¡Qué Locura!

¡Qué Locura!
Genre Comedy
Created by Hugo Carregal
Presented by Ernesto Cortés (2001-2008)
Luís Moncho Martínez (2008-present)
Starring Luís Moncho Martínez
Guillermo Díaz
Sandy Izaguirrez
Irán Lovera
Julio César Istúriz
Néstor Citino
Country of origin Venezuela
Original language(s) Spanish
No. of episodes 150 (as of 2007)
Production
Location(s) Venevision Studios
Caracas, Venezuela
Broadcast
Original channel Venevision
Original run September 14, 2001 – present
External links
Website

¡Qué Locura! is a hidden camera-comedy television show from Venezuela. In English, "¡Qué Locura!" translates as "What Madness!" or "What Insanity!". The premise of the show involves concealed cameras filming pranks on celebrities, both local and international. It is similar to Punk'd on MTV in the United States.

Production information

The show was first broadcast in 2001 and hosted by Ernesto Cortés, who is best known for appearing in the sketch comedy show, Bienvenidos. ¡Qué Locura! is produced by Venevision and directed by Hugo Carregal, and has, as of the beginning of 2007, around 150 episodes. ¡Qué Locura! has become a hit in the United States (where it was shown by Univision) as well as in other South American countries. By late 2008, Cortés left the show and was replaced by Luís Moncho Martínez, who also plays various characters on the show since its debut. Valentino Mastrodomenico was chosen to replace Ernesto Cortés, but he turned it down.

Notable pranks

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Pranks involving characters played by Luís Moncho Martínez

Current host Luís Moncho Martínez, who has produced the show since its debut, has created (and starred in) numerous pranks for the program. Among these pranks are:

A celebrity is driven to Venevision's studio facility, thinking that he or she is going to be interviewed on a television show (particularly Súper Sábado Sensacional). Upon entering the parking lot, the celebrity gets told by the "security guard" known as Inspector Rodriguez (played by Luís Moncho Martínez) that he or she cannot proceed because the celebrity's name does not appear on the list of Venevision's guests for that day. Rodriguez would frequently tell them to leave the premises in a way that would provoke the celebrities to yell at him (and even get into a physical altercation).

A fake cooking show starring Ermo (played by Luís Moncho Martínez), an overly effeminate chef, was put on to lure celebrities into a trap consisting of Ermo arguing with his assistant (played by Irán Lovera), causing both of them to throw food and condiments at each other, with the celebrity in the middle of it all.

Ruperto (played by Luís Moncho Martínez) is a mentally incapacitated man who wants to get a picture with every celebrity that arrives on the Venevision complex. As the celebrity is interviewed in the hallway by a man posing as a Venevision reporter (who is mentioned in the segment as Ruperto's brother), Ruperto starts getting excited and starts harassing the celebrity.

Luís Moncho Martínez disguises himself as a painter hired by Venevision to repaint the walls of the complex and would often flirt with any young actress or even a Miss Venezuela contestant who passes by the hallway where he is painting the walls, leading to the women accusing him of sexual harassment.

Ricardo (played by Luís Moncho Martínez) is a psychic who invites celebrities to his show and mentions to them what he knows about them by using cards and watermelon seeds. Ricardo provokes fights by mentioning the celebrities' personal lives, as well as ridiculously false statements about them.

A fake show starring Carlitos Dugarte (played by Luís Moncho Martínez) involves an old woman and her two grown children in the studio audience who want to invite a celebrity to their home for a few days. When the celebrity refuses, the old woman of the family gets upset, faints on the set and pretends to die in order to scare the celebrity. As an alternate prank in this segment, two celebrities (each paired with an actor from ¡Qué Locura! disguised as an audience member) compete against each other in a trivia contest. Carlitos Dugarte asks the male celebrity the difficult questions in order to provoke a fight between the two. The original format of this segment was retooled and featured a man pretending to be wheelchair-bound to convince a female celebrity to go out on a date with him, and losing his temper in the green room when she refuses.

A circus-themed segment involving Pibe (played by Luís Moncho Martínez) interviewing a celebrity, three clowns known as "Primer Piso" ("First Floor"), "Segundo Piso" ("Second Floor") and "Tercer Piso" ("Third Floor") are said to appear in a latter part of this segment, but instead torture both Pibe and the celebrity guest by throwing pie plates at them, eventually causing a brawl.

Other pranks

Other pranks include distorting music during a Wisin & Yandel performance, pornographic film scenes "cutting in" during a broadcast of a 2002 FIFA World Cup match, and fake policemen stopping celebrity cars to hand out "tickets".

References

    External links