talking of 'blob', i watched it the other day for the first time for quite a while. for those who don't know it, it's a 15 minute round up/collage of video, broadcast in peak evening viewing time on Rai, the state tv.

the satire really bites, all done through clever (often brilliant) juxtaposition of comedy, ads, kitsch and such to 'serious' pols yapping. the effect is chaplinesque, heavy on political pratfalls, gleefully wicked, even risqué.

it's a treasured national institution, and does a great job both of skewering the self-important and highlighting the felliniesque surreality show that is italian politics...

i don't know 'le canard enchainé', but i'd say it's a good equivalent of Private Eye in the UK, though totally different in its humour.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty