"Hay que mejorar la raza" An Analysis of Derogatory Expressions in Venezuelan Stand-up Comedy

This study explores derogatory jokes in Venezuelan stand-up comedy sets. This research aims to determine how race is approached and talked about by Venezuelan stand-up comedians, what other types of discriminatory or phobic discourses can be found in stand-up comedy shows, and how audiences respond to race, gender, and sexuality jokes and discourses in stand-up performances. To this end, critical discourse analysis, audience reception theory, multimodal discourse analysis, and multimodal interaction analysis approaches are applied to examine videos of stand-up shows extracted from YouTube and joint interviews. Five themes were identified in the video data: Derision/Shaming, Racial Superiority/inferiority, Heteronormative and binary gender stereotyping, Rejection/appropriation of non-heteronormative, non-conforming identities, and Idealization/Condemnation of the body. Findings show that comedians rely on disparagement humor – whether they belong to the disparaged group or not – and adopt a ‘punching down’ approach, positioning marginalized and stigmatized groups as the targets of the jokes. Additionally, the interview data revealed four themes developed by participants: Knowledge of stand-up comedy and comedians, Topics in stand-up comedy, Venezuelan stand-up comedians, and Venezuelan sense of humor. Participants made use of the discursive strategies outlined by Wodak (2011) and Reisigl & Wodak (2016), with Nomination, Predication, and Perspectivization as the most dominant strategies deployed. Regarding their perception of Venezuelan stand-up shows, participants acknowledge the racist and sexist undertone of the jokes performed by comedians. However, they find these jokes harmless and unproblematic. Stances regarding the content of the jokes performed by comedians varied depending on the speaker’s age, gender, mobility, and location. Finally, speakers with a close relationship with their co-participants showed higher alignment and in-group verification-seeking. The findings of this research contribute to the understanding of Venezuelans’ perspectives of race and sexuality, the role of humor in the perpetuation and reinforcement or challenging of hegemonic ideologies of racial supremacy and heteronormativity, and how derogatory and discriminatory discourses are made acceptable through the lens of a color-blindness ideology and the cultural legacy of colonialism.