The Greatest Show On Earth?

A show to behold

Maradona’s World Cup talk show may be the best thing that happened to TV ever

Hey! You! Do you speak Spanish? Do you like football? Well than I have just the thing for you.

Here I thought True Detective was the best television available to the world. Enter De Zurda, an hour long rambling talk show running daily during the World Cup featuring Uruguayan journalist Victor Hugo Morles and…yep…Diego Maradona.

So move over, Marty and Rust.

There are so many things going on here that it is tough to find a place to start. So let’s start with the fact that most of it is Diego Maradona rambling about football.

Especially for those of us living in the United States, lately we have been forced to listen to a lot of people who are not entertaining ramble about football–a game they generally know nothing about.

Diego is both very entertaining, and he knows a ton about football. And he doesn’t care how it comes out. Reacting to the absurd over-punishment of Luis Suarez, Diego first notes Neymar’s swinging elbow from game one that went unpunished by FIFA. Then he asked why they didn’t just cuff Suarez and send him to Guantanamo.

So its got that going for it.

Then enter straight man, Victor Hugo Morlas, in a suit and tie–an amazing contrast with his tee-shirted side kick.

Then throw in the fact that both of them seem to have, lets say, tapped into performance enhancing substances prior to each show.

Then consider the list of guests brought in on a nightly basis, from Colombian Striker Radamel Falcao to Uruguayan President José Mujica and let them awkwardly join the ramble fest.

Finally, for the folks interested in Latin America out there, there is a lot going on here. The show hits from the left–a side of Latin America that rarely permeates modern media. It runs on Telesur, a channel created in 2005 by then Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and receives support from Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Uruguay.

Victor Hugo Morales’ close ties to the Kirchner family are well known. Diego receives a letter from Fidel Castro on air (the two have a history, you know). Rumors that Maradona is being paid US$4 million for the show create shock waves as the Venezuelan economy continues to unravel. The commercials are for PDVSA and vacations in Ecuador.