Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Humour in combination with the intention of the outcome helps us understand the social
group and the period in which the act of humour appeared, as we will see below.
Incongruity and exaggeration are linked to corrective mechanisms to provide a
message about the state of society or politics. Since what we are looking for are political
and social references to Mexican reality, then we will need to find an element from the
theory of humour which links the joke to political content. The way that various
mechanisms are connected depends on the aim of the comment or situation. One
possibility is to use the comical element as punishment, since the comic expresses ‘an
individual or collective imperfection which calls for an immediate corrective’. 56
Humour does not promise to solve the flaw, but at least it gives society the opportunity
to uncover it.
For example, in an issue of La Familia Burrón, Borola builds a motorboat to
‘rescue’ people from a remote area of Mexico City who have suffered a flood. Borola’s
action is illogical, not only because she does not have the training or the tools to
construct a motorboat, but also because the one she builds has the same features as a car
(tyres, a steering wheel, and in fact runs like a car but floats like a boat). As Borola’s
actions tend to be, her behaviour in the boat is exaggerated, arguing with the passengers,
charging too much money, and then building a bigger motorboat on the flat roof of the
vecindad in order to transport more people and earn more money. But Borola is the only
one who offers transportation to this isolated community, bringing a service that the
authorities do not provide. A woman boarding the boat comments: ‘Caray, hasta que
nos pusieron servicio de lanchas. Por mucho tiempo estuvimos incomunicados’. 57 She is
criticising the authorities for failing to help and for their lack of attention to
communities in difficulty. Thus, humour is used to point out the lack of support from
56 Bergson, Laughter. An essay… p. 87.
57 La Familia Burrón, 17160, p.13.
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