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

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Conclusion This research has shown how humour is a language through which ideas are communicated. Humour can be a means to express ‘serious’ issues. When our critical thought is strong enough to cope, humour can be the perfect language to discuss harmful or dangerous topics such as repression, abuse and injustice. To use humour does not promise that the statements presented will be accepted, or that we will be pleased with them, but at least they have a better chance of not being rejected by our critical thought. In the Mexico of Echeverría, films and comics used humour to highlight social reality, and they became a good means of disclosing those thoughts that could not be discussed openly. ‘Serious’ criticism in other media, such as newspapers, was foreclosed. Laughter does not change reality, and comedians do not tend to lead revolutions, so the authorities proved more tolerant of humour as a means of expression. Even so, these media did help express social opposition, kept it on the agenda, and for that we can say that they formed part of the public record. In a regime in which criticism was tolerated according to the whim of the authorities, jokes inserted into films and comics were some of the few avenues through which topics could be discussed. Both the authorities and certain sections of society found themselves target of barbed wit which contained messages which were lost on no one. This <strong>thesis</strong> connected three distinct fields of analysis: humour, visual culture (comics and films) and the authoritarian regime of Luis Echeverría Álvarez. The principal goal was to determine how humour was used to express political and social dissent through comics and films, what topics and issues they addressed, and the reason why they used this language. We came to understand humour as a language, and comics
and films as texts. These media spoke the language of humour; they expressed distinct messages, being one of them political. As we saw, there are various perspectives on the nature of humour, and why it can be used as a language to express ‘serious’ concerns. According to Umberto Eco, humour is an umbrella term, having a variety of meanings and understandings, which vary according to the discipline. After considering various theoretical approaches, I presented an interdisciplinary and eclectic theoretical framework in order to help us understand what humour tells us about a specific time and place, and how and why it was used to express social concerns. Summarising these theories, we are inside the language of humour once we recognise the incongruity inserted into a text. Different clues inform us that we are witnessing an act of humour, the most common being exaggeration. Exaggeration is an incongruity. But humour was not pure laughter and silly pleasure. We express certain things through humour because they bring beneficial outcomes. Through humour we can rise above those who oppress us. Humour makes us superior. We can humiliate those who oppress us. We are also allowed to do what in the ‘real world’ is forbidden: we can break rules or witness, and vicariously enjoy, the comic character doing it. Moreover, by expressing our fears and concerns in this way, we bolster our ego. This helps us to overcome our personal misfortunes and find a way to change the situations we find ourselves in. This is the relief outcome of humour. This combination of theories which we discussed in chapter one not only helps us understand the Mexico of the 1970s, but can be used to approach visual comedy from other cultures and other historical moments. The important point here is to situate the sources we are analysing, in this case films and comics, within their specific context, in this case, Mexico in the 1970s, and to recognise what the given society understands as ‘humorous’. 240
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HUMOUR AS POLITICAL RESISTANCE AND
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Abstract This research focuses on t
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Table of Contents Acknowledgments
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The breaking of the rule ………
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Acknowledgments After so many years
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fantastic friends who are now part
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Introduction Dime de qué te ríes,
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And what about comics? Comics take
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helps us to understand a specific c
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were expecting a funny story. In ad
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Román Gubern’s ideas of visual a
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Chapter 1 Laughing when it hurts: A
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etween varieties of terminology in
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than just disjunctions in the narra
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serve as the basic vehicle for the
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so that there are parts which are n
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her body, she has a large round red
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classified jokes and humour and des
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case of Excélsior showed. 50 So, p
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We might find this joke funny becau
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absentmindedness in men and in even
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oken the rule of being respectful w
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Even though humour can work as a so
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sentiments, develop and perpetuate
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jokes are ‘a useful means of diss
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Other authors consider that in fact
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neutralise our feelings because lau
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power for thirty-five uninterrupted
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-and in the subsequent years- did n
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numbers of businessmen, workers and
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undermining the image of a dictator
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people’. 50 It aimed for an appar
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cambio (exclusivamente verbal), por
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university. In the film El Águila
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gave money in secret to Scherer to
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men appeared and beat many of the s
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Thus they decided to fight against
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PDLP, 115 captured those they thoug
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money without working because they
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information on antagonistic groups,
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Although the violent methods were o
