Avenue vs. Samid: on a day like today, 22 years ago, we saw live the struggle that created junk television

Happy birthday! On this day (January 10), 22 years ago, the most iconic fight took place, which meant the definitive consecration of junk TV. If you haven’t seen it, you’re not (so) Argentine: Mauro Viale vs. Alberto Samid.

Sublime moment. Indelible scandal. Pop milestone: The unforgettable argument marked the beginning of the so-called “ironic consumption”that type of postmodern sensibility which, rather than rejecting bad taste, prefers to unite with itself.

Since then the Air TV turned into a brutally sloping esplanade. Year 2002. There it is Mauro Viale (he died in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic). The man who has never let himself be tempted by elegance. The fact that He knew how to put his work at the service of the show and collaborated so that Argentina was at the top.

“You must regret what you said”. Anyone would recognize that phrase. There were T-shirts with that legend. Right now it would be a viral song like “There’s no money”.

The moment was (still is) the great national meme. Summer. January tenth. Our country, when not!, was immersed in one of its periodic economic crises (economic, political, social). Desperate situation. Mauro Viale had gone through the 90s transforming television into a continuous show. Debates, arguments, evaluation points.

From one day to the next, on-call TV Coppola case– It was full of characters who would soon foster a sort of detachment from the world of entertainment. which is still alive to this day: the media.

Times when the public learned names like Samantha Farjat, Fernanda Villar, “Yayo” Cozza and even someone who would become such a “hero”: Jacob Winograd. And all this before hearing Big Brother.

Style “Mauro Viale” It caught on across all news channels. At work he was like Tinelli. “Impact at 12”: aYes, the name of the program that was on the América channel was. He was invited to the studio Alberto Samid, the main reference for meat. Context: Eduardo Duhalde was the fifth president in a week. For the first time since 1992 the peso was devalued.

How did the fight go?

The actual interview, not the short one we saw, lasted just under half an hour. Before “Tell me your name” and the “You can’t say something so scandalous”, which kicked off the UFC round, the controversy came from the economic side. Mauro in his element had the peculiarity of treating all topics as if none of them were really important. It was his gift.

Samid was in favor of the devaluation of the recent Duhalde government and sympathized with the domestic industry. Almost as it might happen now, the issue ofdollarization also hovered over the debate.

Suddenly Viale scolded the guest and told him to pay his taxes. She told it in his style, that is, with friendly contempt. Samid came to play noac&pop: “We must go back to producing ourselves and buying our own goods.” He talked about recovering the companies sold during Menemism.

The exchange continued in a more or less reasonable manner, but Samid – perhaps annoyed by the matter of “paying taxes” – He went off script with a chicane that still recalls anti-Semitism: “It’s hard for me to understand because I don’t know your name.”he said to the driver.

Mauro Viale was a stage name. The surname is still used by his son Jonatan. He was called Maurizio Goldfarb. Samid tried to make him uncomfortable and Viale looked at him as if to say “don’t be stupid…”

He got stung right there. Viale accuses him of being ugly: “You supported the bomb at AMIA”. Samid gets up from the chair and the moment comes when the big man in the pink shirt tells him “You can’t say something so scandalous.”. Then she asks him to repent.

Viale was Jewish. Samid, descendant of a Syrian family. Clearly the point of maximum tension was when Viale accused him of having validated the attack on AMIA. The scene has millions of views on YouTube. At that time, a decade before the advent of social networks, the episode delighted the good old “word of mouth”.

Samid, visibly overwhelmed, denied the accusation and asked Viale to retract it. Mauro denied this by saying “we know each other well”. She did so by placing a sympathetic caress on Samid’s cheek. The businessman approached him body to body, with his shirt hanging out of his trousers, his belly to the four winds, and threw him “a little short” in the best Martín Karadagian style. The fight broke out live and live.

The crash surprised the motoristwho decided to respond by leaning towards a mixed martial arts repertoire: kicks + pineapple. Samid came banging back. Viale fell to the ground. Once the fight was over, a boy took advantage of the scuffle to kick the driver.

Who was third in the running? Apparently, a canal security officer who didn’t get along very well with Viale. The entire confrontation was short. The memory makes everything less violent than bizarre.

Viale apologized to the public and also with the canal authorities. It’s more, He had the nobility to take sole responsibility of the scandal.

The simple search “Viale Samid” shows the results of an unlikely merchandising in the Mercado Libre: t-shirts, mugs, a 25×20 bust of Samid and Viale. Candle holder with the image of the fight. Marijuana chopper with match. Keychain.

The passage of time has not calmed the temper of Samid, now 76 years old. In a recent interview, the King of Meat recalled – how could he not! – the meeting and went further: “With what he told me I regret not giving him another pineapple”.

In August 2020 Samid faced Mauro again and wanted to avenge him (did he win?). “I hereby officially offer Mr. Goldfarb a rematch. At Luna Park. My portion of the proceeds will be donated to purchasing supplies for medical personnel fighting the coronavirus.”

Mauro Viale died on April 11, 2021 at the age of 73, the victim of bilateral pneumonia caused by the coronavirus.. It would be a great challenge for Artificial Intelligence.