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

democracy, even if the official Party could not be challenged. In the Los Agachados
issue just quoted, Trastupijes believes that there is a conspiracy against him and says to
the policeman: ‘¡Quieren acabar con la democracia en Chayotitlán!’ and the policeman
replies: ‘¿Cuál?’ The policeman himself gives voice to our beliefs. But Trastupijes’
answer surprises us: ‘¡Así se dice, hombre!’ 155 pointing out the lack of democracy,
despite the official speeches. We laugh at the revealed truth and at the possibility of
discussing a topic that we are not allowed to question. Our ego will tell us that lack of
democracy is not funny at all, but the super-ego will reveal that the taboo is presented in
a funny way and that this representation is a safe way to discuss the topic.
The breaking of the rule
In chapter one Umberto Eco’s approach to humour was discussed in which he proposes
that the comical appears when a rule or a code that we recognise is violated. Eco
explains that this violation also occurs when it happens to a stereotypical situation that
is inserted in a frame of reference. 156 In that case we laugh because something
unexpected happened –altering the frame. A situation that we already know in a specific
way was interrupted. Thus, Eco’s idea is related to incongruity theory and the
manifestation of the unexpected. I will now turn to a consideration of the idea of the
violation of a rule. As discussed, what we need to know first is the existence of the rule,
without which we would not recognise that it was, in fact, transgressed. Equally, we
must know the stereotyped situation, since we would not notice it being broken
otherwise.
155 Los Agachados, 43, p. 25.
156 Eco simply calls this a ‘frame’ but I will call it ‘frame of reference’ in order to avoid confusion with
comic and film vocabulary. Eco, ‘Los marcos de…’. For the purpose of this work.
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