Almost five years ago Dani Mateo starred in one of the most controversial controversies of recent times. The comedian, during a sketch in El Intermedio, decided to blow his nose with the Spanish flag. He wanted to “show that, when tempers are very heated, flags become more important than people and that is dangerous. Never offend.”
However, the barrage of criticism was monumental, he lost advertising contracts, the channel withdrew the video and he even had to testify before a judge after a complaint from a police union. Now, Mateo has wanted to remember this controversy and the consequences it had for his family.
This look at the past and the supposed “outrage” to the national flag, which brought Dani Mateo before a court to talk about his humorous performance, has come to light during the interview that Samantha Gilabert and Chica Asalto have done with the comedian on their podcast Triunfitas with trauma, on the Podimo platform.
Initially, Mateo assured that what happened to him in 2018 would have the same “or more” commotion today. And he gives as an example when an individual in León ripped off the LGTBI flag to put that of Spain. For the comedian, the Spanish flag “used like this, does not represent the whole world and should not be used as a thrown weapon.”
In fact, Mateo claimed that this was the message he intended to send in the discord gag. “We were in a moment of the flags on the balconies, on the bracelets… and it was like the authentic Spain against the rainbow Spain. At that time that flag was that of some Spaniards against other Spaniards and we wanted to make the reference that it is a piece of cloth, it is a symbol, but the human being under the flag is more important. The symbols are fine, but the people are better off and the objective of the sketch was: ‘Can you imagine someone arriving and inadvertently blowing a blow into a flag?’ ”, he recounted.
But, not everyone understood it that way and the barrage of criticism began both against the program and against him. “I had a bad time because I am not bad people and I received many messages. Now I reflect on it and think: ‘I don’t know why I came out to say anything’, all the people who attacked me already hated me for appearing on that program. They made attacks on me, on the network, the program and the ideology with which we worked, ”he explained.
Then he remembered that this meant losing several advertising contracts because advertisers “don’t want trouble.” However, “the worst” was seeing her family suffer.
“The worst part was seeing my mother destroyed, they were insulted on the street… It must also be recognized that working at El Intermedio is a risky sport. If you dedicate yourself to dancing in front of the bull, you’ll ever get hit, but hey, ”she revealed.
Regarding the complaint filed, in which they requested a prison sentence, and his statement before the judge, Mateo thanked the court for understanding, which closed his case. He “he Said: ‘Humor and freedom of expression are sacred,’ because if not, we come to censorship and go back many years. In addition, my lawyer defended me from crazy people and said: “Beyond freedom of expression, which has legal limits, there is something called freedom of creation.” When you make art and you are creating something, then you can do whatever you want. Art has to provoke so that people can reflect, you cannot restrict it”.
