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

complicity with the criminals. This juxtaposition creates the joke, 115 but we recognise
that the exaggerated image echoes reality.
While the thief and the policeman argue, the sergeant arrives in his patrol car
and the policeman hands him the sack with the booty, saying ‘para su almuerzo’. 116
Despite the policeman being in a position of inferiority and being abused by his superior
officer, he avenges himself by insulting the sergeant. The sergeant throws the sack into
the back of the patrol car where there are many other sacks and obviously, taking
robbed articles from other policemen is part of his duties, confirming our suspicion that
police and criminals are very similar.
The sketch continues with the sergeant returning to the police station where the
department Chief is flirting with the sensual women who surround him. After a series of
events which include the sergeant behaving like a dog on his knees, and the chief of
police barking as well, the chief puts all the bags into a suitcase and brings them to the
office of an elegantly-dressed man. A secretary appears and announces: ‘El hombre
espera’. The elegant man is frightened, and yells ‘El hombre!’ He too kneels, giving the
suitcase as an offering. A shield hanging on the door says ‘Dedo, hueso y lana’ with the
figures of a finger pointing down, dentures, and the peso sign. 117 The sketch uses the
idea of the carnival, where everything is upside down, and to offend the authorities by
comparing them to criminals is an act of humour because it is ‘playing with aggression
115 Raskin, Semantic Mechanisms... p. 222.
116 Isaac, Tívoli, 1974.
117 The image of the finger refers to the tradition known as dedazo in which the president chooses
candidates for political positions, including his successor. During the PRI’s rule, ‘el president goza[ba] de
una libertad sin límites para designar a los candidatos políticos y apoyar a los líderes de organizaciones
populares oficiales mediante la estructura del partido oficial’. Diana Margarita Favela Gavia, Protesta y
reforma en México.Interacción entre Estado y sociedad 1946-1997 (México: UNAM, Centro de
Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias en Ciencias y Humanidades, 2006), p. 75. The denture makes reference
to the corruption of the authorities, also known in Mexico as mordida: ‘cantidad de dinero que exige un
policía, un burócrata o un funcionario para no aplicarle la ley (…) o para ayudarle a aprovecharse
indebidamente de alguna cosa’. Diccionario del español de México, coord.. by Luis Fernando Lara
(Mexico: Colegio de México, 2010) [accessed 14 June 2011]
200