Internet, Humor, and Nation in Latin America

How online humor influences politics and culture in Latin America

This
volume is the first to provide a comprehensive Latin American
perspective on the role of humor in the Spanish- and Portuguese-language
Internet, highlighting how the production and circulation of online
humor influence the region's relation to democracy and civil society and
the production of meaning in everyday life.

Several case
studies consider memes, including discussions of political cartoons in
Mexico and imagery that portrays the mismanagement of natural disasters
in Puerto Rico. Essays on Brazil examine how memes are shared on
WhatsApp by Jair Bolsonaro supporters and how the Instagram account
Barbie Fascionista offers memes as political commentary. Other case
studies consider video content, including the sketches of Argentinian
comedian Guillermo Aquino, the short-form material of Chilean vlogger
Germán Garmendia, and a satirical YouTube column created by journalists
in Colombia. Contributors also offer new methodologies for studying the
laughable on social media, including a model for analyzing fake Twitter
accounts.

Internet, Humor, and Nation in Latin America
demonstrates that Internet humor can generate novel means of public
interaction with the political and cultural spheres and create greater
expectations of governmental accountability and democratic
participation. This volume shows the importance of paying serious
attention to humorous digital content as part of contemporary culture.


Contributors:
Eva Paulino Bueno Juan Poblete Alberto Centeno-Pulido Damián
Fraticelli Juan Carlos Rodríguez Viktor Chagas Paul Alonso
Ulisses Sawczuk da Silva Héctor Fernández L'Hoeste Alejandra Nallely
Collado Campos R. Sánchez-Rivera Mélodine Sommier Fábio Marques
de Souza

A volume in the series Reframing Media,
Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America, edited by Héctor Fernández
L'Hoeste and Juan Carlos Rodríguez

Publication of this
work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American
Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.