He was born in 1956, being one of the nine children of the immigrant
Palestinian Chucre Meruane, merchant dedicated to the sale of fabrics. He is nephew of the actress
Nelly Meruane and uncle of the writer
Lina Meruane. He studied as a technician in tool and die making at the
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, from which he graduated in 1981. That same year, while doing his professional practice in a plastics company, he competed in the program
¿Cuánto vale el show?, being this his first television appearance. A year later, he decided to devote himself entirely to humor, working in different nightclubs in Santiago, until he was discovered by producer Emilio Rojas, who in 1983 took him to the programs
Sábados gigantes and
Noche de gigantes, both hosted by
Don Francisco, where he gained national notoriety. Parallel to this, he ventured into the
café concert format, presenting his shows
Fotocopia feliz del Edén (1984) and
La Viroca (1988). In the late 1980s he returned for a stint on the international version of
Sábado gigante, now broadcast from Miami, United States, where he reached the
peak of his comedy career and managed to be seen by millions of viewers around the world. In 1998 he premiered his café concert
Prejuicio final. After his failure he was away from the stage for several months, and in 2012 he starred in a reality show called
Gracias no se molesten in
Vía X, whose title comes from a phrase that Meruane mentioned repeatedly during his presentation in Viña del Mar. That same year he performed at the
Festival Viva Dichato 2012, where his failure was repeated. , the humorist Ricardo Meruane performed a routine where he included the "
noctule" joke, achieving great popularity later on. however, the routine would be revalued years later with several jokes of it reaching great popularity; in particular, the "
noctule" joke (related to the possession of
exotic pets), which became a cult joke in Chile as well with the "
chlorine" joke relating the
country code top-level domain for Chile, "
.cl" with the symbol of the chemical element present in the
periodic table of the elements. He currently has a wood carving business. In 2021, he appeared in the world's first film made with "Deepfake" titled "Una película de zombies". ==See also==