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

case of Excélsior showed. 50 So, part of the humour of Los Agachados, the political
comic book by Rius, is the fact that the author is pointing out the faults of the Mexican
government, making fun of those in power, expressing the thoughts of Mexicans. In
1972, the front page of the comic questioned the apertura democrática of the president,
Luis Echeverría Álvarez by asking ‘¿Apertura democrática… o demagógica?’ and
portraying Echeverría as an angel and a devil. 51
We recognise the person he is portraying, with his exaggerated caricature;
however, readers in the early 1970s would also notice that the cartoon dealt with a
banned topic, and a figure who was meant to be beyond ridicule. In this case, laughter
brings pleasure through the release of energy that had been used to contain that
forbidden thought against the president; laughter arises because it has addressed a
censored topic. As we can see, ‘humour has a therapeutic as well as a critical function
with respect to society’, 52 because through it we find a way to express topics which we
repress, in a socially acceptable manner.
Image unavailable due to
copyright restrictions
Image 1.2. ‘Luis Echeverría Álvarez’. Eduardo del
Río ‘Rius’, Los Agachados (n.d.) (in colour)
The comedian or the person who tells the joke expresses those ideas which are
stressful or forbidden. During this act of humour, the listener becomes distanced ‘from
50
The Excélsior affair, in which this newspaper was targeted by the government and the private sector, is
discussed in chapter two.
51
Eduardo del Río ‘Rius’, Los Agachados 115.
52
Critchley, On Humour, p. 10.
25