What is 31 minutos?

Answer 1

Is

a Chileantelevisionshow which takes the form of a mock news broadcast, and is fronted by puppets who present various items. The program was devised by Álvaro

Díaz

and Pedro Peiranoand is produced by their own company, APLAPLAC. It was first aired in March 2003 on the TVN channel in Chile.

31 minutos

has achieved considerable success in Chilean television, captivating adult viewers as well as children. The sarcastic and carefree humor along with the producers' reputation in Chile of being the essential part of the extinct cult show Plan Z(aired about a decade before) earned the series immediate acceptance among the public (specially among Plan Z's

wide and loyal fan base) and helped boost its popularity, being considered a spiritual successor of sorts of that earlier show. When the first season had its debut, it occupied the morning time slot on Saturdays. But its orientation toward children was somewhat questioned because of the enthusiastic response from adult audiences; therefore the second season was moved to the time slot after the night time news at 10:00 pm on Fridays. Its almost explosive commercial success is reflected in the range and quantity of products spawned by the show, including an audio CD with the songs from its first season. In 2004, Nickelodeonstarted airing the first season across Latin America, being particularly popular in Brazil and Argentina, and a second CD was released with music from the second season. In 2005, a third album was released, with the third season's music and some extras.

Part of the show's

success with more adult audiences is due to its use of double entendres and parody. The puppets are ironic imitations of famous television personalities and there are many references to incidents or television events which characterized Chile in the 1980s and 90s.

A movie version entitled 31 minutos,

la película

, that was shot in Santiago and Rio de

Janeiro,

premiered in Chilean theatres on March 27, 2008.

[edit]

Characters

• Tulio

  Triviño

  (leader, parody of Bernardo de

  la Maza

  )
• Juan Carlos Bodoque

  (journalist, probably a parody of both Rafael Cavada and Santiago Pavlović)

• Juanín

  Juan Harry (producer)

• Jackson Aceituno

  (war correspondent, parody of Amaro

  Gómez-Pablos

  )
• Policarpo

  Avendaño

  (entertainment commentator, parody of Italo

  Passalacqua

  )
• Calcetín

  con Rombos

  Man (Argyle SockMan, superhero, parody of Gekko

  Kamen

  )
• Mario Hugo (reporter)
• Patricia Ana Patana

  Tufillo

  (Tulio's

  niece; Reporter)

• Balón

  von

  Bola (sports commentator, parody of Sergio Livingstone and Julio Martínez)

• Raúl

  Guantecillo

  (sports commentator, parody of Pedro Carcuro)

• Tenison

  Salinas (sports reporter)

• Huachimingo

  (reporter)

• Mico

  el

  Micófono

  (reporter)

• Eusebio

  Manguera

  (owner of the channel)

• Dante Torobolino

  (explosive magician, parody of El Mago

  Oli

  , Gerardo Parra)

• Cossimo

  Gianni (image consultant, parody of Jordi

  Castell

  )
• Tío

  Pelado

  (fraudster)

• Bongo Stingo

  (journalist, parody of Carlos Pinto)

• Guaripolo

  (the ambiguously self proclaimed "31 minutos's

  children's favourite character")

• Tío

  Horacio (elderly children's entertainer, parody of El Tío

  Memo, Domingo Sandoval)