Humor at the Viña del Mar Festival (2000 - 2019): A barometer of the Chilean outburst?

Authors

Abstract

According to different Social Sciences and Humanities approaches, humor has distinctive social roles. Two of them give it a particular function: to present and highlight the relevant topics of the conjuncture and to serve as a way of acceptable aggression when abuse by elite. Based on this idea, carried out an emotional and thematic analysis of comic routines presented at the Viña del Mar Festival in Chile between 2000 and 2019. With this, we seek to determine if there was evidence in them of the social unrest that manifested in the country on October 18, 2019, through the so-called "social outbreak." The analysis showed that since 2000 there has been a systematic and statistically significant decrease in the presence of positive emotions and an increase in negative emotions, specifically anger, and that those negative emotions related to the presence of topics related to justice.

Keywords:

Humor, Chile, Estallido Social, Comediantes, Emociones

Author Biographies

Andres Mendiburo-Seguel, Universidad Andrés Bello

Doctor en Psicología, Universidad del País Vasco. Actualmente es profesor asociado de la Facultad de Educación y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Andrés Bello e Investigador Responsable del proyecto Fondecyt Regular N° 1210556.

Gonzalo Serrano, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez

Doctor en Historia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Actualmente es profesor asociado de la Facultad de Artes Liberales de la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez e Investigador Responsable de un Fondecyt Regular N° 1241055.

References

Andrade Vergara, G., & Reiter Barros, F. (2016). Construcción social del sujeto homosexual en las rutinas humorísticas del Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar. Polis (Santiago), 15(44), 237–261. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-65682016000200011

Baumgartner, J. C., & Morris, J. S. (2008). One “Nation,” Under Stephen? The Effects of The Colbert Report on American Youth. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(4), 622–643. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838150802437487

Baumgartner, J., Morris, J., & Walth, N. (2012). The Fey Effect Young Adults, Political Humor, and Perceptions of Sarah Palin in the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign. Public Opinion Quarterly, 76(1), 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfr060

Billig, M. (2005). Laughter and ridicule: Towards a social critique of humour. SAGE Publications.

Boukes, M. (2019). Infotainment. En T. P. Vos, F. Hanusch, D. Dimitrakopoulou, M. Geertsema-Sligh, & A. Sehl (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (1a ed., pp. 1–9). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0132

Burgers, C., & Brugman, B. C. (2021). How Satirical News Impacts Affective Responses, Learning, and Persuasion: A Three-Level Random-Effects Meta-Analysis. Communication Research, 009365022110321. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502211032100

Burkart, M. (2017). De Satiricón a hum®. Miño y Dávila.

CADEM. (2016). Encuesta Plaza Pública Cadem N° 111. https://www.slideshare.net/nacioncl/encuesta-plaza-pblica-cadem-n-111

Cao, X. (2008). Political Comedy Shows and Knowledge About Primary Campaigns: The Moderating Effects of Age and Education. Mass Communication and Society, 11(1), 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205430701585028

Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP). (2023). Estudio Nacional de Opinión Pública Base Consolidada [dataset]. https://www.cepchile.cl/opinion-publica/encuesta-cep/

Davies, C. (2002). The mirth of nations. Transaction.

Davies, C. (2007). Humour and Protest: Jokes under Communism. International Review of Social History, 52(S15), 291–305. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859007003252

Davies, C. (2011). Jokes and targets. Indiana University Press.

DuBosar, E., & Hutchens, M. J. (2023). Looking beyond the punchline: The effect of political entertainment on evaluations of political candidates. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2023.2207700

D’Errico, F., & Poggi, I. (2016). “The Bitter Laughter”. When Parody Is a Moral and Affective Priming in Political Persuasion. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01144

Ferguson, M., & Ford, T. (2008). Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories. Humor-international Journal of Humor Research - HUMOR, 21, 283–312. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMOR.2008.014

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2015, abril 17). León Murillo, Humor, Festival de Viña 2015, FULL HD 1080P. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKAesqNFmB0

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2016a, agosto 12). Edo Caroe, Humor, Festival de Viña del Mar 2016 1080p. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BW4m5-nwrI

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2016b, diciembre 15). Natalia Valdebenito, Humor, Festival de Viña del Mar 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q0ftHFhgSY

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2016c, mayo 21). Pedro Ruminot, Humor, Festival de Viña del Mar 2016, 1080p. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZikR_WZcWOY

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2017a, febrero 26). Fabrizio Copano—Festival de Viña del Mar 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f9zCMFDVU

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2017b, febrero 22). Juan Pablo López—Festival de Viña del Mar 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn6UsIBqrnQ

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2018, marzo 20). BOMBO FICA - Festival de Viña del Mar 2018—Presentación Completa FULL HD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPZXmxwgC8E

FESTIVALDEVINACHILE (2021, abril 9). FESTIVAL DE VIÑA HUMOR - JORGE ALIS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk6NbH3ZSjw

Figueroa-Bustos, A. A. (2021). Antes del estallido: Comunicación de lo político en letras de canciones chilenas indie (2005-2018). Comunicación y Medios, 30(44), 56. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-1529.2021.60801

Flores, T. (2019, noviembre 12). El cisne negro chileno. El Líbero.

