Doña Rogelia and the karma that takes its time but arrives

Karma takes its time, but it arrives. And art, according to this song, works the same way: it may keep you waiting, but against con artists it's infallible. The lyrics start in a storytelling tone, «esta es la historia de cómo una vez» ("this is the story of how once"), and as soon as you hear it you know it's going to end badly for someone.

The one who thought he was so clever and looked down on everyone ends up insignificant, unimportant, exposed in front of the whole audience. That's the underlying idea, and I find it very funny, because it turns art into a kind of slow avenger that forgets nobody.

Ten per cent original

The central part is a fairground introduction in reverse. Instead of announcing the star of the show, the lyrics present the fraud with a most creative list of insults: schemer, bargain-bin salesman, ten per cent genuine and ninety per cent fake, goods from the seconds section that came back as a return. And as the finishing touch, the title of honour: street-market coordinator. I laugh every time I get to that line, because it has the nastiness of a village crier and the precision of a sale tag.

There's also a very specific reproach: that he won't be able to keep stealing the suits or the clothes. Without further explanation, you sense someone who helped himself to what wasn't his and has finally lost access to someone else's wardrobe.

The ending is pure PLANETA GAYFOLK. First comes the crudest line, an explicit invitation thrown out with all the rage in the world. And straight afterwards the narrator corrects herself, horrified: no way, because that mouth must have more bacteria than Doña Rogelia. That the final stab goes to the most famous old lady of Spanish ventriloquism (Doña Rogelia is a much-loved ventriloquist's puppet) has an absurd comedy I love. It's the camp way to close a revenge: with a joke that leaves the other person worse off than any threat.

It's a song for anyone who has worked with a social climber, who has watched someone pin other people's medals on themselves and had to keep quiet. Here, at last, someone speaks.

Put it on the day you find out the fraud has been caught. Or before, to get some practice.

The full lyrics are further down. Listen on Spotify