‘Mikorte Informativo’: The Mexican satire with hosts dressed as space monkeys
Since Charlton Heston’s The Planet of the Apes was released in 1968, the franchise has been through many different iterations while retaining the same core concept of a world overrun by simians as the dominant species. Despite the similarities, though, it has absolutely nothing to do with the TV series Mikorte Informativo.
Whereas the sci-fi saga has spawned four direct sequels, a remake, a reboot that launched a trilogy of its own with a fourth instalment on the way, a live-action TV series, and an animated show in its many iterations, Mikorte Informativo was a comedy news programme that originated in Mexico.
Much like Planet of the Apes, though, the performers – or characters, it’s hard to differentiate when the commitment to the bit is so admirable – wear incredibly lifelike monkey costumes and remain in character at all times, with the noticeable difference being that the Mikorte Informativo gang make it abundantly clear they’re actually aliens from outer space, who regularly refer to their viewers as “Earthlings”.
Premiering in November 2009 on the Cadenatres network, the show was the brainchild of the musical group Mamá Pulpa, who decided to broaden their creative horizons by expanding from instruments into an absurdist factual programme where they relayed news with an entirely straight face through the lens of intergalactic apes discovering and reacting to the daily goings-on of Earth.
“The premise is that three journalists from another planet, arrive to Mexico and taken aback from the absurdity of human nature, transmit a newscast to their home planet,” the band’s vocalist and guitarist Alfredo Fernandez explained to Sloucher. “The programme has been a real success and I love combining two creative callings: music and audio-visual art.”
After the network closed doors in October 2015, Mikorte Informativo became a YouTube exclusive, but after the viewing numbers weren’t deemed reflective of the time and effort it took to produce, the final chapter aired on November 29 of that year. It might be gone, but for anyone with a soft spot for the most bizarre things TV has to offer, it most certainly hasn’t been forgotten.
The gist is that the space monkeys are equal parts bemused and amused by their new surroundings, analysing the latest newsworthy events through the eyes of an alien race that often struggles to reconcile with their more animalistic instincts, all while poking fun at standard human responses to certain stories including rage, political correctness, and generally mocking the current state of society.
Imagine The Daily Show but as an actual part of the Planet of the Apes universe, and that’s kind of what Mikorte Informativo is, but still not quite. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind thing, although mileage may vary as to whether that’s a positive or a negative. Either way, as far as socio-political satires go, they don’t come more original.
