In 1986 during the Saturday night television show Fantastico 7, he attacked the Italian Socialist Party and its leader Bettino Craxi, then Italy's Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

[16] His themes included energy use, political and corporate corruption, finance, freedom of speech, child labour, globalization and technology.

[22] He often receives letters from prominent figures such as Antonio Di Pietro (former Italian Minister of Infrastructures), Fausto Bertinotti (former President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies), Renzo Piano, and Nobel Prize Winners including Dario Fo, Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Dalai Lama and Muhammad Yunus.

[28] On 26 July 2007, Grillo was permitted to speak to the members of the European Parliament in Brussels, where he drew attention to the state of Italian politics.

During the rally, he projected the names of 24 Italian politicians who had been convicted of crimes including corruption, tax evasion and abetting a murder.

[31] According to Internet scholars Alberto Pepe and Corinna Di Gennaro, V‑day was the first political demonstration in Italy developed and promoted via the blogosphere and the social networking services.

[32] The second V-Day took place on 25 April 2008, in Turin, San Carlo Square, dedicated to the Italian press and the financial support it receives from the government.

Grillo strongly criticized the Italian press for the lack of freedom, Umberto Veronesi for his support for incinerators, NATO bases in Italy, politicians (Silvio Berlusconi had recently been re-elected), and the television channel Retequattro for retaining frequencies assigned to Europa 7.[1].

[dead link‍] In August 2008, Grillo was the subject of a report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's international affairs program Foreign Correspondent.

[38][39] On 7 December 1981 Grillo lost control of a Chevrolet K5 Blazer as he drove on a military road, forbidden to civilians, from Limone Piemonte to Colle di Tenda.

Six kilometers after "Quota 1400" near the border with France the vehicle slipped on a sheet of ice and fell 80 meters into a deep ravine.

During a show, Beppe Grillo called the 94-year-old winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and Italian Senator for Life (2001–2012) an "old whore".

In May 2012, Grillo published on the front page of his blog a mosaic of pictures with photographs of the PdL (Rocco Crimi), PD (Antonio Misiani) and UDC (Giuseppe Naro) administrators, along with those of former Lega Nord (Francesco Belsito) and The Daisy (Luigi Lusi).

[50] On 14 September 2015 he was convicted by the tribunal of Ascoli Piceno for aggravated defamation against Franco Battaglia, professor at the University of Modena, to a term of imprisonment with suspended sentence, €1,250 fine and a provisional fee of €50,000 to the offender.

[51][52] On 31 March 2017 Grillo was formally investigated along with Alessandro Di Battista for defamation following a police report filed by Marika Cassimatis, former candidate mayor of the M5S in Genoa.

[54] Over the years, Grillo has accumulated a number of fines and/or convictions for building abuse and other crimes, such as attempted instigation to disobedience by inviting police officers to stop protecting politicians.

[40] He defended himself from similar attacks from the leader of the Democratic Party on this subject, saying he earned his pay over the years and paid his taxes on them.

[citation needed] Grillo has proposed that members of the Italian Parliament who have a criminal record should be banned from public office.

Because Grillo was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter caused by a car accident,[40] he cannot run for public office as a member of his own party, which prohibits those who have a criminal record from being candidates.

[40] Despite this, in July 2009 he announced his intention to present himself as a candidate for the PD's primary elections,[58] which does not imply automatic presence in the Italian parliament.

Grillo is also criticized as being a demagogue who attacks politicians on superficial issues and their private lives, while being unable to provide a valid alternative.

For example, stand-up comedian Daniele Luttazzi criticized him in 2007 in an open letter published on the website of the news magazine MicroMega.