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

the actions of their antithesis, such as the disrespectful youngsters in Hermelinda Linda,
the pseudo-revolutionaries los inconformes, or Foforito’s dismissive macho father,
Susano Cantarranas, are those which contain more characteristics related with what we
have discussed as part of the universe of humour, and who bring more comedy and
enjoyment to the reader.
Superiority as a triumph of the super-ego
As previously discussed, superiority theory also proposes that we laugh about those
situations that concern us or frighten us because our super-ego takes the role of an adult
comforting a child, pointing out the triviality of the child’s fear. 144 Moreover, the super-
ego reveals to our ego that what we are observing belongs to the universe of humour,
and it is a controlled environment and cannot harm us, even when reality can be very
different. What Freud tells us is that the super-ego shows that the phenomenon that
worries the ego is, in fact, minor or harmless. We could argue that some situations
presented in comic books are scary and deadly, such as torture or domestic violence.
However, what the super-ego tells the ego is that the ego should not be concerned. Even
though we also may be at risk in our daily lives, we are not suffering at that moment.
The character is suffering instead, which is why we are allowed to laugh. Finally, when
we witness stressful situations in the comics, the super-ego manages the fear and
converts it into laughter. This helps us forget for an instant that we occasionally suffer
too. For a moment, we see the light side to cope with our fears.
Some of the examples previously discussed also present the triumph of the
super-ego over the ego. But I will introduce new examples with other social and
political topics to better understand of how this works. We have discussed machismo
144 Freud, ‘El humor…’ (para. 13 of 14)
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