Herman Enciclopédia


Herman Enciclopédia is a Portuguese sketch comedy television series broadcast for two seasons of thirteen episodes each on RTP1 between 1997 and 1998, with the participation of Herman José. Patterned after CD-ROM-based encyclopedias, each episode was about a specific theme, which often featured a studio-based introduction to the topic presented by Herman José himself.
The series presents a variety of sketches and characters, some of which were introduced in prior works. The series was written by the Produções Fictícias team.

Recurring sketches

  • Melga Shop: parody of infomercials with Herman José as Henrique Melga and José Pedro Gomes as Mike. The sketches showcased a variety of absurd products
  • Lauro Dérmio Apresenta: parody of Lauro António's program for TVI, Lauro António Apresenta. Lauro Dérmio presented trailers and excerpts of fictional films, often parodies of existing ones, including the "2-in-1" genre which combined elements of two completely different movies. Another key trait was his repeated mispronounciation of English, often bordering on borderline literal translations. He was best known for the catchphrase "Let's look at the trailer".
  • Diácono Remédios: Originally created for radio, the character was created due to the fallout of the Last Supper skit in late 1995. The character frequently interrupted sketches which were considered immoral in his worldview. His catchphrase, " não havia necessidade" stemmed from a phrase Herman José's mother told him when he was a child.
  • Quartet of businessmen from the North: a group of four businessmen from Porto who, in the first season, decided to clandestinely counter Expo '98 in Lisbon with Expo '97 in a wine cellar. The group was led by engineer Passos de Ferreira, architect Jorge Tawny, Dr. Mega Ribeira and Antonieta Luz Afonso, who gave a more social tone to their interventions. For Expo '97, a Tripanário conceived to counter the Lisbon Oceanarium, the Pinto-Rei statue, a giant statue of FC Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa larger than the Cristo-Rei statue in Lisbon in Gaia and an elliptical bridge. At the end of the first season, the projects failed due to the electricity bill being cut, of which Passos de Ferreira used its money to go to Lisbon to attend the Hipopótamo night club in Lisbon. In the second season, the quartet changed their idea and set up a political party, PNRN and her sidekick Robinha. Her equivalent to kryptonite was possidonite, represented by a golf ball.
  • Sexo Para Todos: introduced in season 2, it was presented by Rute Remédios, based on Ruth Westheimer, which is the mother of Diácono Remédios.
  • Herman Geographic: originally created for Parabéns, the segments are a parody of David Attenborough's wildlife documentaries, presented by a caricature called David Vaittenborough. He speaks with a mock British accent, but in Herman Enciclopédia, but his voice is dubbed over in Brazilian Portuguese, mimicking the style of documentary channels found on cable television at the time. The character was revived for a sketch in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.