Swiss Mike Casa, 38, makes fun of the CFF, the Post Office, the Coop or the army, in videos on the Internet.image: mike casa, editing: watson
But also from Coop, Migros, La Poste, Credit Suisse or the army. In videos that meet with dizzying success, Mike Casa crushes national giants and our venerable institutions. Engineer and comedian (yes, yes), this Ticino from Zurich speaks six languages, plays in English and dreams of the SBB responding to him one day. We interviewed him (in French, of course).
More “Entertainment”
A funny character. And not just because he looks more like a tax auditor than Jamel Debbouze. The video finally launched, Mike Casa readjusts his glasses and flashes a little intellectual smile. The familiarity is immediate, the flow passes.
If we chatted for half an hour with this almost forty-year-old from Ticino, it’s because his wildly successful videos have been flooding our Instagram feed for several weeks. The fault is Zuckerberg’s algorithms, but above all the targets he destroys every day, in short humorous videos in English, which attract a crazy audience.
A DIY production, but a spirit recognizable among thousands: wig screwed on the head and pen between the fingers, Mike Casa invents creative briefs during which our institutions seem to make a superhuman effort to make our lives impossible.
For example?
“Ok Gentlemen, the objective today is to poorly arrange the interior of the S-Bahn trains”
Mike Casa, in a sketch that parodies a CFF creative meeting
For several years, this ETH engineer, born in Lugano and established in Zurich, has taken great pleasure in making fun of the jewels of our small country. The best of the worst, the bad guys, the ones we love to hate. Among his favorites, the CFF and the Post Office are having a blast. Which doesn’t stop him from peppering Credit Suisse, Coop, Migros, the army or even Tibits, this vegetarian self-service where we “discover the price of our plate once it’s too late” .
Necessarily divisive, obviously full of clichés, his humor has everything to seduce the connected and spoiled Swiss.
So instead of blocking him like a rascal, we decided to call this polyglot who juggles between his serious work at Roche, his “quick to make” videos and his shows that he shoots throughout Switzerland, as in Geneva on June 22 and in Zurich on the 28th.
Mike, why so much hatred towards Swiss companies and institutions?
Ah, ah, nothing personal, don’t worry. Above all, I had to find subjects that speak to the Swiss, stories that concern them and the problems they face every day. In my sketches, these are scenes that I have experienced myself and things that I imagine with a lot of bad faith.
Do you really think that the CFF or the Post Office spend their day making life impossible for us?
We all want it to be true, right?
Everyone is screwing the CFF, Migros, the army or the Post Office. Internet users love to vent on them. They’re easy targets, right?
No, sometimes it’s even the opposite. I often get comments thanking me for spending time making fun of these companies that the Swiss can’t do without, because it’s not that common in videos that have a certain success.
Among your victims, which are the most successful on the Internet?
“The CFF of course… That’s also why I do so much. Criticizing the CFF is an inexhaustible target!”
There will come a time when you will have exhausted all the possibilities against the CFF…
Ah, ah, my mother tells me the same thing. I do not believe. Plus, I still have around ten videos to shoot on jokes that are already written, so I’m safe for the next few months!
Why don’t you touch politics?
Oh… mainly because I don’t have the time to care enough about it to do just that. And then there’s a lot of political humor already, it’s quite easy to make fun of Ticino or Zurich politicians, right? I prefer to focus on the small dysfunctions of our institutions. These little things that disrupt the daily lives of Swiss citizens.
Have some companies already called you to complain about your videos?
Yes, it’s already happened. But never to complain or threaten me. On the other hand, the CFF never contacted me, unfortunately! It is often my subscribers who tag the targets I am targeting in the videos, so that they react. But the CFF never responded.
Your CFF videos have several hundred views. I imagine they still keep an eye on you?
It’s entirely possible. If my videos are successful, it’s because there are a lot of likes and especially comments. I think they act as a thermometer. And that allows them to discreetly survey the population.
“I was told one day that after a video on transport tickets, they had changed a procedure during the week. Who knows? If people complain, sometimes there is a reason!”
If they called you to offer you a partnership, could you make a deal with the “devil”?
No problem!
Are you more of a content creator who performs or a comedian who makes videos?
I make videos so that people want to come see me perform. I started with that. After a first experience in Zurich, I really got a taste of the scene once in Sydney, when I was studying there. At first, I was opening for more well-known comedians, but when my TikTok account started to gain traction, I was finally able to try performing solo.
But it’s still a bit treacherous, the Internet. All it takes is for your videos to be a hit for you to feel stuck in this role, right?
I do not believe. Some jokes work very well on stage and are a flop on TikTok. The opposite is also true. Over time, my audience has understood that both exist and for the moment it’s not going too bad -
