Caracas Chronicles

Sketch comedy shows were quite popular in Venezuela. In the 90s, at least three major weekly shows held primetime slots in Venezuelan TV, and one, Bienvenidos, with its bikini-bombshell slapstick comedy, was broadcasted all over Latin America. It took chavismo a bit more than a decade to erase them all from our criollo tv guides. However, with the end of independent TV, came the age of unintentional comedy in propaganda TV. At times it could even be more nuanced than the real thing. Case in point:

This is Alfredo Loyo, the combat sports director of the IND (National Institute of Sports), being interviewed in TVES, the channel that replaced Venezuela’s oldest TV station (RCTV)—per Hugo Chávez. Loyo, in a brief moment of sincerity, was describing the terrible conditions under which most Venezuelan Olympians trained and the lack of support from the government. The interviewer immediately freaked out and interrupted him without realizing that they were recording live. It’s funny, but it really isn’t.

This also helps us put into context those unavoidable Maduro calls that our athletes have to face after they succeed in a contest. Heck of a prize.