
TV3’s content director Cristian Trepat stresses that recent criticism of Catalan television for an alleged lack of respect when it comes to squeezing satire will change nothing. “At TV3 we have to offer a quality service and we are convinced that we make the necessary humor,” he defends. “The fact that they look at us with a magnifying glass doesn’t have to condition the gags,” he says. “We’re not going to hit the brakes,” he warns, defending the content’s adequacy. “We have to continue as before because we’re doing well,” he explains.
Trepat believes the Està Passant case has nothing to do with the controversy that another program on the channel, Zona Franca, sparked when it aired a joke linking the PSC to the Nazis. This led to the intervention of TV3 management and the sacking of comedian Manel Vidal, triggering a domino effect of resignations on the show. “In this case, the style book was violated because a direct insult was committed,” said Trepat Graben.
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