Ford, T. E., & Ferguson, M. A. (2004). Social consequences of disparagement humor: A prejudiced norm theory. Personality and Social Psychology Review: An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, 8(1), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0801_4

Gouin, R. (2004). What’s So Funny?: Humor in women’s accounts of their involvement in social action. Qualitative Research, 4(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794104041106

Herzog, R. (2014). Heil Hitler, el cerdo está muerto. Capitán Swing Libros.

Hiller, H. (1983). Humor and hostility: A neglected aspect of social movement analysis. Qualitative Sociology, 6(3), 255–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987449

Hohmann, C. (2019, diciembre 11). Un cisne negro político y social en Chile. El Libero.

Holbert, R., Hansen, G., Caplan, S., & Mortensen, S. (2007). Presidential Debate Viewing and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9-11: A Study of Affect-as-Transfer and Passionate Reasoning. Media Psychology, 9(3), 673–694. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213260701283285

Jenkins, R. (1994). Subversive Laughter: The Liberating Power of Humor. Free Press.

Kim, Y., & Vishak, J. (2008). Just Laugh! You Don’t Need to Remember: The Effects of Entertainment Media on Political Information Acquisition and Information Processing in Political Judgment. Journal of Communication, 58(2), 338–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00388.x

Kuipers, G. (2006). Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke (Vol. 114). Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110898996

La Fave, L., & Mannell, R. (1976). Does Ethnic Humor Serve Prejudice? Journal of Communication, 26(13), 116–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01914.x

Lee, J. Y. (2017). Stand-Up Comedy, Social Change, and (American) Culture. En M. R. Meier & C. R. Schmitt (Eds.), Standing up, speaking out: Stand-up comedy and the rhetoric of social change (pp. xv–xx). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Lee, H., & Jang, S. M. (2017). Talking About What Provokes Us: Political Satire, Emotions, and Interpersonal Talk. American Politics Research, 45(1), 128–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X16657805

Lichter, R., Baumgartner, J. C., Morris, J. S., & Amundson, D. (2015). Political Humor: Prospect and Retrospect. En R. Lichter, J. C. Baumgartner, & J. S. Morris (Eds.), Politics Is a Joke! How TV Comedians Are Remaking Political Life (1a ed., pp. 216–229). Westview Press.

Martin, R. A., & Ford, T. (2018). The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach (2nd Ed.). Academic Press.

Meier, M. R., & Schmitt, C. R. (Eds.). (2017). Standing up, speaking out: Stand-up comedy and the rhetoric of social change. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Méndez, R. (2019, octubre 22). Entrevista. América Economía.

Medina, D. (2016, febrero 23). Ministra Delpiano pide “no generalizar” tras rutina incendiaria de Edo Caroe. BioBioChile. http://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/2016/02/23/ministra-delpiano-pide-no-generalizar-tras-rutina-de-edo-caroe.shtml

Mendiburo-Seguel, A., Vargas, S., & Rubio, A. (2017). Exposure to Political Disparagement Humor and Its Impact on Trust in Politicians: How Long Does It Last? Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02236

Mintz, L. (1985). Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation. American Quarterly, 37(1), 71. https://doi.org/10.2307/2712763

Morales, M. (2020). Estallido social en Chile 2019: Participación, representación, confianza institucional y escándalos públicos. Análisis Político, 33(98), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.15446/anpol.v33n98.89407

Moy, P., & Pfau, M. (2000). With malice toward all?: The media and public confidence in democratic institutions. Bloomsbury Academic.

Nabi, R. L., Moyer-Gusé, E., & Byrne, S. (2007). All Joking Aside: A Serious Investigation into the Persuasive Effect of Funny Social Issue Messages. Communication Monographs, 74, 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750701196896

Paletz, D. (1990). Political Humor and Authority: From Support to Subversion. International Political Science Review, 11(4), 483–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/019251219001100406.

Pennebaker, J. W., Boyd, R. L., Jordan, K., & Blackburn, K. (2015). The development and psychometric properties of LIWC2015. University of Texas at Austin.

Piñera, S. (2020, octubre 8). “Chile es un verdadero oasis”: La cuestionada frase que lanzó Piñera 10 días antes del estallido social. The Clinic.

Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD). (2019). Diez años de auditoría a la democracia: Antes del estallido. Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo PNUD.

Ruiz-Gurillo, L., & Linares-Bernabéu, E. (2020). Subversive humor in Spanish stand-up comedy. HUMOR, 33(1), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2018-0134

Sunday, A. B., & Filani, I. (2019). Playing with culture: Nigerian stand-up comedians joking with cultural beliefs and representations. HUMOR, 32(1), 97–124. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2017-0085

Von Baer, A., & Valenzuela, P. (2016, febrero 24). Políticos manifiestan preocupación por tono de críticas en rutina de humor en Viña. El Mercurio. http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=228828

Xenos, M., & Becker, A. (2009). Moments of Zen: Effects of The Daily Show on Information Seeking and Political Learning. Political Communication, 26(3), 317–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600903053569

Young, D. (2004). Late-Night Comedy in Election 2000: Its Influence on Candidate Trait Ratings and the Moderating Effects of Political Knowledge and Partisanship. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 48(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4801_1