# Cooking Show Drama > 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. ## Origin Juan Joya Borja was born on April 5, 1956, in Seville, Andalusia[1]. He worked a variety of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement[1]. 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 Spanish[1]. 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 on[1]. Borja also appeared in the 2005 film *Torrente 3: el protector*[1]. - **Platform:** Canal Sur Televisión (original broadcast), YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Juan Joya Borja (comedian/subject), Jesús Quintero (interviewer/host) - **Date:** 2007 (original clip), 2014 (meme format breakout) ## 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[1]. 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[1]. 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[1]. 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. ## 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[1]. Other creators quickly followed, mostly with apolitical parodies about technology and gaming[1]. 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[1]. 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[1]. 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[1]. In April 2015, a Slovak-language version featuring subtitles by comedian Ján Gordulič parodied the Váhostav political affair and went viral in that country[1]. 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[1]. 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[1]. Borja's international fame from the meme led to performance opportunities outside Spain, including a Finnish commercial[1]. ## How to Use 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 ## 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[1]. Borja was admitted to the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville in September 2020 for a vascular problem that required a leg amputation[1]. On April 28, 2021, he died at the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío at age 65 after a sudden relapse[1]. 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[1]. - The original YouTube upload sat for eight years with modest viewership before the fake subtitle format turned it into a global sensation[1]. - "El Risitas" literally translates to "The Giggles" in Spanish, a nickname he earned from his first TV appearance in 2001[1]. - Borja's television career spanned several Jesús Quintero shows across different Spanish networks, from *El Vagamundo* (2000-2002) through *El Gatopardo* (2007-2012)[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Cooking Show Drama / El Risitas? It's a meme format based on a 2007 Spanish TV interview in which comedian Juan Joya Borja tells a story about losing paella pans while working as a kitchen porter, punctuated by his famous wheezing laugh. Users add fake subtitles to the clip to joke about various topics[1]. ### Where did the El Risitas meme come from? The original clip was recorded in 2007 on the Spanish talk show *Ratones Coloraos*, hosted by Jesús Quintero. It was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2007, and the fake subtitle meme format started gaining traction in March 2014[1]. ### What does the El Risitas meme mean? The meme uses Borja's contagious laughter as a vehicle for satire. By adding fake subtitles, creators make it appear he's laughing about whatever absurd situation they want to mock, from bad tech products to political scandals[1]. ### How do you use the El Risitas meme? For the video format, take the original interview clip and overlay fake subtitles in your language, timing them so the laughter hits after the funniest lines. For the KEKW emote, use it in Twitch chat during genuinely funny moments[1]. ### Is the El Risitas meme still popular? The KEKW Twitch emote had over 400 million uses as of April 2022, ranking among the top 10 most-used FrankerFaceZ emotes[1]. The fake subtitle video format saw peak activity around 2015 but new versions still appear around major tech and gaming events. ### Who was El Risitas? Juan Joya Borja (1956-2021) was a Spanish comedian from Seville known for his high-pitched, wheezing laugh. He first appeared on TV in 2001 and gained worldwide fame through the meme format starting in 2014-2015[1]. ### What does KEKW mean on Twitch? KEKW is a FrankerFaceZ emote showing a zoomed-in image of Borja's laughing face. "KEK" is internet slang for laughter (originally from World of Warcraft). It was added to the platform in 2019 and had over 400 million uses by April 2022[1]. ### What was the original El Risitas story about? Borja described tying paella pans to sticks in the sand at the seashore overnight so they'd soak clean. When he returned the next morning, the high tide had washed all of them into the ocean except one[1]. ### When did El Risitas pass away? Juan Joya Borja died on April 28, 2021, at age 65, from complications of a vascular illness at the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío in Seville[1]. ### Why is El Risitas compared to Downfall parodies? Both formats use the same technique: taking a foreign-language video clip and adding fabricated subtitles for comedic effect. The Downfall parodies use a 2004 German-language war drama scene, while El Risitas uses a Spanish comedy interview[1]. ## References 1. [El Risitas]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/cooking-show-drama Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library