It’s over LOL 2but the tears on the faces of the spectators are not (and how could they …) of sadness at the end of the second season of LOL: Who laughs is out. Yet despite the laughter, there is a shadow hovering over the Prime Video show, or rather more than a shadow is a background noise, repeating the phrase “last year was more fun” over and over again.
It’s really like this? Impossible to say for sure. What we can say, though, is that there are undeniably many differences between LOL 1 and this new second edition. In every sense.
The different success of LOL 1 and LOL 2
Let’s start from the welcome: last year LOL had literally overwhelmed Italy. We, who had been lucky enough to preview the first episodes, we had warned our readers that the news coming out on Prime Video would make them laugh, but in our hearts we weren’t sure that everyone LOL would like it the way we did.
It turned out that for weeks there was hardly any talk of anything else. On social media, at work, with friends, with family, everywhere there was a continuous quote of the funniest moments, Elio’s gags, Frank’s stupidities, Ciro’s sketches, and how to forget Lillo’s numbers …
This year, the success – useless to go around it – was significantly lower than the first edition. And after all, how could we “talk about nothing else” when a war is underway that affects us closely like the one in Ukraine? But this is the only difference: in our opinion, no.
Why was LOL 1 “more fun”?
Of course, an ongoing conflict in Europe does not make us exactly lighthearted, but according to many, that is not the point. “LOL 1 really made you laugh” is a phrase that you have heard, or that you have thought and said too.
And indeed, it is natural that the “naive” fun of the first edition, when we did not know what to expect, cannot be reproduced like this, with a twist, simply by replacing the ten comedians competing.
But it is also not true, in our opinion, that the comedians of last year were in an absolute sense better than those of this year. No offense to the others, but even Corrado Guzzanti, Virginia Raffaele, Maccio Capatonda and the Mago Forest are worth the full price of this year’s ticket.
The real, substantial difference between the two editions
So, if it’s not because of the war, and it’s not because of the waning of the novelty effect, and it’s not even because of an alleged inferiority of the new cast, why do so many people have this feeling, let’s not say of disappointment but of nostalgia anyway?
In our opinion, for a very specific reason. Did you notice that in the “house” of LOL 2 there were neon signs with words like “hey hey hey” “I know ‘Lillo” and others? Here, the difference is there, in catchphrases.
Pintus with his “did you shit?”, Elio with his “but will they be caz .. mine ?!”, Lillo with almost everything he did … They created catchphrases, simple and immediately recognizable. Phrases that we have made our own, that we have repeated as a joke and sometimes even seriously, with the “Mignot *** is crazy“by Michela Giraud we even sang …
In this edition, which catchphrases come to your mind? None of us, except perhaps the joke about Saturn against Guzzanti. But even that isn’t a real catchphrase, it’s not a phrase we can say to a colleague or friend to laugh together.
This year’s comedians made us laugh a lot, in our opinion no less than those of last year (who the funniest moments), especially thanks to the four we have named. But, probably without realizing it, they haven’t left us short quotes to repeat around, which is why many have the feeling that in LOL 2 something is missing.
We will have to learn the new version of the song by Guzzanti-Venditti, or buy the book “How to learn to walk in a few simple steps” by Mimmo editore. The more daring will come to call their little dogs Stinc, or to wear a tie backwards. The important thing is that there is LOL 3as soon as possible.
Ah, if you came here looking for the winner’s name there are two possibilities: either you are a masochist or you want to spoil the ending to some friends. Either way, we certainly won’t be helping you.
Rating: 8.5
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