Juan Joya Borja (5 April 1956 – 28 April 2021) was a Spanish comedian and actor known by the stage name El Risitas.

He gained widespread popularity in 2015 thanks to a series of memes based on a television interview he did from 2001 on Jesús Quintero's show Ratones coloraos.

Biography

Joya was born in Seville on 5 April 1956. He had a number of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement.

His first appearance on television was in 2000, on Jesús Quintero's show El Vagamundo, where he interviewed on various life situations with his partner "El Peíto" or "el Cuñao", in a comedic tone. He became recognizable for his high-pitched, wheezing laugh (described in The Guardian as like a "dolphin with a 20-a-day habit"), which led to his nickname "El Risitas" ([el ri.ˈsi.tas]; "Mr. Giggles" in English). He also appeared in the 2005 film Torrente 3: El protector. When he became known internationally around 2015 he also performed for companies outside of Spain, for example in a Finnish commercial.

Ratones Coloraos interview meme

In 2001, Joya appeared on Jesús Quintero's show Ratones Coloraos and described an incident when he worked as a kitchen porter. He describes leaving some paella pans (paelleras) at night in the ocean to soak and clean, and when in the morning he returned to retrieve the pans, they had washed out to sea with the tide. He frequently interrupts the story with his trademark laugh. The original video was uploaded to YouTube on 25 June 2007, and received over a million views eight years before the meme became widespread.

In March 2014, footage from the interview was used by the Muslim Brotherhood to parody the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Other parodies were also produced, usually parodying technology and gaming. The most viewed versions of the video subtitled Joya 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 discussing the C300 camera, an Xbox Live employee describing the platform's system, and a cinematographer describing shooting on a Red camera.

In March 2015, the meme received its most attention after the launch of the 2015 MacBook, where Joya was subtitled as a designer who worked on the prototype. Within a month of its uploading, the video received over five million views on YouTube. The meme's impact has been compared to parodies of the 2004 war drama Downfall, where several scenes from the film are similarly edited with fake subtitles.

Another popular meme was published in April 2015 parodying a political affair in Slovakia known as the Vahostav affair, where Joya was subtitled by popular Slovak stand-up comedy performer Jano Gordulic. In June 2016 it was used to parody the Brexit decision in Great Britain, with El Risitas allegedly having been an advisor to David Cameron in planning the Brexit campaign.

Health and death

In September 2020, Joya was admitted to the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville, where he underwent an intervention for a vascular problem and had a leg amputated.

At noon on 28 April 2021, Joya was transferred from the Hospital de la Caridad to the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, after a sudden relapse. He died from complications from his illness later that afternoon at the age of 65.

Filmography

• 2005: Torrente 3: El protector

Television

• 2000–2002: El Vagamundo, Canal 2 Andalucía
• 2002–2005: Ratones Coloraos, Canal Sur Televisión
• 2006–2007: El loco de la colina, La1
• 2007–2012: El Gatopardo, Canal Sur