What does “la zecca dello stato” mean?
Monologo comico su ex moglie, giudici e analisi
C1 Italian listening practice · Roman Italian · Picked for people who know a lot
Italian has a perfect pun built around one phrase: la zecca dello stato. La Zecca dello Stato is the official Italian state mint, the institution that prints money and coins. But zecca on its own is also the Italian word for tick, the bloodsucking parasite. In this stand-up monologue, the comedian calls his ex-wife la zecca dello stato, drawing his blood “with the state’s permission” through alimony.
The bit only lands because Italians know La Zecca dello Stato as a real institution and zecca as the bug. Stacking the two puts a dignified financial body and a parasite on the same name. Pure Italian comic wordplay.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Italian stand-up specials (Maurizio Crozza, Luciana Littizzetto, Comedy Central Italia)
- ▸In Italian satirical news shows (Striscia la notizia, Le Iene)
- ▸In Italian newspaper financial cartoons
- ▸In Italian alimony-and-divorce comedy bits
- ▸In Italian commedia dell’arte revivals