The death of Paco Arévalo dominated the news programs and magazines of all television networks in Spain this Thursday. In each gathering, the guest collaborators talked about the comedian’s life, both his career and his personal life.
However, a friend of the deceased, the singer Francisco, experienced a moment of tension in Y Ahora Sonsoles when he defended Arévalo’s controversial way of doing humor. So much so that, when he tried to assure that there is currently censorship in humor, the presenter cut him short to the indignation of the rest of the commentators.
And now Sonsoles, presented during the Christmas holidays by Rebeca Haro, had journalists such as Ángel Antonio Herrera, Nieves Herrero, Paloma Barrientos and Valeria Vegas talk about Arévalo. Also with friends of the comedian, like the singer Francisco, who remembered moments with him.
“I met him in 1978, the same representative took us. We were both starting out in show business. We had just come out of the dictatorship, where you couldn’t say anything, just like today,” he said.
“Those comedians like Paco were very brave, for carrying the comedy and telling jokes that made us all of Spain laugh. Let’s laugh with them, not at the characters they played. At the gangosos, at the ladybugs… With no intention of doing harm nobody, in fact, nobody felt offended at that time,” he said.
“You cannot judge something from the past with the eyes of the present,” added Valeria Vegas. However, the artist’s opinion outraged some of those present. Nieves Herrero, for example, told him: “Did you say that there was censorship before and today too? It surprised me.”
To which Francisco responded: “I’m going to tell you that the monologues I hear today are atrocious, nothing to do with how simple and how well comedians like Arévalo, Eugenio, Gila did them…with no bad intentions…” . And he added: “In ’76 when what happened happened, there was the cultural explosion that we could speak and say what we wanted. Not today…”.
“Wow,” Nieves Herrero answered, contradicting Francisco’s words. “Not that much and not that bald,” Vegas added. Then, the presenter intervened to cut this moment of tension and settle the issue with Francisco: “Well, that’s another debate. Maybe it’s not the day to talk about that either.”
