Paolo Villaggio.
During the 70's, the Cioran of Italian comedy, mixing slapstic to social satire with an extremely cynical approach. During the 80s he lost any appeal, but his early TV apparition and most 70's movies are classic.
First 3 Fantozzi, Alla mia cara mamma nel giorno del suo compleanno (devastating comedy/drama with incest/morbid moments), il Belpaese (satirical take on Italian lead years), Fracchia la belva umana. and many more were classics that unfortunately will request a very open mind from non-Italian speakers to be understood.
Any Italian has watched his movies several times and even those who dislike him use sentences or words created by him.
Its cynical take on the (then) growing middle class has some links to Monty Python's meaning of life, so do the several surreal moments, but we are in a completely different field that mixes typical Italian "comical masks", to Intellectual top "sauer comedy", to French and B/W actors like Tatì, Keaton, etc.
Il secondo tragico fantozzi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKh7hBPQMjUNarrating voice was the best thing, and a big influence on many other comedians.
Despite being an extreme left militant, he was big friend of many capitalists, lobbyists. He was conscious of this contradiction and made a lot of fun on this.
His books, even recent ones, are extremely cynical, funny but tragic at the same time, showing his constant battle with his own weaknesses, vices, etc.