KEY POINTS:
Last week he was just another comedian. This week Beppe Grillo - tousle-haired, beer-bellied, foul-mouthed and 59 - is something else.
But what exactly? Is he a reckless demagogue who threatens to overturn the established order? A gadfly from the blogosphere spreading anarchic ideas? Or simply the man who is giving Italy's much abused general public a voice?
One thing's for certain - all Italy is talking about him.
It all started in early September. For the past four years Grillo has written a blog, beppegrillo.it, Italy's most popular with 200,000 hits per day.
On September 8 he led his vast virtual community out into the real world. They celebrated what he called "V-Day": V not for victory but "vaffanculo": an extremely vulgar, though common, expression which corresponds closely to "f*** off"' - those being invited to go forth and multiply being Italy's politicians.
It might have fallen flat on its face, like other efforts to shake the established order in recent years.
Except that it didn't. The comedian called for one big rally in Bologna, home of Prodi, and rallies in 250 other cities nationwide.
Fifty thousand assembled in Bologna. Hundreds of thousands more gathered around the country.
The idea was to collect signatures to demand a drastic new law banning convicted criminals from Parliament - Grillo says there are 23 MPs and Senators with criminal convictions - and to limit politicians to serving no more than two terms in Parliament.
More than 300,000 signatures were collected.
The turnout for "V-Day" stunned the political establishment, and in the days that followed Grillo maintained the initiative. Having proved that he was, as claimed, the voice of a broad mass of disaffected Italians, what would he do next?
The first answer came on Saturday when he showed up at the Festa dell'Unita, the great annual jamboree, first of the Communists, now of the post-Communists, and received a loud ovation from the crowd, despite the fact that prominent among the people he was mocking and scorning were their highest leaders. Grillo was in no mood to soften his message or tender olive branches. The "up yours" tone continued unabated.
Then on Sunday he went a step further, announcing that his blog would give its backing to independent candidates for local elections who fulfil the criteria of openness and who remain separate from the established parties.
Italy is still digesting the significance of this announcement. In a little over a week Grillo has gone from being a satirical comedian, to a putative leader, to the actual leader of a de facto group of candidates.
So much flim-flam, you might think. But as Italy's serious newspapers have been forced to admit, Grillo is not so easily dismissed - particularly given Italy's present political circumstances.
The political parties are fragile, constantly in flux. No one doubts that Grillo is moving into politics.
"Certainly Italy needs a revolution," he said. "I myself was taken surprise by the size of the response to my call for V-Day. But this is not a demonstration of anger: it's a pure breath of air. Italians were standing in line to sign our petition - smiling and standing in line. Have you ever seen Italians doing that?"
- Independent
