Wasted Carbon

I’m not a traditional politician, and I have a sense of humor. I’ll try to soften it and become boring, maybe even very boring, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to.  ~ Silvio Berlusconi

After reading Silvio Berlusconi calls Barack Obama tanned – again, I was inspired to post on more of Mr. Berlusconi’s funny-ass antics

Liberals can’t stand him.  Mainstream European media loathes him.  I think he’s about the best, most amusing thing to happen in world politics in a long, long time.  Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s comical, billionaire Prime Minister is truly a class act who knows how to hack through bullshit like a machete.

I’d like to run through some of his famous (or infamous, depending on who you roll with) quips and quotes.  Let’s begin…

• When speaking at a retail conferences about left-wingers, he made the comment, “I trust the intelligence of the Italian people too much to think that there are so many pricks around who would vote against their own best interests.”
• In an address to the European Union, Berlusconi said the following to German MEP, Martin Schulz, “”I know that in Italy there is a man producing a film on Nazi concentration camps – I shall put you forward for the role of Kapo (a Kapo is a guard chosen by the prisoners) – you would be perfect.”   Schulz had criticized Berlusconi’s business and political connections earlier.  Here is a video from the event – I have no idea what the hell he’s saying, but you get the idea…

• When a proposal was made to setup an EU food standards agency in Finland, he made this comment, “The Finns don’t even know what prosciutto is. I cannot accept this.”
• This is funny as hell… Berlusconi plays hide and seek with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• At an EU summit in Spain, he held up two fingers behind a colleague’s head during a group photo.  The particular gesture is known in Italy to signify ‘cuckold’.
• Berlusconi told a female student who was worried about her employment prospects, “All you need to do is marry my son or a millionaire.”
• While speaking with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Berlusconi said of President Barack Obama, ”Obama is young, handsome and also tanned, so he has all the qualities to agree with you.”  When he was later criticized for the comment, he shrugged off the criticism, saying those who disagreed with him were humourless “imbeciles”.

So, there you have it, Silvio Berlusconi the funny man.  Politically, you can disagree with him all you like, but you have to admit the guy is hysterical.

If you’d like to read more on Mr. Berlusconi, here’s a great article from Vanity Fair.

Word to your mother -  Nick