Provolino was an Italian

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

character who enjoyed huge success in Italy between the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was created by Castellano and Pipolo who also wrote the dialogues.

Television

The puppet was introduced by

Raffaele Pisu Raffaele Pisu (24 May 1925 – 31 July 2019) was an Italian actor and comedian. Life and career Born in Bologna as Guerrino Pisu into a family of Sardinian origin, Pisu debuted in the drama theater and in 1945 he was one of the founders of th ...

in the

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

variety shows ''Vengo anch'io'' and ''Ma che domenica amici'' in 1968. A baby with big teeth, he was featured as the disrespectful alter ego of Pisu, with whom he had constant bickering which always ended with the catchphrase: "Boccaccia mia statti zitta!" (i.e. "bad mouth of mine, please shut up!"). The puppet was animated by Pisu himself and originally voiced by

Oreste Lionello Oreste Lionello (18 April 1927 – 19 February 2009) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Lionello was born in Rhodes (which was then a possession of Italy), to Calabrian parents, and grew up in Reggio Calabria. He began his career as ...

, replaced by

Franco Latini Franco Latini (12 September 1927 – 2 February 1991) was an Italian actor and voice actor. He was considered one of the top voice dubbers for animated films and cartoons in Italy. Biography Born in Pomezia, which is in Rome, Latini started out ...

in 1969.

Comics adaptation

The character was later adapted into a comic series, which was created by

Pierluigi Sangalli Pierluigi Sangalli (5 November 1938 – 13 March 2025) was an Italian comic artist, comic writer and illustrator. Life and career Born in Monza, while studying accounting Sangalli had as a classmate Alberico Motta, of whom he became a close frie ...

and

Alberico Motta Alberico Motta (6 October 1937 - 23 May 2019) was an Italian cartoonist and illustrator. Life and career Born in Milan, Motta started his career at just 14 years old, collaborating with some children magazines published by Edizioni Alpe. He made ...

and which became the title character of several comics magazines (''Provolino'', ''Super Provolino'' and ''Provolino Story'') published by editor Bianconi between 1970 and 1990.

References

Puppets Italian children's television series Italian television shows featuring puppetry 1960s Italian television series 1970 comics debuts 1990 comics endings Italian comics characters Fictional Italian people Humor comics Comics characters introduced in 1970 Defunct children's magazines published in Italy Comics magazines published in Italy Defunct Italian-language magazines Child characters in television Child characters in comics Male characters in television Male characters in comics Comics about children Television shows adapted into comics {{Italy-comics-stub