La Comay
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La Comay is a famous puppet doll featured in Puerto Rican television that is managed by Antulio Santarrosa Acevedo, also known as Kobbo Santarrosa, a puppeteer, magician, ventriloquist and promoter born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Loosely translated in English to "The Godmother", "La Comay" appears on the Televicentro television show "SuperXclusivo", where she spreads gossip about different personalities in the entertainment, political, sports and religious fields.
"La Comay" is one of the members of a line of gossip dolls that Santarrosa has created to remain on Puerto Rican television for three decades. His previous dolls were:
- "La Chachara", who participated in a show hosted by Luisito Vigoreaux (and reportedly created by Santarrosa at the request of Vigoreaux) at Televicentro, then WAPA-TV, from 1987 to 1989.
- "La Condesa del Bochinche" ("The Countess of Gossip") who participated in a show hosted by Eddie Miró at Telemundo Puerto Rico, then "Telemundo, channel 2".
[edit] Cast
- Hector Travieso - A Cuban actor who has lived in Puerto Rico for more than thirty years, and "La Comay"s "best friend" and gossip chatter partner. He has had a long career as an international soap opera actor and comedic actor.
- Jorge Seijo, a radio personality who, at first, provided short, recorded appearances on some shows insulting people. Some time after, he was invited to provide comments and opinions on local politics and other subjects.
Several celebrities and personalities have provided short cameos as if talking to "La Comay" that are shown at random intervals to provide punch lines to some of the gossips. Some of these celebrities include baseball player Juan González, Mexican singer Alejandra Guzmán, singer José Feliciano, Tego Calderón, Raymond Arrieta, current Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo Vilá and other well known public figures.
[edit] SuperXclusivo
"Superxclusivo" (titled "SuperXclusivo" by Televicentro), has been on the air since 1999, with positive results. In 2005, the show was ranked number one by a poll that analizes Puerto Rican viewer's preferred shows.
Many political critics expressed that "La Comay" had a lot to do with the outcome of the 2004 Puerto Rican elections. Santarrosa kept doing on air campaign for the PPD, the critics say, which may have encouraged the electorate to vote for Anibal Acevedo Vilá instead of Pedro Rosselló or Ruben Berrios. It shall be pointed out that Santarrosa, a pro-Puerto Rican statehood supporter, through his character of "La Comay", invited all three main governor candidates to the show; only Acevedo Vilá visited "La Comay".
Because of the context of the information she spreads, "La Comay" is often a topic of controversy, and many famous people have even called her show live to deny her acussations. Santarrosa himself has hired a considerable amount of bodyguards, since he has been the victim of violent acts and threats by various persons.
Apart from gossip, "La Comay" also shows bloopers committed by television personalities, news reporters, TV shows and novelas, such as Gata Salvaje and La Madrasta, movies and stories from other Puerto Rican channels, newspapers and magazines.
An event stemming from an interview conducted by SuperXclusivo nemesis Carmen Jovet (TV show host) has led to Leo Fernandez III's apparent and alleged dismissal from SuperXclusivo. Details are sketchy but some opinions say that this is an attempt by Jovet to knock SuperXclusivo and La Comay from the top of the ratings board, with no success. Currently, Leo Fernandez can be seen on Hector Marcano's show called "Que Suerte" on a rival TV channel in Puerto Rico. The show has suffered several lawsuits based on defamation. Nonetheless, "La Comay" always uses the phrase "apparently and allegedly" in order to free herself from accusations and lawsuits.
The show is supposed to be shown live on tv but many of the episodes are pre-recorded. Sidekick Travieso tries to hide this by mentioning the airdates in the episodes but the pre-recording of certain episodes was evidenced when they did not talk for several days about Miss Puerto Rico winning the Miss Universe Pageant even though this was the main news in the island. Travieso apologized once they were back on the air.
It is possible that the show mocks Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez in the most demeaning ways becuse of Santarosa's friendship with the Cuban exiles in Puerto Rico. The show also is very biased against Puerto Rican separatist groups and constantly criticizes the leftist groups in the University of Puerto Rico. The show promotes conservative Hispanic values under the disguise of populism and nationalist morality. Both Santarosa and Travieso demean the Puerto Rican gay population in very dangerous ways, although to be fair, this has been a trait in Puerto Rican tv for several decades.
Santarrosa has been criticized for showboating constantly in his show. The puppet Comay constantly refers to his manager Santarosa's money and how big his private airplane and boats are. When criticizing recently the morality of a pop singer, La Comay showed a photo of the celebrity with a mistress riding a boat and had to say that his boat was smaller than Santarrosa's.
As of July of 2006, SuperXclusivo has been going on and strong without the services of Leo Fernandez and now dismissed Julio Victor Ramirez, hijo.
