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

es una pura y celestial chiripada’. 76 Since we are not passive viewers, we might interpret
this caption as an irony since ‘sometimes we state what ought to be done, and pretend to
believe that this is just what is actually being done’. 77 The use of language and the
knowledge of the comic that the film is based on, as well as some other ‘reading clues’
enable us to understand that the characters and situations are caricatures of real people,
and that will help us understand the social and political life of Mexico at the time.
As in the comics examined earlier, official neglect is an issue in some of these
films. In Calzonzin Inspector, when the Mayor, Don Perpetuo del Rosal, believes that
the inspector is already in town, he gives unreasonable instructions to his close
collaborators, fact that points out the incongruence, to make the inspector believe that
San Garabato is well governed. He orders the demolition of a wall to make the inspector
think that there are building works underway, and that the town council is working. This
is an exaggeration of the fact that real authorities tried hard to display apparent
achievements. Don Perpetuo makes his dishonesty even more evident when he says: ‘Y
si el inspector pregunta sobre el dinero que mandaron de monumentos para tapar el
hoyo de la iglesia, hay que decirle que sí, que se tapó pero que se volvió a agujerar’. 78 It
is hard to imagine that someone would believe what he suggests. This is clearly an act
of humour, but it also reveals that the authorities did use public resources for the benefit
of the citizens. Later in the film, a truck full of medical equipment arrives to give the
impression that the hospital is in suitable condition. Again, we have amusement
alongside a critical statement, since we clearly recognise our own world in this comic
farce. 79
76 Arau, Calzonzin Inspector, 1973.
77 Bergson, Laughter. An Essay… p. 127.
78 Arau, Calzonzin Inspector, 1973.
79 Robert Pfaller, ‘The Familiar Unknown, the Uncanny, the Comic: The Aesthetic Effects of the Though
Experiment’, in Lacan. The Silent Partners, ed. by Slavoj Zizek (London, New York: Verso, 2006),
pp.198-216 (p. 202).
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