Ugo Fantozzi

Ugo Fantozzi is an Italian fictional character created by Paolo Villaggio. He first appeared in Villaggio's television monologues, then became the protagonist of a series of short stories published in newspapers and collections. These stories inspired a successful film series, in which Villaggio himself played the main character. Fantozzi is an archetype of the average Italian of the 1970s. He is a middle-class worker with a simple lifestyle and the anxieties common to an entire class of workers. Although Villaggio's movies tend to bridge comedy with a more elevated social satire, Fantozzi had a great impact on Italian society. The adjective "fantozziano" even entered the lexicon.