Radioshow
Encyclopedia
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
radio and TV show hosted by Algis Ramanauskas-Greitai and Rimas Šapauskas. It is also the name of their humorous rock band. Radioshow has started at radio station Radiocentras in 1992. Later it has moved to the radio station Ultra Vires. In 1995 Radioshow debuted as a comedy puppet show on TV at LNK
LNK (television station)
LNK TV, also known as Laisvas ir Nepriklausomas Kanalas , is one of the major commercial TV channels in Lithuania. It was founded in 1995. It has a sister channels TV1, Info TV and Liuks!.- External links :**...
station. From 1997 till 1999 Radioshow was running at BTV
BTV (Lithuania)
BTV is a Lithuanian television station. BTV broadcast 24 hours a day. The program include entertainment, information and educational programs, films and productions.From 2002 to 2004, the name was called TV4.-External links:*...
TV station. In 2004 it briefly ran on Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
radio station Užupio radijas before being shut down, because of swearing on the air.However the show was immediately picked up by the regional radio station Vox Maris
Vox Maris
Vox maris is a symphonic poem finished around 1954, by the Romanian composer George Enescu.The poem is scored for a large orchestra—quadruple woodwind, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, five percussionists, two harps, piano and strings—with an off-stage choir of sopranos,...
.
Controversy
Because of the constant taboo breaking, swearing and making fun of the symbols of national pride, Radioshow was often criticized by the conservative media and the older generation. Music critic Viktoras Gerulaitis has stated, that "These guys are sowing the seed of SatanSatan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, and it seems there is no-one that could stop them". This quote was later sampled into the song by Algis Ramanauskas' band Svastikos Sukitės Greitai. It is ironic, that today Algis Ramanauskas is a member of the conservative Homeland Union party.
Another controversy was caused in 1994 by the obscene album Unplugged attributed to Radioshow. However Algis Ramanauskas denied his authorship and claimed, that it was a bootleg
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
made by the imitators.
Bronius
Bronius is approaching retirement age and is full of sentiments to the Soviet era. He often refers to programming of the RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n TV and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ian radio and television. He is annoyed by modern Lithuania - he has some command of English but uses it mostly to communicate disgust with all things Western. Bronius has a dirty mind and a dirty mouth and enjoys sexual innuendo
Innuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...
and filthy fantasies, particularly those involving TV celebrities, which he describes with considerable inspiration and lewd detail. Bronius is a character voiced by Algis Greitai.
Česlovas
Česlovas is a former teacher. Česlovas' looks resemble former speakerSpeaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
of the Lithuanian Parliament
Seimas
The Seimas is the unicameral Lithuanian parliament. It has 141 members that are elected for a four-year term. About half of the members of this legislative body are elected in individual constituencies , and the other half are elected by nationwide vote according to proportional representation...
social democrat Česlovas Juršėnas
Ceslovas Juršenas
Česlovas Juršėnas is a Lithuanian politician and the former Speaker of the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament.In 1955, he graduated from Ignalina secondary school with a gold medal and entered Vilnius University from which he graduated in 1966.During 1960-1964 he was an employee of a newspaper...
. This character is married and has two daughters (Sigutė and Akvilė), but despite that he often displays random acts of latent homosexuality
Latent homosexuality
Latent homosexuality is an erotic inclination toward members of the same sex that is not consciously experienced or expressed in overt action...
, as the most of Radioshow characters do. Česlovas is voiced by Rimas Šapauskas.
Albinas
Albinas also referred to as Senis (Old man) is one hundred years old man of far-right nationalistic beliefs. His claim that he was born in the mountains of ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
is a reference to the TV series The Highlander
Highlander: The Series
Highlander: The Series is a fantasy-adventure television series featuring Duncan MacLeod of the Scottish Clan MacLeod, as the Highlander. It was an offshoot and another alternate sequel of the 1986 feature film with a twist: Connor MacLeod did not win the prize and Immortals still exist post-1985...
. Albinas makes frequent references to his pre-war memories.
Zbygniewas
Zbygniewas is a character of Polish ethnicityPolish minority in Lithuania
The Polish minority in Lithuania numbered 234,989 persons, according to the Lithuanian census of 2001, or 6.74% of the total population of Lithuania. It is the largest ethnic minority in the country and the second largest Polish diaspora group among the post-Soviet states...
, speaking Lithuanian with a heavily inflicted Russian accent. Zbygniewas claims to hail from Nemenčinė, a town near capital Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
with large predominance of Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Belarusian
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
and Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
population. In his younger days he was a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
and used to read Kafka. His career included a stint at as a communal heating boiler attendant, a choice occupation for rebellious intellectuals in the former Soviet Union, and also at a mortuary, which involved a sexual encounter with a dead female body, which Zbygniewas discusses with great reluctance. He is voiced by Algis Ramanauskas-Greitai.
Mindaugas, later - Budulis
Coarse-voiced, aggressive young Lithuanian gangster guided by values and rules of Russian prison life ("paniatkes") and making frequent references to his encounters with the law enforcement authorities. This character underwent some changes and is currently known as Budulis. He is discernible from a blackened mouth and a track suit worn on a permanent basis. In later episodes of the show, Budulis makes references to his work as a labourer in Ireland. (voiced by Rimas Šapauskas)Filadelfijus
Filadelfijus is a young incompetent journalist. His name originates from a motion picture title PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia (film)
Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film that was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. The film stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington...
. In the beginning he was speaking in a highly-pitched voice, hinting that he might be homosexual. However, in the later shows unprofessional babbling and not the allusions to his homosexuality became his distinctive mark. Filadelfijus is voiced by Rimas Šapauskas.
Minor characters
Mindė - nationalist character (animated pig's head); VangaBaba Vanga
Vanga , born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova after marriage Vangelia Gushterova was a blind Bulgarian mystic, clairvoyant and herbalist who spent most of her life in the Rupite area in the Kozhuh mountains, Bulgaria...
- Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n prophetess (animated portrait of Lithuanian writer Žemaitė
Žemaite
Žemaitė - a pen name of Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė; in Bukantė near Plungė — 7 December 1921 in Marijampolė) was a Lithuanian writer. Born to impoverished gentry, she became one of the major participants in the Lithuanian National Revival...
, taken from one Litas banknote); Dujokaukė Kiulamae - Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n character always speaking derogaratively about the Lithuanians (his name translates into English from Lithuanian as "Gas Mask
Gas mask
A gas mask is a mask put on over the face to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Some gas masks are also respirators, though the word...
" and the surname is of the former BC Žalgiris
BC Žalgiris
BC Žalgiris is a professional basketball team that is based in Kaunas, Lithuania. It is one of the oldest teams in the Euroleague and plays domestically in the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga , and regionally in the VTB United League...
Estonian basketball player Gert Kullamäe
Gert Kullamäe
Gert Kullamäe is a retired Estonian professional basketball player who mostly played in a shooting guard position and was a great 3-point shooter. Gert Kullamäe is seven-time Estonian Champion and USSR, Lithuanian, Belgian and Dutch champion...
; Slavik from Maladzechna; Almantas, a gay type.
External links
Site dedicated to RadioshowSteinberger Guitar Community