Copyright by Tyson Sheldon Echelle 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Tyson Sheldon Echelle certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Sketchy Traditions: Argentinian Sketch Comedy from Popular Theater to Television Committee: Jason Borge, Supervisor Naomi Lindstrom Alexandra Wettlaufer Gabriela Polit Jill Robbins Sketchy Traditions: Argentinian Sketch Comedy from Popular Theater to Television by Tyson Sheldon Echelle, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2017 Acknowledgements I wish to thank Fernando García Massini for first showing me a Diego Capusotto sketch one morning in his Montserrat apartment, provoking a belly laugh that ails me still. Also, thanks to my nieces Malena and Olinda, without whom my interest in their home country would be much less visceral. My sister Lena, her husband, and her in-laws Chicho and Alicia, as well as Alicia’s brother Juan Massini, have been of great logistic help during my travels to Argentina as well as providing insightful commentary on the country’s history and current events. My parents, Alice and Anthony, have provided much-needed emotional support and economic assistance as well as intellectual stimulation, and Amelia Tippit has given me bountiful love, technical support, and editorial commentary, as well as serving as an important source of information regarding U.S. politics and history and U.S. television. Additionally, I want to thank the members of my committee, all of whom have encouraged me to follow a path of investigation that until recently would not have been within my department’s scope of study. Furthermore, Alexandra Wettlaufer gave me crucial advice by asking me to consider the format, not just the content, of the comedy shows that attracted me. Meanwhile, by introducing me to the work of Washington Cucurto, Gabriela Polit has shown me that literature is not dead yet, and that sketch comedy isn’t the only place where I can find that “deep, philosophical” laughter so lovingly described by Mikhail Bakhtin. Jill Robbins has encouraged my writing as well iv as helping me to hone my critical wherewithal, and Naomi Lindstrom with her tireless dedication has served as a source of inspiration not only for my writerly endeavors but for my teaching career as well. Finally, Jason Borge’s invaluable editorial advice is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the assistance I have received from him. Without Dr. Borge’s guidance this would be just another of the recent publications on Diego Capusotto, and I would have no sense of my favorite comedian’s work as building upon a cultural practice that has been a vital though often overlooked part of Argentina’s popular cultural history. v Sketchy Traditions: Argentinian Sketch Comedy from Popular Theater to Television Tyson Sheldon Echelle, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Jason Borge This dissertation describes the 130-year history of sketch comedy in Argentina, from its beginnings in popular theater to its passage to radio and eventually to television, as well as a few of its cinematic manifestations. Sketch, with its short, open-ended format and its combination of dialogism, exaggeration, improvisation, parody, bawdy bodily humor, and absurdity, has often provided an ideal vehicle for comical sociopolitical commentary. For this reason, it has held special audience appeal in Argentina, where widespread questioning of hegemonic discourse has arisen in response to repeated bouts of authoritarian government coupled with economic decline. My examination of Argentinian sketch combines close readings of written, spoken, and audiovisual texts with analysis of their historical and industrial contexts. I use Bergson’s principle of the laughable as “mechanical” to show how sketch creates improvisational spaces around Diana Taylor’s “cultural repertoires” and Pierre Bourdieu’s “habitus.” This critical dusting-off of an often academically disregarded form of popular cultural production reveals the evolution of a sketchy tradition that has often appeared disreputable or even dangerous to those who would uphold the status quo. Ultimately, sketch’s ability to provoke a certain dépaysement may prove of special interest at a time which finds us, as vi Paul Gilroy argues, in need of moving beyond the supposedly homogeneous categories imposed by globalist neo-imperialism as well as fundamentalist localism. vii Table of Contents Introduction. Argentinian Sketch Comedy and the Cultivation of Estrangement ...................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. Sketch Comedy’s raíces revisteriles ..................................................27 European Revue: Momus Sets the Stage—from France to Spain ................33 La revista argentina ......................................................................................40 “Argentino en España, y español en Argentina” ..........................................41 ¿Un duelo sin duelo después? .......................................................................47 To the Bitter Beginning ................................................................................51 Sex and Money, all Tangled Up ...................................................................59 A New Heaven, and a New Hell ...................................................................64 Haha funny? ..................................................................................................68 Conclusions—Gambeteando el habitus y el repertorio ................................73 Chapter 2. A Spectral Presence: The Survival of Sketch on Electronic Mass Media ............................................................................................................78 Radio—una carcajada reprimida .................................................................81 Early Conquests—the Discovery of Radio Humor .......................................86 Subdued, but Subtly Sketchy—Niní Marshall ..............................................89 Early Television’s Domesticated revista ....................................................101 The Glimmer of Things to Come: Estrellas de Buenos Aires ....................104 Televised Sketch Comedy, 1961-1975 .......................................................116 Tato Bores—Sticking (it) to Idiocy ............................................................119 Pepe Biondi—The Word Made Flesh .........................................................124 Kid Gloves for 1960s Comedy ...................................................................133 Conclusions—In the Belly of the Beast ......................................................136 Chapter 3. San Alberto Olmedo: 1980s Sketch and its Roots in Popular Unity ...........................................................................................................141 Beyond Economics: Peronism and the Birth of a Comedian ......................146 Olmedo and the Quasi-Peronist Carnival ...................................................150 viii “El diablo se apoderó de meu”—Olmedo’s Professional Context .............154 Televisual capocómico avant (et contre) la lettre ......................................159 A Prolonged Childhood ..............................................................................166 Still Divided and Conquered .......................................................................169 Political Statement as Disappearing Act .....................................................173 Talk the Talk, and Dribble the Dribble: Los fierecillos indomables (1982) .................................................................................................179 Small-Screen unimento: ¡No toca botón! ...................................................188 Mediatic Malignancy ..................................................................................206 Conclusions—San Alberto Olmedo: a Vindication ....................................208 Chapter 4. “Dancing en el Titanic”: The Survival of a Critical Comicality in the Savagely Capitalist 1990s ...........................................................................213 “Un país (híper)normal” .............................................................................218 “Un programa cómico” ...............................................................................231 When the Going Gets Weird, the Weird Make Television: Industrial Specifics .............................................................................................237 Ringing Sitcom’s Bell: Los Campanelli versus “Los Cubrepileta”............244 “Temblor de bombachas” versus the Great Greasy Spoon in the Airwaves ............................................................................................254 Fucking Around With the Talk Show: “Mañanas al pedo” .......................261 Si tiramos de un hilo ...................................................................................267 The Insomniac’s Nightmare: Other Sketchy Adaptations to the New Media Environment .......................................................................................281 Conclusions: The Lamed Vavniks of the Good Ship Argentina .................291 Conclusion. “Humor Dissolves into the Air”…and Reconsolidates in Cyberspace? ................................................................................................296