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

of the joke we are too wise to believe the truth. Freud, on the other hand, believes that
we recognise the truth but that our super-ego helps us to deal with the painful situation.
Either way, we are witnessing true humour: an act in which humour reveals a social
reality that the community recognises, criticises and punishes with laughter.
But as we have seen, humour allows society to criticise itself, and corruption is
not only practiced by the authorities but also by members of the community. In
Hermelinda Linda, a clumsy man is trying to find out what sport suits him best, and
while trying the high jump, he falls down over a woman. The woman chases him,
accusing him of being a degenerate and a rapist. She explains to Hermelinda: ‘¡Hace
víctima de sus degenerados apetitos a señoras dignas como nosotras!’ 177 The witch tells
her that the man would pay any damage, and after Hermelinda compensates her with
some money, the woman is satisfied. She abandons her accusations, and instead of
going to the authorities to denounce the offense, the woman decides that a crime can be
fixed and forgotten when the right price is paid. The clumsiness of the man is funny but
the lady’s reaction reveals how people can forget even a serious moral harm (according
to the lady’s initial accusations) when they are paid. This shows that in this society,
everyone has a price. The broken system here is the abuse of society by itself and the
lack of social values.
There are other ways to discuss dishonesty. When Briagoberto Memelas visits
Mexico City, he asks a passer-by where to go partying. The man answers: ‘un lugar
alegre, donde lo roban pero no tanto como en otros lugares, es el cabaret “Las
Maracas”.’ 178 In another scene, Borola describes how petrol salesmen abuse customers:
‘Con esos cuates hay que andarse muy listos. El otro día le caí a uno que con un bote
177 Hermelinda Linda, 368, p. 27.
178 La Familia Burrón, 17171, p. 26.
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