Топ Листа Нареалиста: Югославская Комедия Скетчей

Yugoslav sketch comedy television show

Top lista nadrealista ("The Top List of the Surrealists", sometimes "The Surrealists' Chart Toppers")—also known as TLN or Nadrealisti ("Surrealists")—is a Yugoslav sketch comedy and variety television show. Produced by TV Sarajevo, it aired on the nationwide Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT) public broadcasting system in three separate instalments between 1984 and 1991, having originated from a weekly fifteen minute local radio comedy segment that was part of the Primus program on Radio Sarajevo's channel two from 1979 until 1985. In 1984, after establishing a core radio audience locally in the city of Sarajevo, Top lista nadrealista radio segment got spun off into a television sketch series. Two more series on television followed, in 1989 and 1991, making household names of its protagonists all over SFR Yugoslavia and helping launch and solidify successful television, film, and musical careers for some of them (most notably Nele Karajlić and Branko "Đuro" Đurić). Although eventually best known for insightful and often prophetic political humour, TLN initially relied mostly on its protagonists' youthful improvisation and ad libbing for laughs while staying away from politics entirely. Towards the late 1980s and into the early 1990s—during the show's second and third series, respectively—a period during which some of its most memorable and enduring sketches were created, Top lista nadrealista incorporated political satire while infusing their social satire with additional surrealist and black comedy. The show's 1989 1991 popularity is reflected in some of its sketches' language and phrasing entering public vernacular (see Hrkljuš). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of TLN sketches dealt with the deteriorating political situation in Yugoslavia that turned out to be a prelude to the Yugoslav Wars with some sketches proving prophetic, portraying a dystopian near future—featuring the Yugoslav state being disintegrated, the city of Sarajevo divided between different newly established states, a single family split into two clans warring over control of rooms in their apartment, UN peacekeeping forces adding fuel to the conflict, etc.—years before it became reality. In the context of the Yugoslav Wars that had already begun as the show's third series was being filmed, Nadrealisti held a clear pacifist posture, often using absurdity and dark hyperbole when portraying rising ethnic tensions and imminent war in SR Bosnia and Herzegovina (e. g. warning that "peace may break out and ruin Bosnian harmonious war" or giving alarming instructions on "how the public should act in case of peace").

Top lista nadrealista first appeared on 10 November 1979 in the form of a radio segment, airing as part of the Primus program on Radio Sarajevo's Channel Two. The segment—a 15 minute piece of free form radio envisioned by its creator Boro Kontić as a showcase for talented local Sarajevo area youngsters within his Primus weekly radio show—featured a group of protagonists that didn't stick around past one or two weeks. In addition to music, Arslanagić—who had also been dabbling in prose writing, poetry, and graphic design—attracted Kontić's attention for his hobby of coming up with fictional bands' record covers with elaborate sleeves and liner notes. Saša Kontić and Arslanagić approached Zenit Đozić and Nele Karajlić—high school seniors and two of the members of a recently formed garage punk rock band Zabranjeno Pušenje—who after some initial trepidation on Nele's part eventually accepted the offer.

Though the Top lista nadrealista fifteen minute segment on Primus had already been around since November 1979, its start in earnest is considered to have taken place on Saturday, 9 May 1981 as the group of kids debuting that day—led by eighteen year old Nele Karajlić and nineteen year old Zenit Đozić—would go on to do the segment for the rest of its run on radio including eventually spinning it off into a television series. Their debut radio segment was conceptualized as a faux terrorist takeover of the radio station with insurgents reading out their manifesto along with a list of demands. These included: more young bands on radio and television, Dom mladih (Youth Center) being returned to those it nominally belongs to—the youth, removal of older radio executives from the station, more punk on the daily radio playlists, etc. Unbridled, raw, and unscripted, the debut segment done by Nele Karajlić, Zenit Đozić, Roki, Rizo Petranović, Zlaja Arslanagić, and Saša Kontić set the tone for what was to come: juvenile behaviour, infantile jokes, raucous street energy, with occasional cogent observation hinting at deeper social issues—all seldom heard prior on the buttoned up state run radio in communist Yugoslavia. The only adults in the mix were the Primus host and executive producer Boro Kontić and his sound engineer Husein Vladavić, both of whom were present behind the scenes during the segment tapings, but did not take part in them on the microphone. Right after the debut show, Boro Kontić asked his younger brother Saša not to come any longer. Decades later, Karajlić would speculate Kontić did so realizing right away the amount of scrutiny segment would be under from the radio higher ups thus not wanting the added pressure of having a close family member there. Roki also stopped coming after the debut show. In turn, Karajlić brought along Boris Šiber, a neighbourhood buddy from Koševo, while Zenit brought in Dražen "Para" Ričl, another Koševo lad. Though the attendance was spotty throughout its entire run on radio, five guys—Nele Karajlić, Zenit Đozić, Zlatko Arslanagić, Boris Šiber, and Dražen Ričl—established themselves as the core of the Top lista nadrealista segment over its initial weeks and months on the air. At first reserved and somewhat skeptical about the long term radio prospects for this raw new group of kids, the segment's producer and Primus host Kontić would soon become one of their biggest media supporters, devoting a lot of his time and energy to championing their work in and outside of radio. According to Kontić, after completing several initial weekly radio segments with the new Top lista nadrealista kids, the catalyzing occurrence for his own personal realization about their potential and talent was witnessing the energy and crowd reaction at an early Zabranjeno Pušenje (at that point still a demo band fronted by Karajlić with Đozić on drums) club gig in June 1981 at the Cedus venue's small room in Sarajevo. Likening the experience to "feeling a change in atmospheric pressure within that room", Kontić fully embraced the role of a behind the scenes facilitator and nurturer for this group of young performers. Over time, they began somewhat deferring to the more experienced Kontić, even the sound engineer Vladavić, accepting and incorporating their performing advice and content notes. Since each one of the five performers was simultaneously also involved with a band—Karajlić, Đozić, and occasionally Šiber with Zabranjeno Pušenje and Ričl and Arslanagić with Ozbiljno Pitanje—music became the focal point of many of the radio sketches. A lower music school graduate and by far the most talented guitarist among the group, Ričl usually provided the musical support on guitar in the sketches.

