**The danger of cynicism** The existence of “Torrente for President” manifests itself as a symptom of creative exhaustion, confusing transgression with anachronism. In a political landscape like Spain's, where polarization is already a caricature in itself, Santiago Segura's character has lost its capacity as a paradigm of the critique, becoming instead a redundant and whitewashing echo. While the strength of the first Torrente lay in its ability to unsettle a society aspiring to European modernity, revealing the sediment of a Spain that refused to disappear, today, that antiquated Spain doesn't hide in dark alleys or seedy bars, but has become professionalized on social media, in the mainstream media, and, of course, within the very institutions of the State. Attempting to parody this lack of inhibition with crude jokes is exhausting and highly dangerous. Let's not forget that in Spain there are TV presenters who are also comedians, and who shamelessly claim that "you can't say anything anymore because of President Sánchez's dictatorship." And then, these same charlatans use their media power to censor, denounce, and silence other comedians or actors who dare to joke about the ultra-conservative underbelly of their professional environment. The plot of "Torrente for President" constantly stalls to make way for viral figures whose presence expires as quickly as a trending t…

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