{"id":1230,"date":"2026-07-29T14:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/how-latin-americas-right-use-humour-and-why-it-has-deep-historical-roots\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:04:29","slug":"how-latin-americas-right-use-humour-and-why-it-has-deep-historical-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/how-latin-americas-right-use-humour-and-why-it-has-deep-historical-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"How Latin America\u2019s right use humour \u2013 and why it has deep historical roots"},"content":{"rendered":"
Future Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro sits on the shoulders of a supporter during a rally in Juiz de Fora, south-eastern Brazil, in 2018.<\/span> Antonio Scorza \/ Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Humour plays a key role in the political communication of rightwing populist leaders in Latin America. Politicians including Javier Milei in Argentina, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil have all used humour<\/a> to engage with and solidify their support base, normalise extreme ideologies<\/a> and deflect criticism.<\/p>\n

Humour also circulates constantly among their followers. In October 2022, a few months before Brazilians went to the polls in their last general election, I carried out fieldwork<\/a> at a Bolsonaro rally in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro with a group of colleagues. <\/p>\n

We overheard a Bolsonaro supporter joking about a stray dog. \u201cWatch out for that dog!\u201d he shouted. \u201cIf Lula wins, we\u2019ll have to call him picanha<\/em> [a type of beef].\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd laughed, with another supporter adding: \u201cIf Lula wins, he\u2019ll be the first to eat it.\u201d Lula went on to be elected as Brazil\u2019s president by a razor-thin margin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Argentina held elections the following year to appoint successors to President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez and his vice-president, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner \u2013 who had dominated Argentinian politics for two decades alongside her husband, N\u00e9stor Kirchner. Together, they had forged Kirchnerism<\/a>, the country\u2019s main leftwing populist movement.<\/p>\n

At a campaign event, we observed a Milei supporter also making a joke about dogs (and cats). \u201cMilei is good; he\u2019s a man who likes dogs. His dogs are part of his thinking,\u201d they said. Another remarked: \u201cBut the Kirchneristas eat cats. Soon we\u2019ll be eating dogs if that mafia continues to rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such remarks may seem trivial. But they reflect a broader narrative used by rightwing populist politicians and their supporters in Latin America. Jokes about leftist leaders often portray them as inhuman, making it easier to attack their character and policies.<\/p>\n

\n \"Javier
\n Like other rightwing populist leaders in Latin America, Argentina\u2019s president Javier Milei has used humour to engage his support base.<\/span>
\n Oscar Gonzalez Fuentes \/ Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This use of humour by rightwing populist politicians also serves as a shield. If their statements are criticised, they can claim \u201cit\u2019s just a joke\u201d. This enables them to dismiss their detractors as humourless, out-of-touch elites who do not understand ordinary people.<\/p>\n

Milei has repeatedly dismissed objections to his branding of critics<\/a> as zurditos<\/em> (\u201clittle left-handed ones\u201d), a pejorative term for leftists in Argentina. He has, at times, defended or downplayed<\/a> such language as \u201cjust humour\u201d, irony or part of his unfiltered communication style, rather than serious political discourse.<\/p>\n

Bukele, too, has used humour on social media to downplay accusations<\/a> of authoritarianism. He changed his title on Twitter (now X) to \u201cdictator\u201d in 2021, an ironic comment on protests against him over perceived democratic backsliding<\/a> that year. He later changed it to \u201cthe coolest dictator in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roots of humour<\/h2>\n

Latin American rightwing populist movements are not alone in their use of humour. Similar political movements elsewhere also use it as a strategic tool for recruitment, to deflect criticism and to normalise extreme ideologies. <\/p>\n

But to understand why humour so effectively supports political polarisation in Latin America, it\u2019s important to recognise its history in the region.<\/p>\n

Across centuries shaped by inequality, slavery and authoritarian rule, repression has been normalised through subtle means. This has included humour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 20th-century dictatorships of Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina (1976-1981) and Augusto Pinochet in Chile (1973-1990) justified violence and repression by using tactics similar to those employed by contemporary rightwing movements. Perhaps most notably, this took the form of portraying opponents as inhuman. <\/p>\n

In both countries, official state media in the dictatorship era used caricatures to depict dissidents as grotesque figures or dangerous animals. Terms like subversivos<\/em> (subversives) were deliberately woven into jokes by military officials and regime-aligned entertainers to trivialise repression and present persecution as something that could be laughed at. <\/p>\n

Cartoons and TV sketches often portrayed trade unionists and student activists as bumbling subversivos<\/em> whose supposed incompetence made them ridiculous, rather than politically legitimate. In Chile, jokes circulating in mass media likened alleged subversivos<\/em> to infiltrators or vermin who needed to be \u201ccleaned up\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n \"Montage<\/a>
\n Montage of memes on Telegram: Milei depicted in a mock non-binary joke, Lula portrayed as excrement urging voters to \u2018flush\u2019, and Bukele as a medieval warrior fighting dehumanised gang members.<\/span>
\n Gabriel Bayarri<\/span>, CC BY-NC-ND<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nowadays, memes and online jokes targeting political adversaries and marginalised groups replicate these patterns. Authoritarian leaders in Latin America are often depicted on social media platforms as hyper-masculine heroes, while their enemies are mocked as creatures like rats or cockroaches.<\/p>\n

This dynamic was seen during Brazil\u2019s 2022 election. Fernando Haddad, a key ally of Lula and now the country\u2019s minister of finance, was frequently depicted<\/a> as a cockroach in memes circulating around pro-Bolsonaro groups on Telegram. Such messaging portrayed him as a parasitic figure threatening the nation\u2019s economic stability.<\/p>\n

Such strategic use of humour by rightwing populists and their supporters poses a significant challenge for democracy in Latin America. It can undermine public trust in institutions, encourages reactionary movements, and weakens social cohesion by fostering division.<\/p>\n

A deeper understanding of humour\u2019s role in radicalisation not only helps reduce its corrosive effects. It also creates opportunities for building more inclusive, resilient and democratic forms of political discourse.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This work forms part of the Impulso project Memes and Gender Representations in Spanish Political Communication, funded by Rey Juan Carlos University through its Internal Program for the Promotion and Development of Research and Innovation.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Future Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro sits on the shoulders of a supporter during a rally in Juiz de Fora, south-eastern Brazil, in 2018. Antonio Scorza \/ Shutterstock Humour plays a key role in the political communication of rightwing populist leaders in Latin America. Politicians including Javier Milei in Argentina, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}