The group's creative modus operandi on radio consisted of getting together every Thursday in Šetalište, a kafana on Sutjeska Street (around the corner from the Radio Sarajevo building at 7 Danijela Ozme Street) a couple of hours before their scheduled 9pm studio taping in order to come up with bits for that week's segment. Under their command, the segment became a complete free format—sometimes a single bit for the entire fifteen minutes, other times a weekly recap through satirical commentary touching on recent local and global events, ranging from hyperlocal human interest newspaper stories to world events such as the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, assassination of Indira Gandhi, and Ronald Reagan's re election. Since the attendance was always very unstable, the taping often involved bringing random Šetalište patrons into the studio for bits. Uncoordinated and chaotic as well as airing at an unpopular timeslot, Saturdays at 10:15am, when most of its target demographic is fast asleep, the segment nevertheless rapidly gained popularity among young listeners and soon became the staple of Primus. Getting around the early timeslot, many youngsters resorted to recording the segment on audio cassettes and sharing; scenes of young people in bars listening to segments they taped off radio were not uncommon around the city. Though mostly free of direct political messaging or even mild allusions (and in no way injurious to SFR Yugoslavia's unquestioned values and sacred cows such as the Communist League, Comrade Tito, and People's Liberation Struggle so as to trigger a swift ban), the segment's irreverence and increasing listenership still led to it being closely monitored by the Radio Sarajevo executives and consequently tweaked and censored as they deemed necessary. Kontić attended most of the content review meetings Friday mornings during which he reportedly often resorted to multiple forms of trickery in order to save various pieces of material from being cut.

Most members of the on air radio crew were simultaneously involved with music. Since 1980, Karajlić had been fronting a garage rock group called Zabranjeno Pušenje together with his buddy and neighbour Sejo Sexon while early lineups included Đozić on drums with even Elvis J. Kurtović and Šiber spending some time in the band. Furthermore, Zlatko Arslanagić and Dražen Ričl played together in a band called Ozbiljno Pitanje that disbanded when Ričl started playing alongside Kurtović and Rizo Petranović in a band called Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, initially the most established group of the lot since they were the first to get a recording contract (with ZKP RTVLj). The synergy of weekly radio appearances along with constant gigging around Sarajevo in student hangouts (Trasa, Kuk, Cedus, etc.) created a bit of local buzz that benefited both the radio and music side of things. By early 1984, Zabranjeno Pušenje finally got the record deal they were after (with Jugoton no less) while Top lista nadrealista developed enough of a following among the Sarajevo youth that it got a second shot on television in June 1984.

The weekly radio segment continued in parallel with the television episodes and the success of Pušenje's debut album. Good album sales combined with the satisfactory reception of the television episodes prompted the release of Top lista nadrealista radio material on audio cassette tape by Diskoton. Produced by Boro Kontić, it consisted of the troupe's best radio sketches. However, the so called 'Marshal affair' that Nele Karajlić and Zabranjeno Pušenje got themselves into put a damper on many activities. First, the 11 episode Top lista nadrealista run on television ended in late December 1984. Then, the Top lista nadrealista audio cassette tape's promotional cycle got blocked on administrative orders from above — becoming unavailable for sale in general circulation, only through traveling salesmen. Nevertheless, it still managed to sell 10,000 copies. Though it proved a challenge initially, it didn't take too long for the television show to start getting a bit of a wider following. Its core demographic—Sarajevo youth—that had been on board all along continued to be there, but getting viewership in other demographics and other parts of the country took some time. Once obtained, this newly found popularity was in large part based on the abundance of colloquialisms and local Sarajevo street parlance—none of which could be seen up to that point on the buttoned up Yugoslav TV. In total, eleven episodes were aired during the first season. Considering each one of the six protagonists was in their early twenties, the sketches expectedly centred around exuberance and improvisation, which dominated over the written material.