“It’s a missile!”, you will understand by continuing to read the reason for this incipit. In August 2023, at the end of the summer holidays, my brother told me about Mitologia Gettata, an Italian podcast that is very popular on Spotify and which discusses with a certain lightness one of my favorite topics, Greek mythology.
I admit I was skeptical. I couldn’t stomach the idea that such a serious and demanding subject was, to an extent, ridiculed. Obviously I was wrong.
Moved by the innate curiosity that characterizes me and having overcome all reservations, I pressed play on the first episode of the first series in the waiting room of Naples airport while waiting for the flight to return to Paris and since then I have never stopped listening (actually, I have listened to some of the episodes even 3/4 times).
Mitologia Gettata does not ridicule classical mythology at all, rather it lightens it.
It contextualises characters and places, making them lively modern as if they had sprung from Emily Henry‘s pen.
The mind (and voice) behind Mitologia Gettata is Manuela Meloni – born in Sardinia, moved to Tuscany, architect – who launches the project on the most famous music platform in the world in collaboration with the guys from Look at me in 2022.
Mitologia Gettata attracts a transversal audience, but above all young people (notoriously averse to “difficult” subjects). Manuela has her own slang, a vocabulary – or rather the Gettabolario – which quickly becomes a small cult with words like “missile” (here is the incipit), “shuttle”, “thisisbambambino” (my favourite) which go crazy on the web and on the t-shirts that Manuela designs.
Yes, because Manuela is also an artist, or rather, an artisan (as she prefers to define herself) known by the nickname Manume (also on Instagram).
And today Manume dedicates herself to live painting, among other things.
I wrote to Manuela last August (exactly one year after my first listen) to congratulate her and we have remained in contact ever since. After a little while, I managed to convince her to do an interview and this is what we said:
Hi Manuela! How are you?
You know well how happy I am to carry out this interview of ours.
I break the ice by asking you: “What kind of student were you?”
Hi Luca! Everything is fine thank you!
I’m very happy too.
I was the “bitch” student on the last bench: distrustful, cynical and outspoken. But at the same time, I was a nerd.
I wanted to be among the best, because I understood that being a good student gave me a lot of freedom. I could do what I wanted, everything was mine granted. HAHAHA, WHO WOULD HAVE EVER SAID THAT?
Behind that armor, however, there was always the classmate who passed the tests to everyone.
Deep down I have always been good.
My favorite subjects were history and art history. I studied them as if they were gossip stories. Does it remind you of anything?
Why am I asking you this?
Because you are the creator together with the guys from Look at me of the famous podcast Mitologia Gettata which tells the story of the Greek heroes and “destroys the bad reputation they got at school and tells their adventures in an ironic way” (quoting your incipit of each episode).
When and why did the (perhaps risky) idea of this 2.0 container arise?
It comes from my passion for mythology.
As a child I loved Disney princesses, but they weren’t real, I didn’t recognize myself in them, instead among the Greek heroes and gods there were no good and bad ones, they all had a good side and a dark side, like me.
During the Covid years, while everyone was trying their hand at being pizza chefs, I had an epiphany: telling mythology in a light-hearted way in Instagram stories, for example entertain those who followed me. So the guys from Look at Me proposed turning those stories into a podcast. I didn’t even know what a podcast was, but like a good unconscious person I replied: “OF COURSE, GUYS, LET’S DO IT!“.
Mitologia Gettata is a fun gamble which has now reached its fifth season and which, with good reason, we can define as successful (among the most listened podcasts in Italy in 2024 in Italy).
How do you choose the stories to tell? And how does the process of rewriting them happen?
There are myths I will never tell. Like… the “circus”… er, the Labours of Heracles.
The stories I choose have plots full of suspense and twists.
Do you know the son who “fucks” his mother? Exactly, stuff like that. Every day, on the notes on my iPhone, I write down everything that makes me laugh: jokes, ideas, meaningless sentences.
It’s a seemingly incomprehensible list, but I know that one day those words will find their place in the texts of the episodes. When I choose a myth, I start reading several books, to write a first version, which I call “the serious one”. Then comes the fun part: I rewrite everything, as if I were telling the story at a dinner with my friends and inserting the collected jokes into the notes. My creative process is chaotic. If I don’t have the anxiety of the bad, I translate the anxiety of deadline, I can’t write anything.
I do everything at the last minute and, in the meantime, I laugh alone, a lot.
Do you think the success of the series lies in the fact that you managed to bring a young audience closer to a topic that was generally considered boring and difficult? How did you manage to make pop the stories of Zeus & co.?
I think it all comes down to the fact that I never let my inner child die. That part that, despite life’s problems, remains curious, wants to have fun and faces everything lightly. Among my peers and more adult people I rarely find this attitude, so the I look elsewhere: on TikTok and in the music of Gen Z.
I love young kids, they make me laugh too much with their language and all the trends they follow. I absorb everything they publish and sing, like a sponge and I bring it into the podcast spontaneously.
I “steal” a lot from lyrics of rap songs, I constantly mention Marra and Salmo, and in the fifth season also that goddess Anna Pepe. I’m a real baddy.
My 39 years, however, make themselves felt at the end of the episode, when the moment comes to reflect on the message we can draw from the myth, when I quote poets, artists, or nostalgic memories of millennials. I am very happy that my target is made up of people of all ages, from teenagers to seventy-year-olds ones.
Over the course of the episodes, an ad hoc terminology developed naturally which today is collected in the Gettabolario, “the vocabulary that collects the clown words of your slang (another citation). How do words like “missile”, “shuttle”, “giovenca” (“heifer”) and obviously “thisisbambino” (a cult) come about?
