The European Journal of Humour Research

Vol 1, No 4 (2013)

Exploring Canarian humour in the first locally produced sitcom in RTVC

Maria-Isabel Gonzalez-Cruz

Abstract

Between December 2011 and May 2012, the public television channel (RTVC) in theCanary Islands (Spain) aired, in prime time, the first locally produced situation comedy.Titled La Revoltosa (henceforth LR), it was the most ambitious production in thechannel’s more than 14 years of existence. This series was said to display a humorousinterpretation of Canarian society. Indeed, according to the executive producer, thecharacters reflected ordinary Canarian families. One of the attractions of the series wasthe inclusion of popular Canarian comedian Manolo Vieira as the main protagonist. Inthis paper, I briefly outline the strategies typically used by this important figure ofCanarian humour before I discuss two episodes of LR to explore the resources theyemploy to provoke humour. Particularly, I study the role played by language, andanalyse how characters and situations are portrayed, thus examining universal humourin contrast to regional or ethnic humour. This comparison between the humourstrategies used by Manolo Vieira and the ones employed in LR will enable us todetermine to what extent this sitcom favours the Canarian (ethnic) humour traditionallyrepresented by Vieira or rather resorts to more general (universal) humour strategiesand stereotypes

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