Tip and Coll

Tip y Coll was a Spanish comedy duo formed from 1967 to 1992 by Luis Sánchez Polack, Tip (1926-1999) and José Luis Coll (1931-2007).

Origins

Tip and Top previously formed a humorous couple, very successful in Spain in the 1950s, composed of Luis Sánchez Polack and Joaquín Portillo. In 1961 Portillo retired to dedicate himself to caring for his sick wife.

Luis Sánchez Polack and José Luis Coll met in the mid-60s on the sets of Spanish Television, when they decided to form the comedy duo Tip and Coll, which in Luis's original idea should have been called Tipicol Spain. They debuted before the public in 1967, at the Aránzazu Hotel in Bilbao, and from that moment on they began a series of tours and galas that took them to different parts of Spain with their show and enormous support from the public.

70s

In 1969 his appearances on television began, specifically in the program Galas del Saturday, presented by Laura Valenzuela and Joaquín Prat. Throughout the following years, and especially during the seventies, their activity on TV was frenetic, and they were present with their particular sense of humor in almost all the entertainment and entertainment programs of the time: last coffee (1970-1971), Pure coincidence (1973), Everything is possible on Sunday (1974), Lo de Tip y Coll (1974), The Hour of... (1975-1976) or 625 lines (1976-1979)...

It is at that moment, in the seventies, that they become a true social phenomenon and their tics and idioms are adopted by the general public as a habitual form of language. His taglines were from "Give me the hand Pepe Luí", through "Daughter of my training!" until "For what?...Paraguayan". Especially popular was the phrase "Next week...we will talk about the Government", with which they intended to mock the last blows of public censorship that still remained in the years of the Spanish political transition.

In fact, in February 1979, one of his sketches was not broadcast in 625 lines, under the excuse, as alleged by its director José Antonio Plaza, of the mediocrity of the scripts, which caused his hasty exit from space.

80s and 90s

In the following years, they continued performing in nightclubs, such as Cleofás, and made sporadic appearances on television programs, such as New Year's Eve specials. Tip and Coll came to perform in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1986.

In recent years it was precisely when they presented one of their best-known sketches: How to fill a glass of water using a jug, in which, with surreal humor, José Luis Coll showed in detail the hearing the correct way to perform such an operation, with "translation" simultaneous from Tip to a supposed Frenchman.

After that stage, both actors grew apart professionally, although they would coincide in some programs, although not as a humorous couple: The State of the Nation in the radio program Protagonistas by Luis del Olmo, or its television version This country needs a review (1993) on Telecinco.

It was on this network where they appeared for the last time under the name Tip y Coll in the 1995 New Year's Eve special program, called Let's go for grapes.

Style

Their humor was largely indebted to the image they cultivated: two nineteenth-century undertaker suits with their respective frock coats and Tip's top hat in front of Coll's bowler hat.

Tip and Coll's jokes bordered on absurd humor, a tone close to surrealism that they surely took reference from the Marx brothers, in which they wanted to find continuity with Miguel Mihura, and that resonated with Spanish viewers., which made them very loved and respected characters.

The day Tip died, a journalist asked Coll what sentence he would dedicate to him, to which he responded: "Luis, I won't forgive you for this joke."

Prizes