Cooking Show Drama

2007Video / Fake Subtitle Memeclassic

Also known as: El Risitas · Spanish Laughing Guy · KEKW · Risitas Laughing

Cooking Show Drama is a video meme from a 2007 Spanish TV interview with comedian El Risitas, whose wheezing laugh and paella-disaster anecdote spawned countless fake-subtitle remixes.

Cooking Show Drama is the informal name for a viral meme format built around a 2007 Spanish TV interview with comedian Juan Joya Borja, known by his stage name El Risitas. In the clip, Borja recounts a disastrous kitchen incident involving paella pans lost to the ocean tide, all while breaking into his signature high-pitched, wheezing laugh. Starting in 2014, internet users began overlaying the clip with fake subtitles to satirize everything from tech launches to video games, turning it into one of the most remixed interview clips online. A still of Borja's laughing face later became the KEKW Twitch emote in 2019.

cooking memesfake subtitle memesredub parody memesspanish origin memesinterview memes

TL;DR

Cooking Show Drama is the informal name for a viral meme format built around a 2007 Spanish TV interview with comedian Juan Joya Borja, known by his stage name El Risitas.

Overview

The meme centers on a clip from the Spanish talk show *Ratones Coloraos*, hosted by journalist Jesús Quintero. In the segment, comedian Juan Joya Borja recounts an incident from his days working as a kitchen porter1. He describes leaving paella pans (paelleras) tied by sticks in the sand at the seashore overnight to let them soak, only to return the next morning and discover the high tide had carried every single one out to sea except one1.

The story itself is funny enough, but what made the clip irresistible is Borja's laugh. The Guardian described it as sounding like a "dolphin with a 20-a-day habit," and Borja repeatedly interrupts his own narrative as he fails to keep his composure1. That combination of a mundane kitchen disaster and an absolutely unhinged laugh created the perfect blank canvas for internet remixers who realized they could make Borja appear to be laughing about anything.

Juan Joya Borja was born on April 5, 1956, in Seville, Andalusia1. He worked a variety of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement1. His first television appearance came in 2001 on Quintero's earlier show *El Vagamundo*, where he told comedic stories about his experiences with "El Peíto" (Antonio Rivero Crespo)1. His infectious, wheezing laugh earned him the nickname "El Risitas," which translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish1.

The clip that launched the meme was recorded during a 2007 appearance on *Ratones Coloraos*1. It was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2007, where it accumulated over 1 million views across the next eight years before the fake subtitle format caught on1. Borja also appeared in the 2005 film *Torrente 3: el protector*1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Canal Sur Televisión (original broadcast), YouTube (viral spread)
Key People
Juan Joya Borja, Jesús Quintero
Date
2007 (original clip), 2014 (meme format breakout)
Year
2007

Juan Joya Borja was born on April 5, 1956, in Seville, Andalusia. He worked a variety of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement. His first television appearance came in 2001 on Quintero's earlier show *El Vagamundo*, where he told comedic stories about his experiences with "El Peíto" (Antonio Rivero Crespo). His infectious, wheezing laugh earned him the nickname "El Risitas," which translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish.

The clip that launched the meme was recorded during a 2007 appearance on *Ratones Coloraos*. It was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2007, where it accumulated over 1 million views across the next eight years before the fake subtitle format caught on. Borja also appeared in the 2005 film *Torrente 3: el protector*.

How It Spread

The first major wave of fake subtitle edits arrived in March 2014, when Egypt's recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood used the footage to parody presidential candidate Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Other creators quickly followed, mostly with apolitical parodies about technology and gaming.

Some of the most-viewed early versions presented Borja as: the designer of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, a designer of Team Fortress 2, a Valve employee discussing Dota 2, a Canon representative talking about the C300 camera, an Xbox Live employee describing the platform's system, and a cinematographer discussing shooting on a Red camera.

The format exploded in March 2015 following the launch of the 2015 MacBook. A version with subtitles presenting Borja as a designer who worked on the MacBook prototype pulled in over five million YouTube views within a single month. Media outlets compared the format's impact to "Downfall" parodies, in which scenes from the 2004 war film are similarly edited with fake subtitles to humorous effect.

In April 2015, a Slovak-language version featuring subtitles by comedian Ján Gordulič parodied the Váhostav political affair and went viral in that country.

The meme found a second life in 2019. A zoomed-in still of Borja's laughing face from the interview was added as a third-party Twitch emote called KEKW on the FrankerFaceZ extension. By April 2022, over 100,000 Twitch channels had enabled the emote, and chatters had used it more than 400 million times, placing it 10th among the most popular FrankerFaceZ emotes.