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those who appeared to be hippies, h
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ock and roll and read the writers o
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Chapter 3 Laughter and reflection,
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are richer and carry more informati
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two years later the formula was rep
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magic will punish those who are hur
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time: Regino Burrón and his demand
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around them, in La Familia Burrón
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In 2008 Gabriel Vargas said: ‘el
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story, such as the Licenciado askin
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were discussed. In that chapter we
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the flat roof of the vecindad 49 or
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True humour: humour as social compl
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those in power for citizens in trou
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puro macanazo me convenció! Yo ni
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Machismo is another topic which eme
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dibujaba Rius en los sesenta como u
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One last example from Los Agachados
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collect a large amount of money to
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In the same episode in which Borola
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As we may remember, Freud also sugg
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alleges. 102 So, through the misfor
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apart and the reader enjoys the pol
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Superiority and antithesis In the f
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gaining a sense of victory over the
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are in better position than us, at
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Differences between groups of youth
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eaction is no more compassionate. T
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the actions of their antithesis, su
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controlling our fear. We could argu
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democracy, even if the official Par
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policeman is not acting in the way
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sistema de valores, pero por lo men
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‘Pues sí: siendo rojos, tienen q
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of the joke we are too wise to beli
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allows us to discuss the existence
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campo.’ 187 But this does not mea
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Police As seen above, the police ap
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The police talk openly and unashame
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Nicanor was a victim of police brut
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speaks openly about the paramilitar
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demanded land reform: ‘consiguier
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point of view. This group makes ref
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we think about them. However, if we
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would be mere entertainment. Yet th
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claridades’. 228 That is what hum
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industry finally blossomed. 1 This
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make their own statements’. 13 In
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with Corona that Arau became politi
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The film was shot in 1971 and the p
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Echeverría sexenio he continued wo
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around the world. 45 It is consider
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eceived by the critics 53 but the p
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evident in some films than in other
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eal inspector has arrived, there is
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indicio) 67 which set the audience
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es una pura y celestial chiripada
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artists are in a coffee shop discus
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However, after this demonstration o
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Page 204 and 205: ‘¡pelos, pelos!’ 92 Tiliches a
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Page 210 and 211: for the way he is dressed. They arg
Page 212 and 213: Superiority We have seen that humou
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Page 218 and 219: During another event, the journalis
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Page 222 and 223: Peasant: Ya va pa’treinta años d
Page 224 and 225: 211 DA: Raza de majaderos, eso es l
Page 226 and 227: elationship between conquerors and
Page 228 and 229: marked limp and when Eufemio sees h
Page 230 and 231: light side’), we are presumably b
Page 232 and 233: no se va a poder [cheat on him]. Po
Page 234 and 235: un disfraz inimaginable’. Don Per
Page 236 and 237: Policeman: La lengua Poncho: De ham
Page 238 and 239: sombreros, indicating that they are
Page 240 and 241: we may feel consolation in Critchle
Page 242 and 243: criticises the abuse and dishonesty
Page 244 and 245: young one whose job is to carry the
Page 246 and 247: population. They were made in diffe
Page 248 and 249: elaxed or to break the tension afte
Page 250 and 251: In the section Speaking the Unspeak
Page 254 and 255: We also saw how films and comics co
Page 256 and 257: negatively depicted in films. The e
Page 258 and 259: the army in an unfavourable light.
Page 260 and 261: Tlatelolco in 1968, and the Halcona
Page 262 and 263: message. This kind of analysis, acc
Page 264 and 265: story. They were identified by high
Page 266 and 267: deep thought, etc. 21 ‘Even the s
Page 268 and 269: distinguished the concern of his gi
Page 270 and 271: Appendix 2 Tables The following cha
Page 272 and 273: Mechanisms of humour Los Agachados
Page 274 and 275: Mechanisms of humour Films Calzonzi
Page 276 and 277: Mechanisms of humour Mecánica Naci
Page 278 and 279: Bibliography Agnew, Bob, ‘¡Viva
Page 280 and 281: Brewster, Keith, ed., Reflections o
Page 282 and 283: ----------, The Role of the Reader.
Page 284 and 285: Jardón, Raúl, 1968, el fuego de l
Page 286 and 287: Oikión Solano, Verónica, Marta Eu
Page 288 and 289: Zolov, Eric, Rebeldes con causa. La
Page 290 and 291: Bracho, Diana, ‘El cine mexicano:
Page 292 and 293: [accessed 28 February 2010] Monsiv
Page 294: Films Ahí está el detalle, dir. b
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