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

más favorable de la que, no obstante su posible certeza, hubieran obtenido expresados
en forma no chistosa’. 97
Relief
As with comics, in cinema humour is used as a language to discuss topics or situations
that we repress because of fearing punishment or social discomfort. Through humour
we celebrate an issue being criticised and our antithesis punished. We do not fear
punishment ourselves since it was not us who commit the action. 98 A ‘joke’s effects in
the world are of no consequence’. 99 Thus, considering which issues are treated by the
films is a way to understand what was considered by society to be wrong, since
‘humour as a cultural and historical phenomenon [...] reveals values, beliefs and
concerns’. 100 To see these topics embedded in an act of humour brings relief because the
thoughts we were not brave enough to articulate have been expressed, or because the
comic character fulfils our deep desires. 101
Some of these films have no qualms about describing public servants in an
uncomplimentary way. Such is the case in Calzonzin Inspector, where through
exaggerated and illogical situations, those in power are ridiculed and their flaws
highlighted. The highest authority is Don Perpetuo, the Mayor, who embodies many of
the faults and poor behaviour attributed to Mexican politicians. Among all the
characters analysed for this work, Don Perpetuo seems to be the most exaggerated and
the one that portrays the most faults attributed to real politicians.
97 Freud, El chiste y su relación… p. 101.
98 Umberto Eco, ‘Los marcos de la “libertad” cómica’, in ¡Carnaval!, trad. by Monica Mansour, ed. by
Umberto Eco, Victor Ivanov and Mónica Rector (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica), pp.99-20 (p.
11).
99 Susan Purdie, Comedy. The Mastery of Discourse (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993), p. 60.
100 Mintz quoted by Raskin, Semantic Mechanisms… p. 39.
101 Eco, ‘Los marcos de…’, p. 10.
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