Borja's international fame from the meme led to performance opportunities outside Spain, including a Finnish commercial.

Platforms

TwitterTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Cooking Show Drama is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The fake subtitle format typically follows a few conventions:

1

Pick a frustrating or absurd situation, usually involving a flawed tech product, a bad corporate decision, or a gaming controversy

2

Write a script where Borja appears to be describing that situation as if he were responsible for it

3

Time the subtitles so his uncontrollable laughter hits right after each outrageous revelation

4

Build to a climax where Borja completely breaks down, usually timed to the most painful detail of the joke

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The format proved unusually durable because the original clip works in any language. Since the subtitles are fabricated, the comedy translates across every culture without losing anything. This gave it a truly global reach that few meme formats achieve.

When the meme went international around 2015, Borja parlayed the attention into commercial work outside Spain, including a Finnish advertisement.

Borja was admitted to the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville in September 2020 for a vascular problem that required a leg amputation. On April 28, 2021, he died at the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío at age 65 after a sudden relapse. His death prompted tributes across social media from fans who associated his laugh with pure internet joy.

Fun Facts

The paella pan story is real. Borja genuinely lost the pans to the ocean tide during his time as a kitchen porter.

The original YouTube upload sat for eight years with modest viewership before the fake subtitle format turned it into a global sensation.

"El Risitas" literally translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish, a nickname he earned from his first TV appearance in 2001.

Borja's television career spanned several Jesús Quintero shows across different Spanish networks, from *El Vagamundo* (2000-2002) through *El Gatopardo* (2007-2012).

Derivatives & Variations

KEKW Twitch emote

A zoomed-in still of Borja's laughing face from the interview, added to FrankerFaceZ in 2019, amassing over 400 million uses by April 2022[1]

Tech industry parodies

The most popular subcategory of edits, covering everything from Nvidia GPU launches to Apple product reveals[1]

Political parodies

Used by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in 2014 to satirize el-Sisi, and by Slovak comedian Ján Gordulič to parody the Váhostav affair in 2015[1]

Downfall-format parallels

The meme's success directly mirrored and revived interest in the fake subtitle genre pioneered by "Hitler Reacts" / Downfall parodies[1]

Frequently Asked Questions

References (1)

  1. 1
    El Risitasencyclopedia

Cooking Show Drama

2007Video / Fake Subtitle Memeclassic

Also known as: El Risitas · Spanish Laughing Guy · KEKW · Risitas Laughing

Cooking Show Drama is a video meme from a 2007 Spanish TV interview with comedian El Risitas, whose wheezing laugh and paella-disaster anecdote spawned countless fake-subtitle remixes.

Cooking Show Drama is the informal name for a viral meme format built around a 2007 Spanish TV interview with comedian Juan Joya Borja, known by his stage name El Risitas. In the clip, Borja recounts a disastrous kitchen incident involving paella pans lost to the ocean tide, all while breaking into his signature high-pitched, wheezing laugh. Starting in 2014, internet users began overlaying the clip with fake subtitles to satirize everything from tech launches to video games, turning it into one of the most remixed interview clips online. A still of Borja's laughing face later became the KEKW Twitch emote in 2019.

cooking memes fake subtitle memes redub parody memes spanish origin memes interview memes

TL;DR

Cooking Show Drama is the informal name for a viral meme format built around a 2007 Spanish TV interview with comedian Juan Joya Borja, known by his stage name El Risitas.

Overview

The meme centers on a clip from the Spanish talk show *Ratones Coloraos*, hosted by journalist Jesús Quintero. In the segment, comedian Juan Joya Borja recounts an incident from his days working as a kitchen porter. He describes leaving paella pans (paelleras) tied by sticks in the sand at the seashore overnight to let them soak, only to return the next morning and discover the high tide had carried every single one out to sea except one.

The story itself is funny enough, but what made the clip irresistible is Borja's laugh. The Guardian described it as sounding like a "dolphin with a 20-a-day habit," and Borja repeatedly interrupts his own narrative as he fails to keep his composure. That combination of a mundane kitchen disaster and an absolutely unhinged laugh created the perfect blank canvas for internet remixers who realized they could make Borja appear to be laughing about anything.

Juan Joya Borja was born on April 5, 1956, in Seville, Andalusia. He worked a variety of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement. His first television appearance came in 2001 on Quintero's earlier show *El Vagamundo*, where he told comedic stories about his experiences with "El Peíto" (Antonio Rivero Crespo). His infectious, wheezing laugh earned him the nickname "El Risitas," which translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish.

