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

without fearing the consequences. An example of this is when the police are referred to
in La Familia Burrón as ‘Acólitos del diablo’. This nickname is constantly used by the
characters, not simply when they are talking about the police but also when they are
speaking to them face to face. The police never seem troubled or contradict those who
refer to them in such a way. The reader enjoys the references to the police as ‘Acólitos
del diablo’ since he/she would like to say the same. In one issue Borola and Macuca are
followed by a man on the street. Borola says ‘Déjenos de seguir o llamo un acólito del
diablo ¡Usted dice!’ 98 In another issue, Bella Bellota has been looking for her boyfriend,
Ruperto, because days have passed since he was arrested and there has been no
information on his whereabouts. When Bella finally finds Ruperto, she asks him in front
of the guards: ‘¿Estás bien, no te han maltratado los acólitos del diablo?’ 99 Given the
police’s representation, there is a good reason to give them that despicable name. I will
discuss this topic later, and I shall examine how humour permits topics to emerge, and
also how humour helps the reader overcome difficult issues. I will turn to these issues in
a discussion of the super-ego in relation with abhorrent topics.
Things that are temporarily permitted
I discussed in chapter one the idea that through humour we might overcome some of the
most intolerable situations, 100 since we detach ourselves from the circumstances
portrayed, and although we recognise the situation as familiar, we momentarily enjoy
that someone else is suffering instead of us 101 and we see how the characters overcome
their tragedy episode by episode. The characters are indestructible as Zupancic
98 La Familia Burrón, 17194, p.30.
99 La Familia Burrón, 17164, p.16.
100 George E.C. Paton, ‘The Comedian as Portrayer of Social Morality’, in Humour in Society. Resistance
and Control, ed. by Chris Powell and Gregor Benton (London: MacMillan Press, 1998), 206-233, p.
207.
101 Eco, ‘Los marcos de…’, pp. 10-11.
112