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

texts analysed whose main aim was to portray the abuse and misconduct of authorities.
Humour allowed certain flaws to be pointed out which might not have been tolerated if
they had been addressed specifically without the language of humour. Calzonzin
Inspector was an exaggerated slapstick comedy, and in Tívoli the audience could miss
the political content among the naked women and puns. This may be why they were
permitted to be shot and screened. It was also a way to justify the so-called apertura
democrática and garner favour among intellectuals, which Echeverría was keen to do.
Three comics and four films were considered. In all of them, social dissent was
expressed through humour. It is important to mention that both genres addressed the
same political and social topics in their criticism, and where there were differences they
were small. The most common social issues were social corruption, abuse of fellow
citizens; poverty, despite the promises of the Mexican Revolution; the rich and idle and
their social uselessness; the neglect of indigenous groups; abusive foreigners; an
emerging middle class and its integration into the national status quo; youth as a lost
generation; and the machismo as a social characteristic despite the sexual revolution.
Topics such as disabled people were discussed through the language of humour
only in film. The political concerns reflected in the texts analysed were the corruption
and idleness of the police; co-optation of the mass media, mainly the press; official
abuse and corruption extending from the top of the pyramid down to those with less
power; unlawful practices such as acarreo and pressure tactics for electoral favours;
bureaucracy as a barrier preventing society from satisfying certain needs; figures of
authority, including the president, as incompetent and limited to empty rhetorical
promises; and violence against opponents of the regime. The lack of democracy and
social participation was a more prevalent feature of the comics, while the unspoken rule
of not criticising the army appeared in both genres, although more constantly and
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