Gialappa's Band

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Gialappa's Band is the name with which is known the Italian trio of TV and radio commentators Marco Santin, Carlo Taranto and Giorgio Gherarducci.

The three Gialappa's member united in 1985 at the Radio Popolare of Milan, where they launched the show Bar Sport. The show was on air after the 22 PM, and concerned on satirical commentation of the Sunday matches of Italian football Serie A. In 1986, for the FIFA World Cup, the trio started commenting the matches, employing large doses of sarcasm and using weird sounds (crashing glasses, car crashes, babies crying) to emphasize the players' errors or game fouls. The format was very successful and, as of 2006, Gialappa's has broadcast their own comments to every football match for the European Championships and World Cups since 1986. Several UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup matches were also commented in the 90's.

The main event, however, remained the European and World Football cup. Several editions of the program also featured guests from the same nations as the playing teams. The trio moved from local radios to major private radio Radio Deejay and, later on, to Radio Due. In 2006, satellite television Sky Sport offered the Gialappa's comments as an alternative to the official report.

In parallel, the Gialappa's were hired as TV writers for several shows broadcast by Silvio Berlusconi's network Fininvest. The first TV shows of their own was 1989's Mai dire Banzai ("Never Say: Banzai!"), a personalized version of the Japanese show Takeshi's Castle. As in all their future shows, the trio never appears on the screen. Instead, they adopt voiceover comments to the images, often mocking the acting characters with sharp comments.

The success of Mai dire Banzai spurred their most famous TV show, Mai dire Gol ("Never Say: Goal!") and the similar Mai dire Mundial (devoted to 1990 FIFA World Cup and repeated for 1994 FIFA World Cup). These formats, very similar in concept to the radio program Bar Sport, featured performances by talented comical actors: in the long stint of Mai dire Gol, Gialappa's hosted actors like Teo Teocoli, Gene Gnocchi, Antonio Albanese, Paola Cortellesi, Bebo Storti, Claudio Bisio, Neri Marcorè, Maurizio Crozza, Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, Daniele Luttazzi and many others. Some of them gained huge popularity in Italy through their work in the show.