| Mario Magnotta | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 14, 1942 Pieve di Teco |
| Died | January 4, 2009 (aged 66) L'Aquila |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation | School janitor |
| Known for | Internet celebrity |
Mario Magnotta (October 14, 1942 – January 4, 2009) was an Italian janitor of a commercial school in L'Aquila.
He became an idol in Italy after several prank calls by some former students of the institute were circulated on the Internet.
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Born in Pieve di Teco, the son of Giovanni Magnotta and Romilda Siconolfi, his family moved to L'Aquila from the province of Imperia because of work in 1945.
Some years after the pranks took place (in 1986-1987), the pranksters digitized them and shared them on the internet. In time Mario Magnotta's fame spread all over Italy. The success on the website was principally due to the rage and the use of blasphemies by Mr. Magnotta, and to his "Aquilano dialect", the most important variant of Sabino dialect, considered the standard form of it which sounds very amusing to internauts. The phone jokes were on 3 topics:
ITL 480,000. This and other calls from other subjects (one impersonating a manager of the San Giorgio Company[2] of Milan) gave him the sensation of being framed in a fraud to the company made by Mr. Bontempi. In the last of his calls, Magnotta, in a burst of rage, said to Bontempi his most well-known (and unintentionally funny) quote: «Me iscrivo ai terroristi! [3]»After the fame on web (with the url www.magnotta.it), he was twice invited in some talk-shows on Italian television RAI, and suddenly invited in some local events dedicated to him. During a concert of Antonello Venditti in L'Aquila, Magnotta was invited by the singer on the scene, curious to know him. The Italian singer Simone Cristicchi [4] dedicated to him a verse of his song "L'Italia di Piero" (The Italy of Piero): <<Piero non rinuncerebbe mai alla lotta, e si iscrive ai terroristi come fa il Magnotta [5][6] >>
He died in January 2009 in L'Aquila of a Pulmonary embolism.