128 Comunicación y Medios N°41 (2020) www. comunicacionymedios.uchile.cl Honest, impolite, and wicked: an analysis of telenovela character fan pages Sinceros, indelicados y venenosos: un análisis en fanpages de personajes de telenovelas Daniel Rios Universidad Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazill [email protected] Dandara Magalhães Universidad Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazil [email protected] Abstract Resumen It is noticeable an increase in the number of fanpa- Es posible observar un aumento en el número de ges creating their own identity based upon Bra- fanpages que crean personas a partir de persona- zilian telenovelas’ characters. Even more, most jes de telenovelas brasileñas. Es más, la mayoría of them posts image macro format. Such image de ellos publican image macro, patrón de imagen macro format is a pattern widely associated to the asociado al fenómeno de los memes de Internet. phenomenon of memes on Internet. This article ar- Este artículo argumenta que los productores de gues that content producers strategically operate contenido operan y despliegan estratégicamente el and display the language of memes to encourage lenguaje de los memes para movilizar el compro- their followers commitment. To understand such miso de sus seguidores. Por lo tanto, mapeamos process, we map and analyze the content of the y analizamos el contenido de las publicaciones de five-page publications, trying to identify whether cinco páginas, tratamos de identificar si hay una there is a strategy explicitly involved and whether estrategia explícita involucrada y si los contenidos the contents are linked to the telenovela’s plot. The están relacionados con la trama de la telenovela study found out that pages frequently change their en los que se inspiran. El estudio constata que las structure and generally deploy a type of humor tar- páginas modifican su estructura frecuentemente y geting people’s daily lives. This practice points to que sus contenidos usan generalmente un humor the different ways in which the telenovela, a tele- dirigido a la vida cotidiana. Esta práctica destaca vision product widely consumed in Latin America, las diferentes formas en que la telenovela, un pro- is appropriated and used in the making of content ducto ampliamente consumido en América Latina, circulated online. es adecuada para crear contenido circulado online. Keywords: telenovelas; character pages; humor; Palabras clave: telenovelas; páginas de persona- memes; image macro. jes; humor; memes; image macro. Received: 02-03-2020 - Accepted: 11-04-2020 - Published: 30-06-2020 DOI 10.5354/0719-1529.2020.56667 Honest, impolite, and wicked: an analysis of telenovela character fan pages 129 1. Introduction In 2013, publications of Felix Bicha Má1 went viral From that map, we determined which were the on Facebook. With over 3 million likes, the page five most relevant pages based on the number was inspired by the character Félix (Matheus So- of likes, and the frequency of posting. Lastly, the lano), a villain on the soap opera Amor à Vida (TV posts made on these profiles during the research Globo, 2013). The posts were memes with funny period were analyzed to identify the creators’ es- captions seeking to reproduce the character’s thetic and textual patterns. brand of comedy: a gay man that won the love of audiences by always having a sarcastic comeback It is of little relevance to discuss if the posts are or comment. During that same period, the webpa- in fact, memes. It is difficult to find a consensus ge Carminha Perturbada2 regularly shared similar on what parameters should be used to classify posts with its following, using character traits in- cultural phenomena as memes. In fact, resear- herent to the villain from the soap opera, Avenida chers from varying fields have tried for years to Brasil (TV Globo, 2012), played by Adriana Esteves. define the concept. Many of them even distinguish different characteristics (Dawkins, 1976; Shfiman, Felix Bicha Má and Carminha Perturbada aren’t alo- 2014). The previous notwithstanding, in general, ne. In fact, they are a part of a growing movement memes are understood to be pieces speedily dis- that has taken shape in recent years, where con- tributed on the internet that are almost always co- tent creators appropriate fictional characters, or medic in nature (Shifman, 2014; Knobel & Lanks- real people, and develop their own version of these hear, 2007). In the last two decades they have been well-known figures, usually for comedic purposes increasingly discussed to determine their relevan- (Chagas, 2018). What captures one’s attention, is ce in mainstream spaces (Phillips, 2015). that by observing an innumerable amount of cha- racters taken from soap operas, one can identi- The present study argues that pages centered fy a shared set of characteristics in these posts, on soap opera characters offer multiple analysis using the following formula: (1) a photograph of perspectives for contemporary media contexts. the actor or actress interpreting