Humor in El palacio de la risa: Parody and Social Critique in Argentinean Television in the 1990s

Abstract

Television became the most important communication device in the 1990s, reaching all middle-class households and playing a relevant role in constructing shared social meaning. The aim of this article is to examine different dimensions and senses of humor in El palacio de la risa, a very popular television comedy show hosted by Antonio Gasalla between 1992 and 1996 —broadcast by ATC and Canal 13— in Argentina. We will focus on the sketches starred by the actors Alejandro Urdapilleta and Humberto Tortonese, who, together with Gasalla, introduced relevant innovations in the production of television humor. In the first section, we will analyze which elements of performing arts of the 1980s underground are used and put into play in this television comedy. Then, we will examine three dimensions that function as crucial material for the trio's humorous production: the critique of the Argentinean high classes, the tension between dominant and dissident sexualities, and the parodic mentions made about television itself. In terms of methodology, the work was based on an analysis of 30 sketches by the Urdapilleta-Gasalla-Tortonese trio, frequent subjects, aesthetic aspects, body gestures and discursive uses. In short, the work seeks to make a contribution to the knowledge of mass culture, as well as the parody and destabilization of the common sense upheld by television during the 1990s in Argentina.