Since I was a child I had my own slang, which spread among my friends, and I also had the ability to attract people who in turn had their own personal language. Over the years I have made all these “idioms” my own and have collected them in the Gettabolario.
For example, Thisisbambino was born thanks to my best friend Maurizio, who has a profile on Instagram called Thisiscagliari. People who followed us thought we were engaged, so for a laugh he once said we should have a baby and say that ours, it would be a Thisisbambimbino (this is baby), think how many followers. We laughed for days. Every word in the book has a story, one day I will make a special episode to tell them.
Favorite god/goddess. Favorite episode. Favorite word from the Gettabolario.
My favorite god is Hermes, guide of the souls of the dead, protector of travelers, merchants and thieves. In the podcast I always call him my boyfriend, because, let’s face it, I have an idea of love a little particular, and he would be the perfect partner for me. In addition of being a real missile(TRANSLATE: CRAZY BEAUTIFUL), he is smart, nice, independent and has that “badass” side that I love in guys.
My favorite episode is that of the soothsayer Tiresias, the only one who was both a man and a woman.
The favorite word is missile, because it conveys the concept of “bono” (crazy beautiful) too well.
With the nickname of Manume you are also known for the personalized t-shirt project that you imagine and design. Obviously the protagonists of Mitologia Gettata and the words of the Gettabolario imprinted on some of them quickly became best sellers. Can you tell us more about the project?
The t-shirt project is coming to an end, because the child inside me, after a few years, needs to change.
i no longer enjoy painting and printing t-shirts. Now I dedicate myself to live paintings in boutiques and weddings. The bride and groom give the guests a portrait made by me. When I moved to Tuscany, I was often alone and I decided to ride the wave of this trend to do a job that allows me to dress and wear cool makeup nicer, travel, see happy people and… meet lots of missili…You have no idea!
The only t-shirts that will survive will be the Mitologia Gettata ones, I will restyle the graphics. I can’t wait to wear the one that says GIOVENCA.
Why Manume?
There is no poetic meaning behind it, it was the nickname they gave me when I worked as a secretary. There were two Manuela at the reception, so to avoid confusing us, my colleague joined Manuela and Meloni sbd called me Manume. Sounds good right?
Why do you love painting ballerinas, who we often see ideally dancing on your clothes?
Despite my past as an acrobatic rock dancer, I admire classical dancers. Behind those elegant movements lie strength, discipline and incredible consistency. I always have aspired to be like them: an elegant, determined person capable of training every day until they reach their goal. It takes a lot of discipline, and it’s a value that I deeply admire.
Despite your studies in Architecture with a focus on Restoration which allowed you an in-depth study of the History of Art, you like to define yourself as an artisan and not an artist.
Why?
Because I’m very empathetic and it makes me feel good to make people happy, so I shape my “art” (it seems excessive to call it that) based on the desires of the clients.
It’s as if we are working together, the client gives me ideas and sensations and I transform them into an illustration.
This is what a artisan does.
Your relationship with fashion?
I am Sardinian, and anyone who has visited the island will have noticed the traditional Sardinian clothes at least once. If you don’t know them, I recommend you do a Google search. Each country has its own dress, so they are all different, with more than 300 variations. But there is a common element: the traditional dress is a sort of identity card. From the veil, to the bodice, to the skirt, every detail revealed something: whether a woman was single, married, widowed, or even their man’s status. For me, fashion is just that, a means of telling who we are. It is the mirror of society. It’s not just about matching your shoe to your skirt or following trends (which, let’s face it, is a horrible word when it comes to fashion). Fashion is storytelling. Even those who hate “dressing up” still send a message. Of course, I never miss a Fashion Week show and I love drawing fashion sketches!
“Creativity takes courage.”, Henri Matisse once said. How true do you think it is? What is art in 2025 (if it can be defined)?
When you create something, it takes courage to face the fears that affect many of us:
• Exposing yourself to the judgment of others and accept criticism. Sometimes they help to grow, but they can also hurt.
• Facing the fear of making mistakes and not creating a perfect product.
• Taking a stand on social issues, knowing that not everyone will agree. In essence, it is a continuous exercise to get involved. It can be devastating at times, but it is also the only way to feel free, at least for people like me.
As for the second question, it is so broad that it deserves another interview. However, I want to share a phrase by Maria Lai, a little-known Sardinian artist, who says “Art is not only the artefact in front of which we pause, but it is the rebirth of the work in front of those who look at it.”
Fun fact she is also very good friends with the designer Antonio Marras, given the connection with fashion we talked about.
The podcast you would have liked to invent if it hadn’t already been invented (and you hadn’t invented Mitologia Gettata)?
Non aprite auella podcast, it’s one of the few podcasts that makes me laugh. I wish I had the same courage to make such black humor jokes.
In this regard, when we wrote to each other for the first time last summer you told me about a new series dedicated to Efisio Marini, a scientist originally from Cagliari who (without giving spoilers) petrified the deceased.
Where are you at?
For now I have the theme song and the first episode. If the gods help me it should be out in April. It will be a 5-episode miniseries. Efisio Marini was a cutting-edge scientist, unfortunately his memory has been erased from history because he dared to challenge the authorities and the laws of nature.
An incredible story that deserves to be told. To arouse a bit of curiosity I can only say that from Cagliari he arrived at the court of Napoleon III.
I can’t wait to record the episodes.
OBVIOUSLY I HAVEN’T WRITTEN THEM YET HAHAHA