the character (2) In a scenario marked by audience fragmentation superimposed with a caption, generally in whi- (Lotz, 2007), the proliferation of these profiles de- te font. The format, known as an image macro, is notes the influence television still exerts in Bra- stylistically recognizable from other formats and zil, especially free broadcast television channels. became popular in the 2000s among online sub- Mass produced and broadcast in primetime televi- cultural communities (Davison, 2012); however, sion slots on several television stations around the in the following decade, they became popular and country, the soap opera still has a privileged place recognizable among mainstream consumers and in the day-to-day lives of Brazilian audiences. audiences (Phillips, 2015). At the same time, the profiles in question point The present article analyzes how, in this scena- to cases of how ordinary subjects appropriate, rio, soap opera character pages are structured, decontextualize, and remodel elements of mass and what strategies they use to publish content. culture to create their own products. Despite the What characters do they feature? What is the previous, we contend that the resulting remixes life-cycle for these pages? And how do image are not random. Soap opera character page ad- macros relate to soap operas? To answer these ministrators are strategic in how they create their questions, we adopted a qualitative approach, posts, presenting esthetic and colloquial discur- combining observations of the pages in question sive patterns generally recognizable as memes, and content analysis of the same pages (Krippen- especially image macros. Even if it is an intuitive dorff, 2004; Amaral & Santos, 2012). The process process, they still fabricate characters and inten- was divided into three stages, executed between tionally invert language to increase page engage- October and December of 2018. First, we ma- ment, fully aware that the success of a post can pped the character pages created on Facebook. be enough to go viral. 130 Comunicación y Medios N°41 (2020) D. Rios / D. Magalhães 2. Theoretical Framework class female audiences no longer identify with the typically portrayed protagonist. 2.1 Reception and Consumption However, to talk of identifying with characters is of Soap Operas complicated. Watching television has never been a homogenous experience, much less passive (Lo- pes, 2009), which means that audiences are at all Without doubt, the soap opera is the most signifi- times negotiating how they interpret what they see cant of television formats in Latin America (Matte- based on their own subjectivity, their socio-econo- lart & Mattelart, 1990). In Brazil, soap opera pro- mic background and historical-cultural context ductions have been produced and been successful (Hall, 2003). Far from trying to approach reception since the 1950s, and their development has kept solely from a perspective of resistance (Sandvoss, pace with the development of the TV industry (Ma- 2013), having the key to identification would help zziotti, 2006). These fictional series are currently to observe how different people manage to see broadcast on the main free Brazilian TV networks. and build parallels between the narratives they On TV Globo, the broadcaster linked to the largest watch and their own lives (And, 1991). media conglomerate in Brazil3, soap operas are televised every day in primetime television times- That is why it is no accident that the pages analy- lots, and still lead audience ratings. In 2018, of zed in this study use characters from this type of the ten most watched programs, seven were soap fiction for their posts. In an interview with the we- operas, and all of them TV Globo productions (Lo- bsite #MUSEUdeMEMES, in particular the admi- pes & Lemos, 2019). nistrators for the webpage Atena Irônica4, they say they had two reasons to create the profile. Both Over the years Brazilian soap operas have un- were fans of Giovanna Antonelli, the actress pla- dergone several transformations, changing their ying to the role of Atena in A Regra do Jogo (TV Glo- main characteristics, especially where subject bo, 2015 – 2016). At the same time, they were also matter is concerned (Silva, 2012, p.168). Accor- both aware the actress would be in a new soap ding to Martín-Barbero and Rey (2201), unlike the opera, and that the character would provide some traditional model used in Venezuelan and Mexican comic relief. Prior to that character, the page was television productions —where tragedy and me- dedicated to Delegada Helô, another character lodrama are prevalent —the Brazilian mold was played by Giovanna in the soap opera Salve Jor- built on the more modern structure of the late ge (TV Globo, 2012 – 2013). With everything they 1960s. In the latter, productions regularly insert did, and despite the considerable success of the realistic characteristics, present quotidian ele- fan page, the profile lost ground in likes once the ments in the narrative, and hybridized products television production had ended.