When God created the world and all it’s individual countries, he looked down at Italy and realised that he had been unfair in making it the most beautiful…………so, in compensation, he created the Italians!

So goes the old joke, and it illustrates really well our passion for laughing at our national characteristics and ourselves.

For example: my father, a good patriot who fought for Mussolini in the North African Campaign during WW2, proudly explained to my English husband “Noi Italiani siamo stati i primi ad organizzare la disorganizzazione” (us Italians were the first to organise disorganisation).

Our predisposition for autoironia (lit. self-irony) has been illustrated really well by the well-known filmmaker Bruno Bozzetto in his cortometraggio (short film) Europa & Italia made in 1999.

Born in Milano in 1938 Bozzetto made his first cortometraggio at the age of 20. His films have received many awards including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990 and an Oscar nomination in 1991 for “Grasshoppers”. His most famous creation is Signor Rossi, the middle aged protagonist of numerous cortmetraggi and three lungometraggi (feature films). Bozzetto has produced numerous educational animations dealing with science and environmental issues. Since 2000 he has concentrated on developing his Flash animations for the Internet.

For a full biography and lots of fun downloads take a look at the official site here: http://www.bozzetto.com/

So if you really want to understand Italian autoironia a bit better I suggest you sit back and enjoy Europa & Italia. Of course if you have lived or travelled in Italy and Europe your enjoyment will be enhanced because nothing is funnier than the truth!

Click on this link: Europa & Italia to watch it now.