The clip that launched the meme was recorded during a 2007 appearance on *Ratones Coloraos*. It was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2007, where it accumulated over 1 million views across the next eight years before the fake subtitle format caught on. Borja also appeared in the 2005 film *Torrente 3: el protector*.

Origin & Background

Platform
Canal Sur Televisión (original broadcast), YouTube (viral spread)
Key People
Juan Joya Borja, Jesús Quintero
Date
2007 (original clip), 2014 (meme format breakout)
Year
2007

Juan Joya Borja was born on April 5, 1956, in Seville, Andalusia. He worked a variety of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement. His first television appearance came in 2001 on Quintero's earlier show *El Vagamundo*, where he told comedic stories about his experiences with "El Peíto" (Antonio Rivero Crespo). His infectious, wheezing laugh earned him the nickname "El Risitas," which translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish.

The clip that launched the meme was recorded during a 2007 appearance on *Ratones Coloraos*. It was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2007, where it accumulated over 1 million views across the next eight years before the fake subtitle format caught on. Borja also appeared in the 2005 film *Torrente 3: el protector*.

How It Spread

The first major wave of fake subtitle edits arrived in March 2014, when Egypt's recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood used the footage to parody presidential candidate Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Other creators quickly followed, mostly with apolitical parodies about technology and gaming.

Some of the most-viewed early versions presented Borja as: the designer of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, a designer of Team Fortress 2, a Valve employee discussing Dota 2, a Canon representative talking about the C300 camera, an Xbox Live employee describing the platform's system, and a cinematographer discussing shooting on a Red camera.

The format exploded in March 2015 following the launch of the 2015 MacBook. A version with subtitles presenting Borja as a designer who worked on the MacBook prototype pulled in over five million YouTube views within a single month. Media outlets compared the format's impact to "Downfall" parodies, in which scenes from the 2004 war film are similarly edited with fake subtitles to humorous effect.

In April 2015, a Slovak-language version featuring subtitles by comedian Ján Gordulič parodied the Váhostav political affair and went viral in that country.

The meme found a second life in 2019. A zoomed-in still of Borja's laughing face from the interview was added as a third-party Twitch emote called KEKW on the FrankerFaceZ extension. By April 2022, over 100,000 Twitch channels had enabled the emote, and chatters had used it more than 400 million times, placing it 10th among the most popular FrankerFaceZ emotes.

Borja's international fame from the meme led to performance opportunities outside Spain, including a Finnish commercial.

Platforms

TwitterTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Cooking Show Drama is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The fake subtitle format typically follows a few conventions:

1

Pick a frustrating or absurd situation, usually involving a flawed tech product, a bad corporate decision, or a gaming controversy

2

Write a script where Borja appears to be describing that situation as if he were responsible for it

3

Time the subtitles so his uncontrollable laughter hits right after each outrageous revelation

4

Build to a climax where Borja completely breaks down, usually timed to the most painful detail of the joke

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The format proved unusually durable because the original clip works in any language. Since the subtitles are fabricated, the comedy translates across every culture without losing anything. This gave it a truly global reach that few meme formats achieve.

When the meme went international around 2015, Borja parlayed the attention into commercial work outside Spain, including a Finnish advertisement.

Borja was admitted to the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville in September 2020 for a vascular problem that required a leg amputation. On April 28, 2021, he died at the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío at age 65 after a sudden relapse. His death prompted tributes across social media from fans who associated his laugh with pure internet joy.

Fun Facts

The paella pan story is real. Borja genuinely lost the pans to the ocean tide during his time as a kitchen porter.

The original YouTube upload sat for eight years with modest viewership before the fake subtitle format turned it into a global sensation.

"El Risitas" literally translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish, a nickname he earned from his first TV appearance in 2001.

Borja's television career spanned several Jesús Quintero shows across different Spanish networks, from *El Vagamundo* (2000-2002) through *El Gatopardo* (2007-2012).

Derivatives & Variations

KEKW Twitch emote

A zoomed-in still of Borja's laughing face from the interview, added to FrankerFaceZ in 2019, amassing over 400 million uses by April 2022[1]

Tech industry parodies

The most popular subcategory of edits, covering everything from Nvidia GPU launches to Apple product reveals[1]

Political parodies

Used by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in 2014 to satirize el-Sisi, and by Slovak comedian Ján Gordulič to parody the Váhostav affair in 2015[1]

Downfall-format parallels

The meme's success directly mirrored and revived interest in the fake subtitle genre pioneered by "Hitler Reacts" / Downfall parodies[1]

Frequently Asked Questions

References (1)

  1. 1
    El Risitasencyclopedia