Discurso humorístico-preconceituoso como crítica social? : o caso da Senhora dos Absurdos

Abstract

The object of our scrutiny is one humorous-prejudiced sketch broadcast by the television channel Multishow, which can, alternatively, also be viewed via internet and all digital means at our disposal, such as smart phone apps, tablets, etc. We chose as the theme of our research the television show called 220 Volts, which aired 5 seasons, from 2011 to 2016. More specifically, we will work with one sketch (season 2, episode 9) by the character entitled Senhora dos Absurdos (Lady of Absurd, in a free translation). We can see in this character's speech all sorts of prejudice. She speaks against indians, black people, the obese, illiterates, elders and homosexuals, among other minorities. We will focus our attention particularly on the prejudice against women, men, indians and black people. Considering the relation between humor and prejudice found in Senhora dos Absurdos, our research question, therefore, is: how the discourse of a sketch which is considered humorous-prejudiced can create meaning relations towards a possible social critic? Our objective is to observe how discourses as found in the sketch which consists our corpus, besides aiming to be comical, can be used to legitimate social exclusion, even though they seek to promote a potential social critic. As an analytical bias, we will make use of the theory postulated by the Bakhtin Circle, especially with regard to the notions of dialogism, utterance, sociocultural voices, ideological sign, and genres of discourse. The Bakhtnian theory, along with notions coming from connected areas (such as humor, prejudice, intolerance and stereotypes) will provide us with the basis to answer the question above. The present research is in consonance with the methodological propositions presented by Volochínov in Marxism and Philosophy of Language ([1929] 2017, p. 220), observing the inevitable relation among utterance, genres of discourse and the discursive communication spheres, as to perceive the complex dialogical construction of meanings in the humorous-prejudiced discourse. As a result, we hope that, with our study, we can contribute to the understanding of humor and prejudice as a social critic, evidencing the various clashes of sociocultural voices that are engendered in the particular discourse chosen as the object of this research.