Humor político y comicidad fílmica en México. Desde sus antecedentes remotos y la etapa silente hasta la época de oro del cine mexicano

Abstract

Abstract: The origins of critical humor in Mexico can be traced back to two fundamental roots, namely the colonial background (when Mexico was named New Spain) and the Greek-Latin satiric and critical comedy. From such foundations, and up to the contemporary period, comic or comedy films that criticized politics did not felicitously materialize during the silent film stage of Mexican cinema, despite some isolated attempts. However, with the advent of the talkies in Mexico, the genre conceived as high comedy, altogether with Mexican-style vaudeville, sitcoms, and what was labeled generally as the comedy’s “lower genre”, managed to critically appraise harsh social realities, adversity and the stakeholders responsible for such ordeals. Almost as a rebirth of the remote Greek-Latin critical comedy, matched with the peculiarities of Mexican idiosyncrasy inherited from the Spanish colonial period, the possibilities for comedy films that were politically captious finally emerged in Mexico during a brief period (1936-1955). Critical and political humor, as a genre of Mexican cinema, finally materialized in this period, either with a conservative or evasive façade, or with justified social scorning. Nonetheless, this genre reached its genuinely critical content with the films of comedians such as Cantinflas, during the first stage of his brilliant trajectory as the “Ibero-American mime”, and also with the films of other comedians, maybe less known as big stars, but surely very capable as well in their critical –political endeavors.