En breve

Especialmente cuando los poderosos gobiernan a través del miedo y la intimidación, el humor, la risa y lo absurdo pueden ser herramientas poderosas para debilitar su poder y animar a la gente a luchar por sus derechos.

Beautiful Trouble es una caja de herramientas en constante expansión. Algunos conceptos (¡este, por ejemplo!) sólo están resumidos. ¡Ponte en contacto para ayudarnos a ampliar esta pieza!

The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.

— Mark Twain

Ejemplos del mundo real

The Daughters of Violence

Satirizing sexual harassment on the streets of Mexico.

The Muslims Are Coming (trailer)

You’ve never laughed this hard at a Muslim.

How to Make Fun of the Nazis

Germans and Americans use clowning and humour to make fun of neo-Nazis.

George Carlin: Larry King interview (1990)

On the comedic tradition of “punching up” against those in power.

Granniepants

Objectifying men who objectify women in three easy steps.

Aprende más

Humour in Political Activism

Majken Sørensen, Palgrave MacMillan, 2016

Serious Play: Modern Clown Performance

Louise Peacock, Intellect Books, 2009

And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World

Anne Bogart, Taylor and Francis, 2007

Colbert's America: Satire and Democracy

Sophia A. McClennen, Springer, 2011

Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

Riesgos potenciales

If taking aim at a real person, be sure that a reasonable bystander would recognize your material as clearly satirical, rather than mistake it for actual facts that could be considered defamatory. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried in 2016 to have German poet Jan Böhmermann prosecuted over a satirical poem, but German prosecutors called the poem “characteristic of the art form of satire and caricature” due to its characteristics of “exaggeration, distortion, and disassociation,” and refused to press charges.

Secondly, humour is very time and place specific. It often does not cross cultures well, and even within a cultural group there will be distinct subgroups with shifting understandings of what is socially acceptable, so it’s essential to know your audience. One of the best ways to reduce this risk is to bring in diverse voices, incorporate members of your intended audience into your creative team, and get lots of feedback on your work as you develop it.

Thirdly, being the butt of a joke can hurt. If you are already vulnerable, it can be devastating. Use humour to redress power imbalances, not exacerbate them: “punch up,” not down.

A final risk comes when those with power harness the guise of a trickster, playing at irreverence or setting themselves up as a maverick, even though they are actually part of the establishment. It is tough to successfully satirize a figure who has already styled themselves as a parody of or disrupter to authority, however artificial that facade may be. In that circumstance, responding with humour probably won’t work, and you may need to focus on exposing the extent of the target’s actual authority and control through rational information. (Once the extent of their privilege is clearly re-established, humour might again be effective. Remember, anti-authoritarian humour is about justly disrupting hierarchies, so your audience first needs to clearly see the hierarchy that’s there.)